NFL: ANALYSIS, WEEK 8; BRONCOS 7-1 AFTER DEFEAT OF WASHINGTON REDSKINS // MLB : WORLD SERIES, RED SOX AHEAD.

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: Analysis, Week 8; Broncos 45, Redskins 21 // MLB: World Series, Red Sox Ahead. . . // NFL---THE NFL National Conference East’s Dallas Cowboys fell to the NC North’s 5-3 Detroit Lions on Sunday, 31-30, becoming the league’s only division leading franchise losing a 2013/Week 8 game. However, the NC East’s second place 3-5 Philadelphia Eagles lost on Sunday to NC East’s last place now 2-6 New York Giants, 15-7, enabling the Cowboys to stay among the NFL’s six division leading teams, though ahead by just one win. Still leading the NC West are the Seattle Seahawks, 7-1 after last night’s 14-9 win over the 3-5 St. Louis Rams. Leading the NC North still are the 5-2 Green Bay Packers, on Sunday a victor versus the Minnesota Vikings, 44-31. Remaining atop the NC South are the 6-1 New Orleans Saints, defeating on Sunday the American Conference East’s last place franchise, the 3-5 Buffalo Bills, 35-17. Still leading the AC West plus the entire AC and the full league are the undefeated/8-0 Kansas City Chiefs, having beaten the 3-5 Cleveland Browns on Sunday, 23-17. Number one team of the AC East is still the 6-2 New England Patriots, having beaten the AC East 3-4 Miami Dolphins on Sunday, 27-17. Leading the AC North are the 6-2 Cincinnati Bengals, which defeated the AC East 4-4 N.Y. Jets on Sunday, 49-9 (Week 8’s widest point spread). The Bengals are also the division leading franchise with the highest numerical advantage over a second place team, three games ahead of AC North’s 3-4 Baltimore Ravens. Leading the AC South still are the 5-2 Indianapolis Colts after the team’s Bye, with AC South’s number two franchise, the 3-4 Tennessee Titans also finishing a Bye. So, the operative words for describing NFL Week 8 is, for the most part, “Status Quo,” with the Chiefs and the Seahawks still leading their respective conferences by just one game over second place teams of their divisions, the AC West’s 7-1 Denver Broncos, the NC West’s 6-2 San Francisco 49ers. And, still at the very bottom are the AC South’s 0-8 Jacksonville Jaguars and the NC South’s 0-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. . . Of the 16 NFL teams that are below 8-8, that is, beneath .500, nine reside within the AC, seven inside the NC, with greatest disparity among the six divisions, for instance, only one AC West team is below .500, the 3-4 Oakland Raiders, while three teams within the AC North are below .500, the 3-4 Ravens, 3-5 Browns and the 2-5 Pittsburgh Steelers; and, three AC South franchises are also below .500, the 3-4 Titans, 2-5 Houston Texans, the 0-8 Jaguars. The only division within the NC that is of but one team under .500 is the NC West containing the 3-4 Rams. The division with the most wins to date is the AC West---22. The division with least wins is the AC South---10. The AC bests the NC, 62 wins over 57. . . // BRONCOS, REDSKINS---A Denver Broncos defense contributed greatly to a Week 8 Broncos 45-21 takedown of the Washington Redskins, a surprise gift to a Broncos Peyton Manning-led offense that had listed the Redskins ahead at 21-14 prior to the game’s fourth quarter, namely the Broncos defense keeping the Redskins to but seven points during the first half and to but one TD in the third Q, not allowing anything like the 33 points it had allowed when up against and losing to the now 5-2 Indianapolis Colts during Week 7. Within a Broncos versus Redskins fourth Q comeback was a Broncos defense that included LB Von Miller causing a Redskins fumble that was picked by Broncos LE Derek Wolfe for a TD. Regarding the Broncos offense, at the half it had but seven points alongside the Redskins seven. Still, the other significant contribution to the Broncos win was a surprise offense switch to a running strategy from what was expected to be an offense dominated by Manning’s passes from kick-off to endgame, to wit: RB’s Knowshon Moreno and Monte Ball combining for 81 yards, averaging more than 3.1 yards per rush, a TD between them. The Broncos accrued a total of 117 rushing yards from 28 rushing plays. Even so, Manning completed 30 of 44 pass attempts for 354 yards, three of his receivers achieving touchdowns, WR’s Wes Welker and Demaryius Thomas, plus TE Joel Dreessen. Welker received for 81 yards, Thomas, 75. The late-game Broncos favoring the run resided within a risk not seen often, a go at fourth down efficiency resulting in TD value. Half the season over now for the Broncos, the team’s primary goal will be remaining a one-loss franchise past Week 16 onto a then guaranteed post-season berth, the big challenge for this being Weeks 11, 12 and 13, when the Broncos will be facing sequentially the now undefeated Kansas City Chiefs, the current 5-2 New England Patriots, again the Chiefs. . . WORLD SERIES---NOTEWORTHY and unusual about this year’s WS is that it involves the two ball clubs that finished the 2013 regular season as the two best in all of baseball, in addition to being the top two within the year’s post-season/league championship series. This could be why the point spreads have mostly been slight for the five WS contests played to date, the scores low except for the WS lead-in game’s 8-1, Boston over St. Louis; example, last night’s 3-1 Boston win bringing the games-won balance to 3-2, Boston ahead. There could only be one of two outcomes from the next WS game, either Boston wins the WS or there will be a 3-3 WS and game seven soon after. Some background: the 7-game WS is rare. There have been only six 4-3 wins of 25 WS conducted since 1987, with but three of these since year 2000, suggesting that if data were always the dominant force in baseball Boston would be the year’s WS winner from game six. However, of the six 4-3 WS wins since 1987, the St. Louis Cardinals won the most recent, 4-3 vs. the Texas Rangers, WS-2011. As it’s been throughout, it’s likely anyone’s pick for the final 2013 WS outcome. END/ml