NFL; WEEK 6, STANDINGS & PICKS; BRONCOS VS. JAGUARS // MLB: UPDATE, THE LC SERIES // F-1 GRAND PRIX MOTOR RACING & FILM "RUSH."

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 & Picks; Broncos, Jaguars // MLB—Update, Playoffs // Formula 1 Grand Prix Racing & Movie, “Rush.” . . . //. . . NFL---THE NFL National Conference South’s leading team, the New Orleans Saints, has a substantial lead over second place club, the Carolina Panthers, 5-0 vs. 1-3, but the remaining seven NFL division leading franchises haven’t that luxury, in that second place organizations are at their heels, e.g., the American Conference West’s 5-0 Denver Broncos can sense the 5-0 Kansas City Chiefs touching their shoulders, and the AC East’s 4-1 New England Patriots are still in the shadows of second and third position teams, the 3-2 Miami Marlins and 3-2 New York Jets. Meanwhile, the AC North’s top franchise, the 3-2 Baltimore Ravens, are being chased by second and third spot teams, the 3-2 Cleveland Browns and 3-2 Cincinnati Bengals, and the AC South’s 4-1 Indianapolis Colts are followed by second place club, the 3-2 Tennessee Titans. Within the National Conference, the NC West’s Seattle Seahawks, can see from up close their division’s second and third position teams, the 3-2 San Francisco 49ers and the 3-2 Arizona Cardinals, and the NC East’s 2-3 Philadelphia Eagles have at their heels the 2-3 Dallas Cowboys, while the NC North’s first place franchise, the 4-2 Chicago Bears, are feeling heat from the 3-2 Detroit Lions. So, for Week 6, we have three franchises that are still unbeatable, the Broncos, the Chiefs and the Saints, and four that are at 4-1, the Patriots, Colts, Seahawks and the Bears, the latter having taken the N.Y. Giants down last night, 27-21, forcing the Giants into last place of the NFL, 0-6 as of today. Three other NFL teams are members of the Zero, Zip & Nada Club, the AC South’s 0-5 Jacksonville Jaguars, the AC North’s 0-4 Pittsburgh Steelers and the NC South’s 0-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Of course, the NFL rankings could be quite different after Sunday and Monday night. Here are some observations: If the Jaguars take down the Broncos on Sunday, a miracle will have occurred (don’t count on it), while the Chiefs giving way to the Oakland Raiders is possible but unlikely, thus the Broncos and Chiefs will each be at 6-0 as Week 7 commences. If there is a cliff-hanger on Sunday, it’s likely to be the Patriots vs. Saints, in that for the former a possible loss could allow the Jets to tie with the Patriots at AC East-first place, providing that the Jets defeat the Steelers on Sunday (no easy task). More likely on Sunday is the AC North’s Ravens lording it over the Green Bay Packers, implying a stay at first place for the Ravens. Another AC near-given is the AC South’s Colts defeating the AC West’s San Diego Chargers, therefore holding AC South first place for the coming week. And, another miracle would be needed for the AC South’s Titans to take down the NC West’s Seahawks on Sunday, which would push the Seahawks into a tie situation should the 49ers whip the Cardinals. This couldn’t possibly be easy for the 49ers, and anyway the Seahawks will probably defeat the Titans---our pick, the Seahawks going to 5-1 at endgame, continuing in first place. For pure enjoyment on Sunday, catch a very real rivalry, the 1-3 Washington Redskins facing the Cowboys, the latter close to defeating the now 5-0 Broncos last week. As to the current week’s irony? Were the AC West’s last place 2-3 Raiders and the AC South’s last place 2-3 Buffalo Bills now within the NC East, the two would be tied for second place with the Cowboys, close behind first place team, the Eagles, also 2-3. . . //. . . BRONCOS, JAGUARS---JUST about every NFL 2013 Broncos statistic tells the Jaguars to go afield without any thoughts about winning a football game, the advice from both Broncos passing and rush yardage saying that the Jaguars head coach should be telling his players, “Just have fun, it’s a strong chance that you’ll be giving away lots of points to the Broncos Peyton Manning-led offense.” But the Jaguars head coach knows that there’s a window of opportunity for his team, and it’s offered up by a Broncos defense that last week gave away 48 points to a lesser offense squad, that of the Dallas Cowboys. By confusing, disorienting and forcing the Broncos defense to go where the Jaguars offense won’t be, the boys from Jacksonville just might go home without being humiliated, maybe score