"Sam Bradford? has played 11 bad games in a row.

Look it up. Yet, nobody questions whether he's the St. Louis Rams' quarterback in 2012.

Josh Freeman? just lost nine in a row in which he either recorded clunker after clunker or put up some phony garbage-time stats late.

No one asks if Tampa Bay needs to find another franchise-type quarterback.

Tim Tebow? has won more games (seven) this season than Bradford and Freeman combined (five). Yet now that he's had two bad games in a row, the overwhelming sentiment says the gig is up. It's over for Tebow.

Why is that?

"It's hard to say," Tebow said Friday. "It's OK, though. Honestly, I just don't worry about what everybody else says. You never know what your future holds. So I'm not going to worry about it. I'm just going to play ball."

But then Tebow paused and, as he so often does during interviews, thought about it some more.

"It's hard," he said. "It's harder than just saying it. It's hard to ... to live it, you have to really believe it. You have to just go play."

The No. 1 question pointed at the Broncos the past two weeks: Who is going to be their quarterback in 2012?

No, that's not quite right. The No. 1 question is more accurately worded: If Tebow stinks it up against the Steelers, what do the Broncos do about their quarterback situation in 2012?

The question is usually stated matter of factly. As if it's a legitimate query. Who else confronts these glum hypotheticals?

Is it because Tebow is so unconventional?

"That might be some of it," he said. "I don't think I'm that unconventional, though.""