Tebow silences LSU

BATON ROUGE, La. – Tim Tebow arrived at raucous Death Valley ready to play. Then No. 1 Florida’s defense left No. 4 LSU in a daze.

Two weeks after suffering a concussion, Tebow – with plenty of help from the Gators’ swarming defense – silenced the largest crowd in the history of Tiger Stadium with a 13-3 victory Saturday night.

The day began with Tebow’s status uncertain for what looked like the defending national champions’ toughest regular-season test.

By the time it was over, Tebow had thrown a touchdown pass and Brandon Spikes had led a Florida defense that sacked Jordan Jefferson five times.

“I’m feeling great,” Tebow said. “The doctors did a great job. I just want to thank them for the work they put in on me the last two weeks, our trainers, and then all the fans that were praying for me.”

Most of the 93,129 fans who partied all day and roared like a jet engine after kickoff were heading for the exits with 2 1/2 minutes left, quiet and dejected.

Florida (5-0, 3-0 Southeastern Conference) has won 15 straight games, the best in the nation. LSU (5-1, 3-1) had its 32-game winning streak in Saturday night home games snapped.

Tebow completed 11 of 16 passes for 134 yards with an interception, and ran for 38 yards on 17 carries. Far from his best game, but more than good enough.

After a conservative start, he bounced off tacklers, scrambled away from pass rushers and generally looked like the guy Florida fans have grown to adore and SEC defenses have not quite figured out how to stop.

“On offense, we didn’t execute the best, but we played really hard,” Tebow said.

When he was done beating the Tigers, several of them waited around for him to finish an interview so they could shake his hand at midfield.