NFL:  WEEK 11 ASSESSMENTS; Denver Broncos, AC West Leader // NBA: Denver Nuggets---forget the  slide

For more analysis, go to Mile High Sports Radio AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com

“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” will continue to post its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

NFL:    WHEN holding first place of a division of the NFL, and up by three games with only one or two serious challenges among six or seven games left to play before a season ends, well, that’s a franchise that’s ready for post-regulation play, and there are four of these facing Week 12 of the 2012 round of 16 regulation games that comes to a close in December: the 7-3 Denver Broncos (American Conference West) being ahead of the 4-6 San Diego Chargers, and the New England Patriots (AC East) leading the 4-6 New York Jets, also the 9-1 Houston Texans (AC South) above the 6-4 Indianapolis Colts, and the 9-1 Atlanta Falcons (National Conference South) leading the 6-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Of note is that excluding a Patriots/Texans Monday night game (December 10), these franchises will not be facing each other during the remainder of the regular season, and neither has scheduled what is expected to be a serious challenge between now and December 31, though anything could happen given how last place AC South franchise, the 1-9 Jacksonville Jaguars, nearly took the Texans down on Sunday, leading the Houston franchise 34-20 until in the final quarter a Texans resurgence pulled ahead of the deficit for a 43-37 overtime win.

Closer races for the end-of season top division spot as Week 12 commences include the remaining leading teams, each up by one or two games. These are the 8-6 Baltimore Ravens (AC North) ahead of the 6-4 Pittsburgh Steelers, and the 7-6 San Francisco 49ers now above the 6-4 Seattle Seahawks (NC West), plus the 6-4 N.Y. Giants (NC East) leading the 5-5 Dallas Cowboys, and the 7-3 Chicago Bears tied with the 7-3 Green Bay Packers.

But 14 NFL franchises will go to Week 12 below .500, each division carrying a team that is .400 or below. That’s nearly half the entire league, a huge gap between winners and losers. For whatever reason, the divisions with the two best teams in the league, AC South and NC South (having, respectively, the 9-1 Texans and the 9-1 Falcons), they also contain two of the NFL’s three bottom franchises, the 1-9 Jaguars and the 2-8 Carolina Panthers. The Jaguars are joined at the very bottom by the 1-9 Kansas City Chiefs (AFC West).

Adding insult to injury is that the bottom-of-the-pile teams have remaining scheduled games vs. the top teams of the entire NFL, e.g., the Chiefs will be facing the Broncos twice by December 30, and the Jaguars will be up against the Patriots on December 23, and the Panthers are scheduled to face the Falcons on December 9. 

The current upside includes the 6-4 Indianapolis Colts (AC South) and the 5-5 New Orleans Saints (NC South) after their poor season starts, while the unexpected downside owns the 3-7, .300 Philadelphia Eagles (last place, NC East).

Denver Broncos  ---   Saying that the Denver Broncos have entered a new and promising phase in its development toward being a perennial NFL post-season franchise, such underscores a truth. Today’s Denver team isn’t just hot, having won five games in a row, the last against a team that could have been at its back for the AC West’s leading position. Surely the Broncos are close to being a model for how the best among NFL teams should look, approach and  play football, quintessentially professional in that a proper offense/defense balance has been achieved, the one aggressively supportive of the other.

No longer are the points gained by the Broncos offense turned useless by a Broncos defense giving away a greater number of points to the opposition. In fact, there’s a Denver defense that intercepts and runs for a touchdown, in addition to including what could be among the top three pass rush combos in today’s NFL game: Elvis Dumervil and Von Miller, and Denver’s cornerback tackles and blocks have been from unexpected  moves, swifter with more accuracy and strength than displayed last season.

No matter the opponent this year, the Broncos have managed to achieve as many or more first downs as have adversaries, in either case converting those first downs into more touchdown and field goal opportunities, never losing a game without having scored the equivalent of two or more TD’s, and only losing to teams now leading their divisions, i.e., the Texans, the Falcons and the Patriots.

Note that Denver’s three losses to date occurred before the team’s Bye Week in October, implying that a meaningful learning curve from those losses has been paying off. For example, the Broncos offense isn’t suffering from “comeback syndrome” in order to close a fourth quarter deficit, which seemed the case in September and October. In recent games, the Broncos offense has had points on the board during first quarters, and the Broncos defense protected those points during most of the opponent’s upcoming ball possessions.

Of course, Broncos head coach John Fox, and quarterback Peyton Manning, have worked hard to turn vulnerabilities into strengths, e.g., priming the Broncos pass protection so that QB Manning could maintain multiple options and also a pre-planned and well-timed throw to wide receivers Eric Decker or Demaryius Thomas, to tight end Joel Dreessen for the shorter pass, and for handoffs and rushing to a favored running back, Willis McGahee.   

The Broncos two wins against the San Diego Chargers this year have demonstrated AC West supremacy, likely to sustain after Week 12’s game against Kansas City through to a last game of the season vs. K.C., December 30.

If there’s a downturn for the Broncos it’s that the team’s star RB Willis McGahee has been sidelined due to an injury and could be out for the rest of the season. But you can’t sell short the excellence of potential replacements, Knowshon Moreno, Ronnie Hillman, and Lance Ball.

*    *   *

NBA   ---     Forget the away from home losses that dropped the Denver Nuggets from third to last place within the NBA/Western Conference’s Northwest Division. Today, the Nuggets are below .500 with five wins and six losses, but last night the Nuggets defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 97-92, an 8-2/.800 team and the WC/Southwest Division’s number one franchise, tied for numero uno of the WC along with the WC/Pacific Division’s 8-2 Los Angeles Clippers. Moreover, the Nuggets have already put a four game winning streak on the board, and within only a few weeks since the 2012/13 NBA season began the Nuggets have accrued impressive data, “the kind that points in the direction of an upswing and a higher slot within the season’s standings.” For instance, five of the Nuggets starters have been averaging double-digit points per game, each above 11.2, and four have scored more than 100 points since the season started. Add the Nuggets having put up more than 35 offense rebounds and nearly 300 defense rebounds, plus more than 400 completed field goals of close to 800 attempts. Meanwhile, those Nuggets players with the most minutes played in the season to date, they’ve also accrued the most points among Nuggets players, while having the better ppg averages, indicating “economy of force," that  is, a minimum of wasted shots, which is an attribute of teams that usually make the playoffs. Furthermore, five Nuggets players have double digit assists to date, and two have delivered double-digit blocks. As a team and before its recent road trip, the Nuggets led all WC opponents in FG attempts and FG percentages, offense and defense RB’s, blocks, total points and PPG average. By no means are the Denver Nuggets going to be anchored to last place of the WC/Northwest Division---they already have the same number of wins as second place team, the 5-5 Minnesota Timberwolves.

END/ml