NFL: AMERICAN CONFERENCE-WEST // COLLEGE FOOTBALL

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            UNTIL AFTER THE CURRENT NFL SEASON, “SPORTS NOTEBOOK” WILL POST NEW EVERY MONDAY INSTEAD OF ON TUESDAY, continuing with a new post every Friday.  Editor, Marvin Leibstone. Comments to: mlresources1@aol.com

NFL   ---   GOOD news for the Denver Broncos is that the San Diego Chargers lost to the Chicago Bears on Sunday, which helps hold the reconstituted Denver team to second place of the NFL’s American Conference-West. It’ll be a more solid Denver grasp if tonight the New England Patriots clobber the Kansas City Chiefs, as expected.

So, if the Chargers and Chiefs keep losing, it could be an Oakland/Denver shootout for the AC-W title. That’s a chance for the Broncos to champion the AC and get to the Super Bowl. When Oakland and Denver met on October 6, Oakland lost, 38-24.

The Broncos have six regular season games left, next up San Diego (November 27), a week later, the Minnesota Vikings. Yesterday, these losing teams provided evidence that Denver could dominate them, though Denver lost to San Diego on October 9 when it was a different team under a different quarterback (Kyle Orton) and of a weaker defense. Too, a Broncos team unwilling to step back tactically and staying strong physically could beat the Chiefs again on January 1, 2012---they defeated the Chiefs two weeks ago, 17-10.

Serious trouble for the Broncos can begin with games to be played between the quite possible wins vs. the Chargers and Vikings and the possible victory vs. the Chiefs. It’s when the Denver team faces the Bears on December 11, the Patriots on December 18, and the Bills, December 24. Right now, the QB’s and defense squads of these three franchises hold several impressive 2011 stats, and their QB’s are far better at passing the football than Denver’s QB, Tim Tebow.

Yet Sunday’s Chicago/San Diego game presented a reason why Denver could prevail against the Bears, Patriots and the Bills. Both Chicago and San Diego had numerous failed drives from opposing interceptions and from blocked passes, relying often on a passing game, even when close to having a TD, which is a lot easier to defend against than the short distance rush that a QB like Denver’s Tebow turns into a TD. The Bears, Patriots and the Bills usually play a traditional game similar to that of the Chargers and Bears, only fiercer and with better pass/receiver coordination and better accuracy.

To be exploited favorably by Denver, then, and noted clearly as a positive during Denver’s last three games, is that its defense jumped several rungs upward on the ladder of efficiency for what’s needed to interfere with, or intercept, even the more effective opposing pass and rush tactics. In other words, beating the Bears, Patriots and Bills will rest squarely on an improved Denver defense, on its ability to quickly close spaces between it and a passing or rushing offense. It’s really Football 101---the pressure to win will be on how well the Denver defense can keep returning the football to Tebow without giving away points, next Tebow capitalizing on short gains in yardage for numerous first downs, then creating that final surge for a TD, which is probably all that the Denver offense could rely upon to stay dominant in any game vs. a higher caliber NFL team, but only possible when Tebow has seamless protection and opposing defenders are forced to spread outward.

In a nutshell, the Broncos grit and skills will have to be at high volume vs. the team’s toughest upcoming challenges. Needed, therefore, will be a Broncos defense as good, if not better than that which held the New York Jets down on Thursday, plus Tebow’s assaults being as effective as that fourth down 95-yard drive that allowed for the TD that took the Jets down, 17-13.

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL  ---  THOUGH tradition is a constant, it has its ups and downs; it can expand and contract, go from being big and hardy to a mere whimper, example: Ivy League football. The entire enchilada, the big bang of American college sports, it began with Yale, Princeton and Harvard, the three competing in the 1870’s. For many years, football was mostly synonymous with these schools. Today, you can’t find an Ivy League team in the top 25. And, Yale and Princeton no longer give Harvard a rough going. On Saturday, Yale lost to Harvard, 45-7, with the team’s QB completing more than 50 percent of his passes and gaining more than 350 yards. Also on Saturday, Princeton lost to Dartmouth, 24-17.    .   .   Move west on the Saturday football map and visible is Air Force having beaten University of Las Vegas, 45-17, which keeps Air Force as a bowl contender. But, ugh! UCLA stomped University of Colorado, 45-6. Except for the Air Force win, not a good day for Colorado schools---Colorado State lost to Texas Christian, 34-10.

Saturday’s most impressive score belonged to number one college team LSU, vs. Mississippi, 52-3. Number two college team Alabama beat Georgia Southern, 45-21. As for today’s top 12 college football teams, eight are among those predicted to be in the category before the current season began: LSU, Alabama, Oregon, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma U., Arkansas, Stanford and Boise State (only one back east school in the bunch) .  .  .  On Saturday, Penn State beat Ohio State, 20-14, without Joe Paterno being present, though some game-savvy credit for the win has to be given to the now discredited and former Penn State head coach. At 9-2, Penn State is rated 23 within the year’s top 25---a tainted legacy is still a legacy. Paterno, in his eighties, lives now with three forms of cancer: lung cancer, the alleged Jerry Sandusky crimes, and whatever it was that caused him to remain silent about that which Sandusky is now being accused of perpetrating.   

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