NFL: BRONCOS LOSE TO THE CHIEFS // WORLD SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS, 2012

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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  --- JUST as the Denver Broncos were leaving a football field after losing a final game of the NFL season on New Years day, the Oakland Raiders struggled to escape a loss to the San Diego Chargers with six minutes and around 30 seconds left to play, but no turnabout occurred: the Chargers became a Broncos partner by stomping Oakland, 38-26, a loss keeping Denver atop the AFC-West at 8-8, post-season billeted. Up ahead, then, for the Broncos, will be challenges for the AFC title possibly against the New England Patriots, the Baltimore Ravens, the Houston Texans.

Even if unintended, it’s good to have a partnering franchise, though to the more valorous and also cautious side of sports it’s always best to cross a season’s finish line without the help---beating Kansas City would have guaranteed the AFC-West’s top slot for the Broncos without the team relying on Oakland tapping out.

While the Broncos did not lose to the Chiefs embarrassingly, the Tim Tebow-led offense hadn’t converted its more than 200 rushing yards into other than a field goal: final score, Chiefs 7, Broncos, 3. Tebow was readable enough for the Kansas City defense to be able to thwart most of his rushes and handoffs when it came to end zone opportunities, and not enough of Tebow’s passes were thrown accurately and caught, his receivers zigging often when they should have zagged, allowing an intercept when a pass completion mattered most, that is, when Tebow was leading a drive for a TD with less than a minute of play left in the fourth quarter.

When a defense squad can hold an opposing team to seven points, it’s up to the offense to overcome that, but such just didn’t happen for the Broncos offense that had contributed to seven wins since the team’s Bye week in October. No doubt, the Broncos are the year’s best comeback NFL franchise, and they are led by a quarterback better than most, yet the Broncos are now at .500, respectable but clearly at the game’s middle ground, which, though the Broncos are currently the AFC-West’s winning team, is low when compared with other NFL teams capping their divisions, for instance, the New England Patriots, the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans are leading the AFC-East, North and South respectively with more than 10 wins each. Also, only three of the Broncos eight wins for the year were won by six or more points, the other five by only two or three points, while five of Denver’s eight losses have been by more than two touchdowns, and four of the Broncos eight losses saw more than 40 points given away.

Anyway, as the cliché goes, “A win is a win,” and the Broncos have what it takes to conquer the AFC and get to the Super Bowl, “if.”  

What, then, are the “if’s,” and what’s the likelihood of the “if’s” actually happening? The simple answer is to comment that what has to happen is what hasn’t happened in the last three games that the Broncos played, and that what happened in the team’s wins against Oakland, Kansas City and Minnesota in November and December has to happen again. More precisely, a very readable Tebow isn’t going to cut it against the Patriots, the Ravens and the Texans. Too, Tebow will need zero-defect pass protection, with improved defending after he leaves the pocket for passing on the run.

In addition, Tebow’s percentage of pass completions will require further continuance, nearly perfect throw accuracy as well as more instantaneous adjustments to the limitations imposed by an opposing defense upon receivers gone shallow and deep. And, many of this year’s New England, Baltimore and Houston wins were offense-dominant, which puts added pressure on the Broncos defense, especially the Broncos secondary, in that the AFC competition will be against teams preferring a passing game strategy.        

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HIGHLIGHTS, 2012 ---  MAYBE before the ancient Olympics, or possibly around the same time that the Mayans  invented a roundish thing that they liked kicking across dirt fields, there was, “Camel Wrestling.” Well, it’s still happening and it will be one of 2012’s off beat sports events. This month, at Selcuk, Turkey, camels (yes, real camels, not the name of a team) will compete to see which are the world’s best at wrestling. With luck, this sport won’t expand into any of the martial arts conducted by humans, for what camel could stand a chance against champion fighter, Manny Pacquiao, though a camel may be the only fighter willing to face Pacquiao in 2012 now that a certain contender is in jail.

Other “odd” sports events of 2012 will be some parachuting competition at a centenary event in March, celebrating the world’s first parachute jump, and not against enemy fire in Afghanistan but at peaceful St. Louis, Missouri (assumption: the STL Cardinals winning the WS has brought calm and stability to the mid-western city, in spite of the STL Rams’ dismal NFL season). Less weird (maybe) will be September’s “World Farm Plough-Driving Competition,” held at Croatia. And somewhere in America, before December 31, 2012, pie and hot dog consumption athletes will compete (we probably won’t be reporting on this).  

On a serious note, come February there will be the 46^th Super Bowl, our wish: Broncos vs. the San Francisco Giants. Our pick: New England vs. the Green Bay Packers.

In March, there will, of course, be “March madness,” then the start of the Formula One Grand Prix auto racing season, and, in April, sanity will return to the planet with the start of Major League Baseball and golf’s, “the Masters,” held again at Augusta, Georgia, plus the start of the NBA's post-season for finals to be held in June. In this time-period, there will be the Indy 500 and there will be hockey and “the Stanley Cup.”

In June, expect soccer’s “Euro-2012,” which will determine Europe’s best soccer franchise, and, for tennis fans, the French Open. In July, it will be time to set all else aside for the London Olympics, and if you’re a tennis fan it’ll be grass-court Wimbledon, next, “the U.S. Open.” Come August, the Paralympics, a follow-up to the London Olympiad. In September, golf’s “Ryder Cup,” and the professional baseball season heading for October’s race for the World Series championship, and the start of the NFL season and "college football," then in October the start of the 2012/13 NBA season.----

--- probably we’ve failed to include some major events. Still, enough is shown to indicate that for athletes and fans a year is never like that classic Bill Murray movie, Ground Hog Day.

END/ml