FOXBORO -- With 11:46 left in the third quarter of the Patriots-Broncos game on Saturday night Tom Brady had twice as many TD passes (six) than Tim Tebow had completions (three). 

This was reality taking hype to the shed. Actual greatness trumping whatever it is that ESPN has shoved down our throats for the last month. Somewhere Skip Bayless is weeping, and that's always a good thing.

There is a belief Out There that for the Patriots to pick up Lombardi Trophy No. 4 -- now two wins away for the first time since 2007 -- Brady has to be great each time out in this postseason. Not good, not 18-for-30 for 240 yards and two TDs kind of efficient, but brilliant. 

One down, two to go.

"It's all about winning," Brady said after the game, a 45-10 AFC divisional round victory in which the quarterback finished with 363 yards and an NFL playoff record-matching six touchdowns. "For us to come out and play the way we did, have a very solid performance in the most important game of the year, is very gratifying. I think we have eight days until the next biggest game of the year. From this point on, everyone will be focused on what we need to do to be better next week and hopefully come out and play for another championship."

You can write off some of what we saw to a shaky Denver secondary, I guess, but the facts are the facts. Even in this new NFL world where everyone throws for 4,000 yards and you don't blink at a 130.0 passer rating, no one throws for 246 yards and five TDs in a half of a playoff game. Even with an interception mixed in -- a floater right in the hands of Quinton Carter, a terrible throw -- it was a masterpiece. We might be used to it, might be spoiled by what Brady has been the last two years, but for Patriots fans there must be some level of relief in seeing the dominance of the past two regular seasons translate to a postseason game.

"Tom, I thought, really had a good night other than the one ball that was overthrown," Bill Belichick said. "He managed the team well. We were in a fast-paced, no-huddle the whole game. And he did an excellent job of controlling the formations of the plays."

Brady was absolutely ruthless, using Rob Gronkowski (10 catches, 145 yards, three TDs), Wes Welker (six catches, 55 yards and a TD), and Aaron Hernandez (four catches, 85 yards, a TD) to humiliate the Broncos (his best throw of the night was not to one of his elite weapons but to Deion Branch on his 61-yard touchdown in the second quarter). When Gronkowski caught his second TD pass from Brady to give the hosts a 21-7 lead with 7:49 left in the second quarter you got the sense the game was over. Brady threw four more touchdown passes after that as Tebow and the Broncos managed just three points against a (let's be fair, at least on this night terrific) Patriots defense that played its best game of the season. 

(Aside: I don't want to hear anyone wipe the dust off of the "Classless Patriots ran it up again" story. The Denver Broncos are professional athletes, some of them collect checks close to $1 million every two weeks during the season. If it's so offensive, stop them. If not, deal with the opposing QB throwing out of a shotgun up 42-10 in the fourth quarter. This isn't Winchester-Woburn JV football, this is the NFL. Is it risky? Sure, Aaron Hernandez likely suffered a concussion in the red zone in the fourth quarter. The value of having your core offensive players in a five-TD game with 5:00 left is a fair debate, but it's the way the Patriots have always done business.)

Look, Tim Tebow can be an easy target. He wasn't Reason A the Broncos lost on Saturday, but he was woefully -- at times almost impossibly -- inaccurate (9-for-26) and unable to make anything happen as a rusher (five carries, 13 yards). I have seen nothing from Tebow that suggests we are looking at a 10-year NFL starting quarterback. He mostly stayed out of the way for a couple of months as the Denver defense improved and the rushing attack gained steam (OK, Tebow was a factor in the ground game). Maybe he'll figure it all out and turn into a portrait of accuracy, but right now Tebow remains an NFL-level athlete but not a guy who can consistently win games at the most important position in sports when things around him aren't close to perfect.

But now Tebow (finally) exits from the NFL picture, at least until he shows up this week and adds nothing but smiles, cliches and blessings as a guest analyst on NFL Network or the Worldwide Leader in White Noise. On this night, in a semi-alive Gillette Stadium (let's give the crowd a solid B) Tim Tebow was treated to a front-low lesson in NFL quarterbacking.

Tom Brady matched playoff history on Saturday, but for any chance of creating the kind of history that really matters he'll have to be at his best for two more games.

That's reality, not hype.