BRONCOS DEFEAT THE BEARS IN OVERTIME // NAVY BEATS ARMY---AGAIN! // HEISMAN TROPHY

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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

BRONCOS DEFEAT BEARS      WERE a crystal ball really able to present the future, it would have revealed eight weeks ago that the new Denver Broncos starting quarterback, Tim Tebow, would win seven of eight games, and that the Broncos would, after putting down the Chicago Bears yesterday, be an 8-5 instead of a losing NFL franchise, first place in the NFL’s American Conference-West, with a post-season billet just around the corner.

A true seer describing the future in October would have addressed the strange nature of Denver’s comeback wins, most being fourth quarter turnabouts due to totally unexpected happenings, often the result of set-ups from a Denver defense that, from intercepts and fumbles, ran the football for points in addition to recovering it for Tebow-led first downs nearing field goal and touchdown range.

The Broncos 13-10 takedown of the Bears in overtime yesterday was certainly an example of the Denver team’s canny exploitation of mistakes made by an opposition, for example, the Bears Marion Barber taking himself out of bounds, later allowing a fumble. Unique, too, was the Broncos use of a time/space equation that always exerts enormous pressure after the two-minute warning and then in overtime, in that a Tebow-led offense “beat the clock” from pass attempts that reached a 59 yard line from which Denver kicker, Matt Prater, produced a FG allowing a 10-10 tie as the fourth Q ended. Then, in overtime, Tebow’s passes to Demaryius Thomas placed Denver at a 51 yard line from where Prater kicked the FG that purchased the game.

Until mid-third quarter of the Denver/Chicago game, the Broncos and Bears were tied at zero-0, essentially from defense units of both teams limiting each other’s assault tactics. In the first three quarters, Tebow and his opposite QB were pinned back often, seemed hesitant and without options in the pocket. Tebow threw several passes that were dropped.

On the bright side for Denver was that from kick-off on, its defense seemed so remarkably improved over the initial seven games of its NFL season that observers claiming that as a victory in itself would have appeared quite rational---even if the Broncos were to drop to the Bears from the third Q on, it would not have been by much, thanks to Denver’s improved defense, which got tougher in the fourth Q, recovering that fumble that allowed Denver’s offense to charge ahead and put winning points on the board. And, any other talk about improvement has to include Tim Tebow’s second half passing, especially in the fourth Q when he completed nearly all of his many pass attempts.

Next Sunday, the Broncos will meet post-season bound/American Conference-East first place team, the New England Patriots. Week after, Denver will meet the below .500 Buffalo Bills. Last game of the season for Denver will be January 1, versus Kansas City. Losing the three upcoming games would surely leave Denver at the margin, 8-8, no easy stride then to a playoff venue.    

ARMY/NAVY ---  Ten wins, thus a decade of victories for Navy against Army from Saturday's win, 27-21, the 112^th contest between the two service-academy football teams. Yet Army could take some solace from the event---Saturday's loss included the slimmest point spread that Army has lost by to Navy during the 10 year period. Also, Army commandeered a decent running game, scoring two touchdowns in the second quarter that tied the game 14-14, though early in the third Q, Navy’s QB, Kriss Proctor, rushed for a TD, score now 21-14.

Army retaliated in the second half with QB Trent Steelman’s 25 yard pass for a TD, creating a 21-21 game. Then, late in the fourth Q, Navy scored two field goals, Army unable to bounce back. Still, Sunday’s Army team went to the wall, did the full nine yards, so to speak, it has no reason to doubt its competency for future competition.

HEISMAN TROPHY  ---  This year’s Heisman trophy winner is Baylor quarterback, Robert Griffin III, a.k.a., RG3, 77^th to win the award, and the 10th quarterback to win along with one running back since year 2000, and, of the 11 schools represented across the last decade, two have had winners twice, Oklahoma and Southern Cal., though the most popular of the winning QB’s to go on to play in the NFL has been today’s starting Denver QB, Tim Tebow, who won the Heisman in 2007, school: Florida State. That only running back to win the Heisman since year 2000 is Mark Ingram, Alabama, year 2009.

In the previous decade (1990-2000), three running backs and a tailback won Heisman trophies. Yet from 1980 through 1990, only three QB’s won the Heisman. This seems to signal a kind of elimination progression, possibly from emerging QB preference in the minds of those who select the Heisman winner, or it signals that college football teams have gone to playbooks calling mostly for QB-led rushes and their TD-passes as opposed to handoffs and short passes for running backs and wide receivers playing the larger role that they had in the past. Or, the QB-Heisman dominance could be mere coincidence, if there is such a thing in football.

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