NFL: WEEK 2 RESULTS; BRONCOS DEFEAT OF THE GIANTS // MLB: END-OF-SEASON WINNERS.

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 posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // . . .NFL---NFL-Week 2’s 10 games that competed last year’s high-end franchises resulted in score-differentials that were quite close, except for the American Conference West’s Denver Broncos 41-23 trouncing of the National Conference East’s New York Giants, the NC West’s Seattle Seahawks 29-3 win versus the NC West’s San Francisco 49ers, and the NC North’s Green Bay Packers 38-20 victory over the NC East’s Washington Redskins. As examples of the unexpected tight scoring that dominated Week Two, on Sunday the AC North’s Baltimore Ravens (last season’s Super Bowl winner) defeated the AC North’s Cleveland Browns by just eight points, 14-6, and last year’s NC South'S upper stratosphere Atlanta Falcons defeated the NC West’s St. Louis Rams similarly, 31-24, while the AC West’s Houston Texans beat the Tennessee Titans by only six, 30-24; and, on Thursday last, the AC East’s often leading team, the New England Patriots, they defeated the N.Y. Jets barely, 13-10... Although too early in the season to tell if top-of-the-hill NFL teams have declined slightly in skills and power, or if the lesser franchises have improved greatly, the tight score differentials could add to a dimension that is always reinforcing as well as interesting and exciting for fans as well as players, that of NFL teams revising strategies and tactics as the season progresses in order to be winning before a third quarter by more than, say, in the least a TD and a field goal... Overall, eight of the NFL’s 32 teams are currently 2-0, each a franchise that finished above the margin last season, the AC West and AC East the only divisions containing two of the 2-0’s respectively, the AC’s Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs, and the AC East’s N.E. Patriots and Miami Dolphins. Of the eight franchises that are 0-2, the more negative diminished expectation could be that of the Redskins QB RGIII not recovering from last season’s injury as well as hoped. . . // . . . BRONCOS & GIANTS---Of Week Two’s widest point spreads from games played, the Broncos win over the Giants was hyped as Manning III because of the Peyton/Eli quarterback match-up, but NFL analysts cared little for that, they were watching to see if Broncos QB Peyton Manning’s offense could purchase from tough opposition enough successful pass-to-receiver and rush yardage for first downs leading toward TD opportunities, continuation of which in remaining regular season games could take the Broncos to next February’s Super Bowl. And, surely on the analyst’s watch-agenda was this question, “Can the Broncos defense keep from returning those TD-points gained by Peyton Manning’s offense, to a strong opposing offense?” Make no mistake, the Giants were that tough offense, attaining more first downs than the Broncos achieved, 28 over 23, and a greater total number of passing yards achieved, 362 over the Broncos 307. And, the Giants average gain in yards per play, 5.4, was just about equal to that of the Broncos 5.8. The Giants offense was extremely weak in rushing yards, however, only 23 were obtained vs. the Broncos 109, and the Giants offense was weak with regard to third down efficiency, 1-11 against the Broncos 8-15. Too, while QB Eli Manning’s 28 pass completions were close to brother Peyton’s 30 completions, Eli’s were of 49 attempts, Peyton’s of 43, those six failed Eli attempts a factor in fewer red-zone landings. The Giants red-zone efficiency, that is, exploitation of end-zone proximity for the TD, was only half that of the Broncos. A point being made here is that the Denver Broncos had the Giants pinned down more than enough from second quarter until endgame, while the Broncos offense outplayed the Giants defense, converting 72 plays into five TD’s and two field goals. . . // . . . MLB---Given the win/loss ratios experienced by second place division teams in August and September, there’s likelihood of only one of the six easing into first place. That’s the National League Central’s St. Louis Cardinals at the heels of first place team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, each with 87 wins, but with a possible NC Central spoiler of this being third place club, the Cincinnati Reds, only two games back of the Pirates. Among the five other MLB divisions, the NL West is led by the Los Angeles Dodgers, nine games up, and the NL East by the Atlanta Braves by 10. At the top of the American League West is the Oakland Athletics by seven, and leading the AL Central are the Detroit Tigers, by five, and the AL East by the Boston Red Sox, nine up. Yet all first and second place teams have comprised a spectrum of total won games to date that is close, on average around 83 wins, the least number to date belonging to the NL West’s second place team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, 76 wins, and the NL East’s second place Washington Nationals, 79, the most being those of the AL East’s Red Sox, 92, next in most wins being the NL East’s Atlanta Braves, 89. These placements in the current week’s standings indicate, then, that all games that most of these first and second place teams could be playing during the year’s post-season will be close, the winners anyone’s guess. What could be better than MLB playoff “unpredictably” and no evidence at all as to which teams will make the World Series until those playoffs near expiration? END/ml