NFL: WEEK 6, RESULTS & ANALYSIS; BRONCOS DEFEAT OF THE JAGUARS // MLB: THE LC'S, SOME HISTORY & AN UPDATE // NBA 2013/14: POINTS OF INTEREST; DENVER NUGGETS, SAN ANTONIO SPURS.

SPORTS NOTEBOOK sports-notebook.blogspot.com 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: Week 6, Results & Analysis; Broncos Defeat of the Jaguars // MLB: the LC’s--Some History & An Update // NBA 2013/14: Points of Interest; Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs. . . //. . . NFL---NOT one of the NFL’s teams that competed Thursday through Monday (Week 6) failed to put points on the board, least being six from the New York Jets against the Pittsburgh Steelers 19, next the Oakland Raiders seven versus the Kansas City Chiefs 24. The highest number of points obtained during Week 6 belonged to the St. Louis Rams, 38 over the Houston Texans 13, a 25 point differential and highest of the week along with the same differential that the Carolina Panthers attained vs. the Minnesota Vikings, 35-10. The lowest/tightest point spread belonged to the Baltimore Ravens win vs. the Green Bay Packers, 19-17. All other point spreads were from six or more, and the teams that entered Week 6 at 5-0 (no season losses yet) and 5-1, they put up 20 points and more each, of these the Denver Broncos having accrued the most, 35 over the Jacksonville Jaguars 19. . . Presently, only two franchises are at 6-0, the Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs, both within the same division, the American Conference West. The two leading National Conference teams are the NC West’s 5-1 Seattle Seahawks and the NC South’s 5-1 New Orleans Saints. And, regarding which teams to sing sad songs for, that’s the 0-6 Jaguars, 0-6 New York Giants and 0-5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. All told, 19 of the 30 NFL franchises are at or above .500, signaling the continuation of a high-power season, thus a strong possibility that NFL-2013 will after Week 16 own a record for fewest number of teams tanking with an embarrassing number of losses. Yet of the league’s eight divisions, four now have leading teams with 4-2 or lower win/loss records, the lowest that of the NC East’s 3-3 Philadelphia Eagles, the Dallas Cowboys second and behind at 2-3. Total up the number of wins accrued by the NC East’s four teams, it’s no more than that won by the 6-0 Broncos or 6-0 Chiefs. The AC West’s 16 wins is the conference’s highest today among divisions, also the highest number of wins league-wide. Highest NC division total of wins belongs to the NC West, 15. The total number of AC wins is 50; NC wins, 41. . . As for super drama, only one of the eight division first place franchises has a commanding lead over a second place team, the NC South’s Saints being three ahead of the 2-3 Panthers. The AC East’s 5-1 New England Patriots are two games up vs. second place team, the 3-2 Miami Dolphins. All other division leading teams are but one win ahead of the next in line franchise. Different here is both the AC West’s Broncos and Chiefs being at 6-0, the Chiefs a close second based on other than wins, third place the 2-3 San Diego Chargers. . .//. . . BRONCOS, JAGUARS---WERE it not for the Manning-machine, that is, Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning and his preferred receivers, the Denver franchise might have lost during Week 6 to the worst NFL franchise of the current season, the Jacksonville Jaguars. The amazing Broncos offense stole game initiative from the Jaguars during a first quarter of their Sunday match with a 14 point lead from the team’s first and second drives, but in the second Q the Broncos defense returned 12 points to the Jaguars and gave seven more away in the third Q, fortunately with Manning’s passes and the five touchdowns from WR’s J. Thomas, Wes Welker and RB Knowshon Moreno offsetting that drawback. From Week 1 through Week 6, the Broncos defense has allowed more than 140 points to opposing franchises, more than the number of points given away by half of the teams that are currently under the margin, i.e., of teams with three or fewer wins and that are beneath .500. From stitching this defense performance to the fact that the Manning-led offense played worse vs. the Jaguars than in any preceding 2013 game, a rational argument could be made that the Broncos could by mid-season accrue some losses. The Jaguars QB, Chad Henne completed 27 of 42 attempted passes, just one shy of Broncos QB Manning’s 28 of 42. And, the Jaguars offense managed to obtain longer ball possession time than the Broncos had gained. Were it not for the Manning-Moreno connectivity that led to three TD’s, the Broncos/Jaguars outcome would have been vastly different vs. the Jaguars offense that managed to accrue 291 net passing yards, only four fewer than the Broncos 295. Too, Jaguars RB, J. Blackmon, rushed for 90 yards, 13 yards per play, which was highest gain in rushing yards for the game, while the Bronco’s best was Moreno’s 42 rushing yards gained, 2.8 pr play, the difference being that Moreno’s rushes contributed to TD’s, Blackmon’s hadn’t converted into any points at all, a sign that the Broncos defense can come through, it just needs to do more. Hope floats with Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey to the field recently and with von LB Miller ready to smash and sack, and with LB Danny Trevathan (five tackles, second quarter, three interceptions for the season so far). . . Next up for the Broncos is the AC South’s numero uno, the 4-2 Indianapolis Colts, a team that can defeat the Broncos only if the Broncos defense deteriorates even in the slightest way and if the Broncos offense execution vs. the Jaguars on Sunday was a sign of upcoming slippage. Also, if the Chiefs beat the Houston Texans on Sunday, as expected, the Broncos could find themselves second and not first within the AC West. In this context and for more insurance for a post-season berth and a shot at the Super Bowl, the Broncos will be playing against the Chiefs on Sunday as well as vs. the Colts. . . Surely a bad bet is Manning being troubled, weakened from his having been let go by the Colts after leading the Indianapolis franchise for a Super Bowl and other victories during a 14-year period, that such will be a mental detractor for Manning. More than