NFL: ANALYSIS, WEEK 12; A BRONCOS LOSS TO THE PATRIOTS // NBA: the STANDINGS; DENVER NUGGETS, RISING!

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 12; A BRONCOS LOSS TO THE PATRIOTS // NBA: the STANDINGS; NUGGETS, RISING! . . . NFL---NO-one saw it coming, the American Conference West’s currently 9-2 Kansas City Chiefs losing to the 5-6 AC West’s San Diego Chargers, 41-38, allowing the now 9-2 Denver Broncos to maintain first position within the division, though the Broncos lost on Sunday to the AC East’s first place New England Patriots, 34-31. Nor did anyone think that the National Conference West’s second place 7-4 Arizona Cardinals would defeat the AC South’s first place franchise, the 7-4 Indianapolis Colts, on Sunday, 40-11, or that the NC South’s now 3-8 Tampa Bay Buccaneers would take down the NC North’s first place team, the 6-5 Detroit Lions on the same day, 24-21, or that the NC West’s last place team, the now 5-6 St. Louis Rams, would dump the NC North’s second place team, the Chicago Bears, 42-21. So, Week 12 could be characterized as a week of expectation turnovers. However, except for the 6-5 Philadelphia Eagles slipping from first to second position within the NC East from being at Bye-week and Dallas moving up to first place from defeating the N.Y. Giants, 24-21, the seven other AC and NC divisions have remained where they were in the standings, the more commanding lead among these Brahmins still no greater than a three games-won edge, that held by the AC East’s Patriots over second place team, the 5-6 New York Jets, and the 10-1 Seattle Seahawks atop the 7-4 Cardinals. The 10-1 Seahawks are still the only NFL-2013 team to have accrued double-digit wins. So, which divisions, and which of the two conferences, appear to be best regarding number of wins? Within the AC, no division leading franchise has fewer than seven wins and more than four losses, while the NC has two division leading teams with but six wins apiece and two that have five losses. Inside the AC, only one franchise has no more than two wins to date, while within the NC there are two franchises with only two wins and a franchise with only three wins. Yet the number of AC wins during Week 1 through 12 tops at 89, and the NC has a total of 88 wins. Implied then is parity among the two conferences. Best division within NFL-entire, that’s the NC West---28 wins, while the AC West is second within the league with 27 wins, another sign of parity. Lowest number of wins belongs to the AC South, NC East and NC North, each with a total of 19 for the season thus far, also no sign of a big divide. But looking at standings another way, of the 16 of 32 NFL franchises that are below .500, that is, beneath the line drawn between winning and losing teams, 11 reside within the AC, six inside the NC. . . // . . . BRONCOS, PATRIOTS---THE better value that the Denver Broncos could take away from its 38-34 loss in overtime to the New England Patriots on Sunday is having built a 17-0 lead inside the first quarter and going to 24-7 at the half. It was downhill afterward, the Broncos defense unable to stop a QB Tom Brady-led Patriots offense from scoring 21 points in the third Q and 10 in the fourth. A QB Peyton Manning-led drive put another TD on the board in the fourth Q, forcing the game into OT, during which the Patriots offense reached close enough for a field goal that gave them the OT win. This was indeed a turnabout from a game expected to be the proverbial nip-and-tuck battle from start to finish, though it kind of ended that way. In that first Q, the Patriots offense was as if they’d had a late lunch of too much pasta, while the Broncos defense was savvy, fast, a moving wall everywhere afield. In the first half, the Broncos offense kept to critical paths, with several lines forward found open for a rushing strategy that the Patriots hadn’t expected. But by the third Q, the Patriots head coach and QB had figured out what the Broncos were up to and had the advantage of strong winds interfering with the passing game that Manning would have preferred to switch to and now couldn’t rely on wind factors for the long throw, surely among reasons why the Broncos offense could not pull off what it had been able to do in Weeks 1 though 11, offset the points lost to an opposing team from weaknesses within the Broncos defense, flaws surely evident in the second half versus the Patriots, e.g., the Denver pass rush unit being unable to adjust to Patriots QB Brady gaining leg and receiver-recognition speed starting with the third Q; nor were Broncos defenders able to interfere enough with the sharp cuts taken by Patriots receivers for QB Brady’s short passes . . . Doubly sad for any team is that its outstanding game stats can seem meaningless when a loss occurs---by the last seconds of OT, the Broncos had managed to have more ball possession time than the Patriots had, more first downs, many more rushing yards, a greater average gain in yards per rush than achieved by the Patriots, and in the first half had converted fumbles into points. And though QB Brady completed more passes for more yards than QB Manning, the latter QB completed nearly 50 percent of attempted throws, 19 of 36, this under extreme wind conditions. Noteworthy, of course, was Broncos RB Knowshon Moreno accruing 224 yards from 37 attempts. That the Broncos rushed for 280 yards and the Patriots for but 116 speaks well for the Broncos. That the Patriots passed for 344 yards and the Broncos 150 when more than 300 has been a Broncos norm, such takes some glow away from the QB Manning-led offense . . . //. . . NBA: EXCEPT for the now 7-6 and above .500 Denver Nuggets moving to third place within the Western Conference’s Northwest Division, plus the 10-5 Houston Rockets going to second within the WC Southwest, also the 8-6 Golden State Warriors dropping from first to second inside the WC Pacific, and the EC Atlantic’s 3-10 Brooklyn Nets easing upward from last to fourth, “a status quo has prevailed within NBA-2013/14,” in that five of the six division leading NBA teams of last week are holding there, and some have increased their lead considerably, for example, the EC Central’s number one team, the now 13-1 Indiana Pacers, are now seven wins ahead of second place team, the 6-7 Chicago Bulls, and the WC Northwest’s 13-2 Portland Trail Blazers are four wins up over second place team, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Yet 13 NBA teams are still below .500, 12 of them within the EC, worst league-wide being the WC Northwest’s 2-14/.125 Utah Jazz. . . //. . . DENVER NUGGETS---AFTER defeating the WC Southwest’s third place 9-6 Dallas Mavericks in two consecutive matches, the WC Northwest’s now 7-6 Denver Nuggets have lifted above .500 and moved to third position, five games behind WC Northwest’s first place team, the Portland Trail Blazers. When a team gets it that in offense it’s good, maybe very good, certainly more effective than several other teams but not in enough ways to be lax a bit in defense, it begins to take defense as seriously as it covets the assault for shots taken; the team stops relying on the offense more than defense to bring in the W. This may or not be what is beginning to define the Denver Nuggets this NBA season, but what’s been visible in recent games is a better Nuggets defense, a stretching of the envelope vertically as well as horizontally and with more speed of transition into it from the offense whether or not a shot has netted points, this without a decrease in offense capacity. In fact, the Nuggets offense has had a positive unexpected twist, that of players new to the Nuggets shining when usually more time is needed for new team adjustments, for instance, Jordan Hamilton netting for points turning a game around in the team’s favor, and, like last night vs. the Mavericks, J.J. Hicks having a 22 ppg, completing eight of 11 attempts, and this in an away from home game, both these players reminiscent of guard Ty Lawson’s first year with the Nuggets, with Lawson now showing some better performances. Last night, Lawson accrued 11 assists and scored 19 points. What’s the big statement now for the Nuggets? A familiar cry throughout much of the NBA---“Consistency, consistency, consistency, on the road as well as at home.” On Friday, the Nuggets will face the 3-10/.231 New York Knicks, forward Carmelo Anthony aboard, this team that he fled to from Denver now at last place, EC Atlantic. END/ml