two touchdowns and a field goal as the Broncos offense surpasses no fewer than 30 points. As for the Jaguars defense maintaining respectability, best tactic for them is surely the pass rush, the operative words for its linebackers, “enter Madness, like you’ve been ordered to stop a bomb from exploding, like you’re the Avengers, caffeinated,” meanwhile QB Manning so cool his E&E, his Escape and Evade moments, will probably be enough to keep the Jaguars pass rush having more misses than gains. Borrowing a line from a heist movie so as to define Manning, “The guy’s a genuine hero, he’s so cool that when sheep have to go to sleep they count him.” Presently for 2013 and entering Week 6, Manning has completed 150 of 198 passes and accrued 20 TD’s, 17 more TD’s than achieved by the two Jaguar QB’s, Blaine Gabbert and Chad Henne. Look to the Broncos to finish ahead on Sunday by two or more TD’s even if the Broncos defense fails to show improvements over last week; otherwise, Broncos by three TD’s and a FG. . . //. . . MLB---SOMETIMES the MLB season seems to move forward no faster than turtles in a race across thick mud, each turtle wearing a back pack loaded with bricks. Of course, that’s time playing a trick on us, the way that waiting for a slice of bread to be toasted at breakfast seems longer than the rest of the day will be. Then comes Major League Baseball’s Post-season, which seems to go by faster than a Formula One racing car leaving the grid. We’re at the best of seven League Championship series now, within the American League the Boston Red Sox facing the Detroit Tigers, and inside the National League the L.A. Dodgers versus the St. Louis Cardinals. Gone, then, are the AL’s Oakland Athletics, having lost in a best of five division series to the Red Sox, and the NL’s Pittsburgh Pirates, having lost in best of five to the Cardinals. If complete toolbox teams dominate, that is, those with top of the line starting pitchers, relievers, closers, infielders, outfielders, batters and the depth for replacements, then we stand with some hesitancy that a Dodgers/Red Sox World Series is a bit more likely than any other, yet tenuous, we’re not entirely sure of the prediction. But if, as we cited on Tuesday, star power dominates, e.g, domination from but a handful of better than the rest hurlers + batters and fielders, we could see a Tigers/Dodgers WS. Note that the Dodgers have demonstrated both star power and all other game-winning attributes, this a few degrees higher than have been seen from the Cardinals---and we could safely say this about the Red Sox being a better team than the Tigers, the latter upticked immensely by hurler, Justin Verlander, and superb batter/fielder Miguel Cabrera, but the Dodgers having stars, too, plus those all-around attributes, totality for winning at baseball. . . //. . . F-1 GRAND PRIX RACING;FILM “RUSH”---THE Ron Howard movie, “Rush,” is worth seeing if you are curious about F-1 Grand Prix racing and want certain messages about competitive spirit among athletes rendered and reinforced. A downside of the film is that the camera shots of F1 racing and the F1 cars themselves keep you wanting much more and that doesn’t happen, such is interrupted by the off-track story of two highly competent drivers, each wanting to best the other at high risk. The better part of the upside is that from watching the film you can learn a lot about the F-1 series, now the world’s second biggest sport after soccer and the second richest, also after soccer, though F-1 isn’t as big in the U.S. as it is in Europe, South America, Asia and in a few parts of the Middle East. Yet F-1 returned to America last year and will appear this year at Austin Texas, come November. The U.S. F-1 GP is one of the last races in a season of 16 races involving 20 teams for races held at a different country every two weeks, the more famous races on the circuit being the Monaco, Australian, British, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and Brazilian Grand Prix events. The cars are similar in looks to the Indy 500 cars, while tracks differ, hardly any just variations of the basic oval, many including actual roadways and natural obstacles for cars that reach over 150 mph easily. As for the lessons learned by the two drivers, it’s that obsessing victory can cause an athlete to push beyond his or her ability to control events during dangerous situations. Whether the risk is worth taking is any athlete’s choice. During an F-1 Grand Prix season, the risks remain high. END/ml.