NFL: WEEK 4, OUTLOOK; BRONCOS, EAGLES // MLB: COUNTDOWN

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--- During Week 4 of the current NFL season, seven franchises will strive to be 4-0, to be perfect pack leaders if such is to be measured by not having lost a competition as Week 5 of 16 approaches. Of these seven, the National Conference West’s leading team, the Seattle Seahawks, will face the American Conference South’s number one team, the 2-1 Houston Texans, while the NC North’s number one franchise, the Chicago Bears, will meet the NC North’s 2-1 Detroit Lions, and on Monday the NC South’s numero uno New Orleans Saints will face the AC East’s 3-0 Miami Dolphins. In addition, the AC West’s first position franchise, the Denver Broncos, will face the 1-2 Philadelphia Eagles, while the AC West’s second place team, the Kansas City Chiefs, will be challenged by the 0-3 New York Giants, and the AC East’s number one team, the New England Patriots, by the NC South’s 1-2 Atlanta Falcons. Also during Week 4, two other 2-1 teams will be striving to stay division leaders, the AC North’s Cincinnati Bengals versus the AC North’s 1-2 Cleveland Browns, and the NC East’s Dallas Cowboys vs. the AC West’s 1-2 San Diego Chargers. . . Note that for Week 4, six of the seven 3-0 teams will NOT be facing any of the winless (0-3) organizations, the exception being the N.E. Patriots vs. the winless N.Y. Giants. Five other NFL franchises are winless---the NC East’s Washington Redskins, the NC North’s Minnesota Vikings, the NC South’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the AC North’s Pittsburgh Steelers and the AC South’s Jacksonville Jaguars. . . Were all of this a track meet, we’d be describing Week 4 as the first lap of a 1,600 meter (one mile) race, and indeed NFL Week 4 has always been a definite juncture, a season’s turning point when as many as seven 3-0 franchises could pick up a loss, and possibly four of six 0-3 franchises could secure a win. Given the match-ups for Sunday, the Saints vs. Dolphins game will certainly cause a 3-0 team to enter Week 5 at 3-1, the winner from 4-0. And, from what we’ve seen of the Giants in Weeks 1 through 3, the K.C. Chiefs could become a 4-0 team on Sunday. From season results so far, the Broncos appear to have what it takes to defeat the Eagles and become 4-0, as well. Except for the AC South’s 2-1 Indianapolis Colts defeating the AC South’s 0-3 Jaguars, no other Sunday games have the makings of a sure thing one side or the other. . . //. . . BRONCOS, EAGLES---THE Denver Broncos defense squad has been at a level preventing the return to an opposing team of an equal or greater number of points gained by the Broncos Peyton Manning-led offense. When it comes to the meaning of “return,” for the Broncos defense it’s about getting the ball back to Manning + crew quickly, it’s a defense that wants to be seated on a bench, watching a Manning pass convert to points through receptions and runs executed by receivers Eric Decker, Demaryius Thomas, Julius Thomas and Wes Welker; or from a Denver RB rushing and diving for another down, e.g., phenom Knowshon Moreno. To diminish these successful executions of classic football by the Broncos, the Eagles will need to accentuate/repeat and succeed at a standard defense tactic, “the pass rush,” and at surprise variations on an offense theme, “the read-option,” from the former disorienting QB Manning (could any boxer today do that to Floyd Mayweather, Jr. "consistently?"), and from the latter confusing the Broncos defense and spreading it thin and wide, possible only if the Denver defense can no longer perform as it has in Weeks 1 through 3. Necessary for the Eagles pass rush will be the sighting and exploitation of holes in Denver’s pass protection line-up should any holes exist, and required for an Eagles rendering of the read-option will be Eagles QB, Michael Vick, having better pass protection than he’s had in previous games (Vick was sacked five times by the Chiefs pass rush, Week 3). Note, however, that the Broncos defense has given up more than 20 points to an opposing offense in each of the Broncos three games won to date. That’s more points given away in the same number of games than by the winless (0-3) team, the Buccaneers, and the same number of points handed out by another 0-3 franchise, the Giants, which signals that defeating the Eagles on Sunday could again rest most heavily on the shoulders of the Manning-led offense, its three winning games this season including 49, 41 and 37 points per. . . //. . . MLB--- THE difference in number of wins involving the American League’s top team, the AL East’s Boston Red Sox, and the National League’s best, the NL East’s Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals, is slight, the Red Sox with 96, the NL teams tied at 94. Remaining division leading clubs of both leagues is also of a small difference from the Red Sox, each with wins ranging from 91 to 94. If the Red Sox can win its final three games of the season, they will finish with 99 wins, 63 losses, highest for MLB-2013 (regular season). Lowest among division leaders today are the NL West’s Los Angeles Dodgers, 91-67. Presently, then, the 2013 MLB playoffs will include the NL West's division leading Dodgers, NL Central's Cardinals, the NL East's Braves, the AL’s Red Sox, the AL West’s 94-65 Oakland Athletics, and the AL Central’s 93-66 Detroit Tigers, also runner-ups from NL Central, the 91-68 Pittsburgh Pirates and 90-69 Cincinnati Reds. So, today there are no safe MLB playoff predictions re. which teams will dominate the year’s LC’s and then the World Series. END/ml