NFL: QB Peyton Manning & the Broncos, Game One // MLB: Final Stretch.
For more analysis, go to Mile High Sports Radio AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver
During the 2012 NFL season, SPORTS NOTEBOOK will post its columns Monday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.
NFL: THE recent weekend in sports will remain one to remember over others---Serena Williams winning her fourth U.S. Open and 15th grand slam, the U.K.’ s Andy Murray and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic advancing to the finals, Murray taking home the U.S. Open trophy on Monday after a five set victory. Add that the NFL’s season opening was filled with exciting outcomes, some unexpected “score-wise,” among them, the Green Bay Packers losing to the San Francisco 49ers, 30-22, and the Indianapolis Colts to the Chicago Bears, 41-21, the latter being Colts rookie quarterback Andrew Luck’s NFL baptism of fire, among the meanest to occur in many a season. A Sunday highlight was QB Tim Tebow scoring a first season TD for the New York Jets prior to Jets primary QB Mark Sanchez putting up three TD’s, resulting in a 48-28 finish against the Buffalo Bills.
Not surprising, QB Peyton Manning helped the Denver Broncos prevail against the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-19, spiked as a guarantee in the game’s fourth quarter from Broncos new cornerback Tracy Porter’s intercept for a 40+ yard touchdown run.
Just as in the Serena Williams versus Victoria Azarenka of Belarus match, until Porter’s TD the Broncos/Steelers game could have been a nail-biter going to either side, though the Broncos appeared the more skilled and the stronger throughout most of the game’s challenges, in spite of the Broncos first capturing a lead in the third quarter, and that by only a single point.
Likely at the insistence of Broncos head coach, John Fox, both the Broncos offense and the Broncos defense seemed to apply “economy of force,” closing on territory forward and fast enough to avoid “play disruption,” the Broncos not having to be a team forced into having to innovate at the effect of the other team’s tactics and strengths.
Veteran QB Manning showed that he isn’t clothed in so many parts competence/other parts “hype.” Manning is still the quintessential QB. Savvy, skillful and swift, he led two nearly flawless drives for TD’s against the Steelers, one of them of few plays for more than 80 yards, and he completed 19 of 26 passes, finding that split second for a throw when a receiver is at far angles deep or shallow, free for catch-and-run, no matter who’s covering whom.
Obvious, too, was the continuity of handoff-connects between Manning and Broncos running back, Willis McGahee, for well-timed hustling up the middle or minimally off-side, Manning relying on wide receivers DeMaryius Thomas and Eric Decker for that same connectivity re. deep right and left angle passes.
Against the Steelers, the Broncos demonstrated control by exploiting “basic” rather than surprise tactics, the team’s speed and meticulous execution making the difference, example: the incredibly fast spot, rush and grab that resulted in fourth quarter sacks of Steelers QB, Ben Roethlisberger, by Broncos lineman, Von Miller.
Manning’s respectable game stats evolved primarily from throw and handoff choices that were “standard football,” not of great risk, aided by above-the-margin QB protection in the pocket + Manning and his receivers performing the expected QB-receiver dance expertly more often than not, putting up a low dropped-catch stat during each period of the game.
Manning threw for 253 yards, the Steelers QB throwing almost twice the number of passes for 245 yards, an important difference being yards into points from caught passes (Manning) vs. number of caught throws = yards wasted (Roethlisberger).
Famous for getting rid of the football quickly, Manning did not rush for significant yardage by himself. The chief surrogate scrambler for that remained McGahee, who rushed for 64 yards, second best of the day (both teams). Manning, McGahee, Thomas and Porter showed that classic football, in effect, Football 101, is still appropriate.
Next up for the Broncos---the Atlanta Falcons, Monday night, September 17, a team that’s been the NFC’s number two winning franchise four years straight.
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MLB --- It is still possible for 12 of the 16 MLB teams that are at or above .500 today to win more than half of their scheduled 2012 games. The remaining four .500 or better MLB clubs have already done so, the Washington Nationals, the Cincinnati Reds, the Texas Rangers, the Atlanta Braves. The San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees are close to joining the top four, 79 wins apiece. What this means is that just more than half of the MLB teams could finish the 2012 season above .500, signifying that the major leagues are a winning enterprise when it comes to what happens afield but only by slight degrees above the margin that separates the current 16 .500-and-above teams from the 14 clubs that are below .500.
Also, the above data is led by a team with the most wins as of Monday night, the Washington Nationals, of 86 victories and the only MLB team with an above .600 average and of the fewest losses, 54.
Too, only one other MLB team is between .580 and .600, the Rangers. Six other teams are between .550 and .580, which signals that breaking upward to high performance status from where half of the American and National League teams reside is the equivalent of climbing Everest or K2, proved further by the fact that 10 MLB teams carry averages beneath .480, seven of which are below .450 and two are beneath .400 (the Chicago Cubs, .386, the Houston Astros at the very bottom of both leagues, .314).
A team finishing the MLB season as a .500 or better organization will have won 81 of 162 games. With less than 20 games to go for most of the MLB clubs, only four teams have already won 81 or more games as of Monday, the Nat’s with 86 wins, the Reds with 84, the Rangers, 83, and the Braves, 81, more proof of how difficult being a winning baseball club actually is.
So---what’s most right about all of the above? This: while stats do have their place and can qualify and quantify progress or the lack of it, we really don’t have to care one way or another about them to enjoy baseball, for the game is among the best of human inventions, the fun and grace of it transcending all win or lose propositions. This is quite visible in the fan who doesn’t bother to employ a scorecard while watching a baseball game, who stands and cheers when a player on either of the two teams competing does something extraordinary, and you can bet that such will happen again and again, even when unexpectedly from a right hand starting pitcher such as Alex White of the .403/56 wins/83 losses Colorado Rockies, a last man in a line-up who banged out a home run on Tuesday night, without which the Rockies may not have defeated the San Francisco Giants, 6-5.
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