Tim Tebow gave one of his typically-polarizing, Jekyll-and-Hyde performances last night. He had the play of the game in the Jets’ 17-12 preseason loss to Carolina with a highlight-reel scramble, and followed with a lowlight interception four plays later — and an incompletion in the end zone to seal the defeat.
“It was kind of good-news, bad-news,’’ Jets coach Rex Ryan said. “At times, Tim looked terrific — he absolutely did. He did energize the crowd and made some huge runs. He also had some nice passes … just a little inconsistent.’’
For Tebow — 4-of-14 for 55 yards, no scores, one interception and a 13.7 quarterback rating — inconsistency is the only thing he’s consistent about.
He got into the game earlier than expected, with 5:38 left in the third, and drew the biggest ovation from the paid crowd of 79,088 with a twisting 20-yard scamper in the fourth. On third-and-16 from the Jets’ 34 he turned his back to the line of scrimmage, ran around in the backfield, juked a tackle attempt by Ryan Van Bergan and evaded another Panther for a huge run.
He pumped both fists and signaled first down as the crowd chanted “Te-bow! Te-bow!” But three plays later, he made an amateurish throw into triple coverage for an easy pick by safety Reggie Smith. Tebow drove the Jets into scoring position in the final two minutes of the game, but threw four straight incompletions from the 27.
“I thought we had it the whole time, still feel like we should’ve had it,’’ said Tebow, who hasn’t shown the Wildcat yet and won’t play in Thursday’s preseason finale. “Obviously we wanted to score to win, and put those balls in the end zone. That’s what we were out there trying to do, we just came up a little short.
“You can be disappointed we weren’t able to score but you’ve got to let it go. It’s a preseason game. You’ve got to work on what you did bad and how you get better and make sure when the regular season gets here, when we’re playing Buffalo, we can put the ball in the end zone, because that what matters.’’
brian.lewis@nypost.com