likely, given Manning’s competitiveness and the cool + skills learned and developed when he led the Colts offense, the let-go factor will be a motivator for him, honoring all that he learned from his Colt years properly, doing so with his Broncos offense defeating the Colts. . . //. . . MLB, LC’s---FOR the National League LC it’s the Cardinals 2-1 over the Dodgers, the latter club closing in last night with a 3-0 win. For the AL-LC it’s the Red Sox and Tigers tied at 1-1, scheduled to break that today. Some history: last year’s LC winners were the NL’s San Francisco Giants and the AL’s Tigers, the former beating the latter for the 2012 World Series title. Last among today’s four contenders to win a LC and go to the WS are the Tigers (2012), before that the Cards (2011). Since year 2000, the Cards have gone to the WS three times and won twice (vs. the Tigers, 2006; vs. the Texas Rangers, 2010). The Tigers have gone to the WS twice and lost twice (vs. the Cards, 2006, to the Giants last year). The Dodgers haven’t won the NL-LC since 1988, the year that they won the WS vs. the Oakland Athletics. The Red Sox have won the AL-LC twice since year 2000, winning the 2004 WS from the Cards, and the 2007 WS from the Colorado Rockies. Given the low number of runs in LC games played this post-season to date, dominance lies more with effective pitching than with even effective hits and base-running, the most runs achieved in a single game being six runs during a Red Sox 6-5 win vs. the Tigers. Here’s where the Dodgers might prevail against the Cards, the Tigers vs. the Red Sox. Then again, maybe not, in that the differentials between pitching staffs of all four clubs are slight, best isn’t that much better. Of course, hitting and base-running is what produces the numbers, a 2-1 win is surely a win. That a sweep is no longer possible within either LC series, and that winning scores have been single-digit low, such has this page repeating once more, “It’s anyone’s guess until best of seven occurs.” . . . //. . . NBA: THE NBA 2013/14 season is within reach, just two weeks away for most of the league’s 30 teams. Questions are already on the table. Will the Miami Heat dominate all other franchises from the get-go? Will the Brooklyn Nets turn out to be the number one New York City basketball enterprise, surpassing the N.Y. Knicks well before the All Star break? Will this be the season advising that in more cases than not the teamwork-based franchises (no more than two 20+ ppg shooters) will have the better chance of a post-season appearance than the superstar-loaded franchise (25+ ppg shooters)? Which of the 14 NBA teams with new head coaches will win 50 or more games during 2013/14, same question regarding the nine teams that are being led by first time NFL head coaches? Relatedly, will the one new head coach directly from the wood floor succeed, Jason Kidd (recently retired from the Knicks), now leading the Nets? Or, will we learn that dominant will be teams banking on the head coaches they’ve maintained for many years, e.g. the San Antonio Spurs Gregg Popovich? Is it possible that the Denver Nuggets will regret firing 2012/13’s number one head coach, George Karl, replaced by the multi-skilled Brian Shaw, a Phil Jackson protégé? Is there a mind-set among owners that goes like this: “Head coaches are like busses. There’ll be another one coming along about every 10 or 12 minutes.” Also, will this NBA season be the one that throws the phrase “Status quo” out the window now that major player-personnel changes have occurred last year and recently, e.g., Dwight Howard to the Houston Rockets from the Los Angeles Lakers, plus Laker superstars Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash and the Spurs Tim Duncan and Dallas Mavericks Dirk Nowitzki getting older? In other words, will we again see the Eastern Conference led by the Heat, the Knicks and the Indiana Pacers, and the Western Conference by the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Spurs and the Nuggets? Or will we see flip-arounds, new teams ahead of the rest of the bunch? Add that the Thunder’s superstar, Kevin Durant, will be teamed with and maybe hampered by an injury-recovering Russell Westbrook. Will we see greater dependence for the win leveraged over to the concept of “depth being crucial,” that is, to stronger and better-skilled than ever players from the bench?. . . // . . . DENVER NUGGETS---THIS NBA quintessential mid-market team has reflected the best that there is within the “teamwork/no superstar needed” concept for winning basketball games, having reached the post season year after year, knocked away, however, in first or second rounds during those years, this latter point among reasons why George Karl, who engineered many of the Nuggets playoff appearances, was asked to resign, replaced for the upcoming season by Brian Shaw, the former assistant coach behind the 2012/13 resurrection of the Pacers. Last night, the Nuggets defeated the 2012/13 Western Conference leading team, the San Antonio Spurs, 98-94, having maintained a lead greater than 10 points within the second half, losing it in final moments of the fourth period to the four point victory. Looking at this win shallowly is to say that the Nuggets defeat of the most recent season’s Western Conference championship team shouldn’t count for much of anything because the Spurs head coach gave few minutes, if any of meaning, to top Spurs players Tony Parker (guard) and Tim Duncan (forward). The Nuggets won playing against the lesser Spurs, a Team B. But a deeper look shows that Nuggets head coach, Brian Shaw, hadn’t given the lion’s share of minutes to his team’s best starters either, to guard Ty Lawson or to forward JaVale McGee, to forward Kenneth Faried or to guard Nate Robinson. Shaw spread the minutes thin, the win signaling that the Nuggets back-up, the team’s depth, its subset, that is, the Nuggets bench, is indeed strong, a key asset when you compete without 25+ ppg shooters. Fact: unexpectedly (maybe not a surprise to Shaw) the top Nuggets shooter for last night’s win against the Spurs was guard Randy Foye, 15 points achieved. Already, and for the pre-season games under the bridge, three Nuggets players have double-digit ppg averages---McGee, forward J.J. Hickson and Lawson. END/ml