NFL: WEEK 4, OUTCOMES; PACKERS VS. VIKINGS, THURSDAY // "the 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 4, OUTCOMES; PACKERS VS. VIKINGS ON THURSDAY // “the NOTEBOOK” . . . NFL, WEEK 4---SIX of the 32 NFL franchises have won three of four NFL-2014 games, the NC East’s Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys, the NC Central’s Detroit Lions, the AC West’s S.D. Chargers, AC North’s Baltimore Ravens and the AC South’s Houston Texans. Two other franchises are at 3-0, the NC West’s Arizona Cardinals, and the AC North’s Cincinnati Bengals. Of these eight franchises, six are division leaders; the two that aren’t and holding second place within their respective divisions are the Cowboys and the Ravens. At the other end of the spectrum today are the AC West’s 0-4 Oakland Raiders and the 0-4 Jacksonville Jaguars. Also, 10 franchises are at 2-2, an odd outcome being that the 2-2 Buffalo Bills are atop the AC East and the 2-2 Atlanta Falcons are leading the NC South while the NC North’s 2-2 Chicago Bears are at last place. Remaining teams at the bottom of their divisions have won but a single game across Week 4, the NC West’s St. Louis Rams, NC East’s Washington Redskins, the NC South’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. . . As NFL-2014 Week 5 stares from a close distance, as NFL executives attempt to recapture dignity off the field post-Ray Rice/Adrian Peterson, the league afield is dignified enough, 22 teams now at or above .500. Puzzling is that many of the big market teams have reflected dull season starts, N.E. Patriots, S.F. 49ers, Redskins, the Bears. . . PACKERS, VIKINGS---HERE we have two teams belonging to the same division, NC North, and they are 2-2 each. On Thursday, the two will commence Week 5, the winner becoming leader NC North number one, well, probably for only until late afternoon on Sunday. . . During Week 4, the now 2-2 Bears defeated the Packers, and the Vikings defeated NC South’s leading franchise, the Atlanta Falcons. Still, a win could go to the Packers QB Aaron Rodgers-led offense being better set for the assault than his Vikings counterpart, providing that he can have the protection needed for what he does best---passing deep and accurately. Much will depend on which team has the better pass rush and which can disrupt improvisational offense switches to a running game when the pass seems suicidal. Yet the Vikings win vs. the Falcons was largely due to stopgaps preventing a usually better QB, Matt Ryan, from penetrating a nearly seamless defense enough times for the win. An upset on Thursday is unlikely, our pick the Packers by as many as seven.   .  .  “the NOTEBOOK” --- MLB-2014 LC’s: National League: S.F. Giants vs. Washington Nationals, best of five, winner vs. Pittsburgh Pirates; and, L.A. Dodgers vs. St. Louis Cardinals, best of 5. . . American League: L.A. Angels vs. Oakland A’s, best of 5, winner vs. K.C. Royals; and, Baltimore Orioles vs. Detroit Tigers, best of 5.  .  .   THE NBA’s Denver Nuggets will be advancing from the gate for NBA regulation 2014/15 with rational expectations for as many as 50 wins and a post-season slot, this as presented yesterday by the team’s GM, Tim Connelly, and head coach, Brian Shaw. Here’s what they believe are the team’s current attributes for fulfillment of expectations by February 2015’s All Star break, if not much sooner. One, the Nuggets are back from being injury driven. Last season, guard and top shooter Ty Lawson and powerful defender and shooter, Wilson Chandler, were out for more than 20 games, and guard and top shooter, Danilo Gallinari, was out for the entire season. The three have been cleared for court time as determined by HC Shaw. Two, forward Kenneth Faried is more experienced than ever for the NBA game, having returned from successful performances as a member of Team USA during the off-season. Three, HC Shaw is no longer the rookie HC, he’ll be operating from lessons learned during the past season, especially for fusion of skills with values from height and from speed of transition from offense to defense, then back to offense with earnest attempts for netting more baskets from the inside. Four, the Nuggets will capitalize on what may seem contradictory, (a) much emphasized teamwork together with (b) strong and insightful individual leadership, the former evolving as that which a team without a superstar of a 25 or better ppg average must become, that is, five or more players capable of double-digits most nights, anywhere from 12 to 20, also of players capable of a sufficient number of rebounds, blocks and steals for keeping opposing teams from scoring high-end, say, with triple-digits by endgame. As to leadership, the latter has been explained by HC Shaw as each player’s ability to “direct traffic” when he has hands on the basketball, thus be able to improvise correctly and speedily under tight situations. Shaw highlights the fact that good leaders know when to follow others if they have a better idea for the successful tactic, for the proper shot. So, given existing attributes and barring injuries, the NBA 2014/15 Nuggets will be formidable opponents headed for post-season rounds. END/ml

NFL: WEEK 4; GIANTS CRUSH REDSKINS// "the 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 4 of any NFL season is pivotal. By Monday, one-fourth of NFL-2014 regulation will be history, only a few among 32 football teams positioned where they preferred to be when the season began. And preparing to change their ranking today for the better are three NFL franchises that haven’t won a 2014 game yet, the American Conference West’s 0-3 Oakland Raiders, AC South’s 0-3 Jacksonville Jaguars, the NC South’s 0-3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while six AC franchises are 1-2 today, the AC West’s K.C. Chiefs, AC East’s Miami Marlins and the N.Y. Jets, the AC North’s Cleveland Browns, the AC South’s Indianapolis Colts and the Tennessee Titans. In the National Conference, five teams are at 1-2, the NC West’s St. Louis Rams and the S.F. 49ers, the NC North’s Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers, the NC South’s N.O. Saints. Meanwhile, atop the NFL with 3-0 records now and therefore pleased with their Week 4 entry slots are the AC North’s Cincinnati Bengals, NC West’s Arizona Cardinals and the NC East’s Philadelphia Eagles. Also, seven AC franchises are at 2-1 for Week 4, the AC West’s Denver Broncos and S.D. Chargers, the AC East’s Buffalo Bills and the N.E. Patriots, plus the AC North’s Baltimore Ravens, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the AC South’s Houston Texans. Within the NC, six franchises are 2-1 today, the NC West’s Seattle Seahawks, NC East’s Dallas Cowboys, NC North’s Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears, the NC South’s Atlanta Falcons and the Carolina Panthers. So, a big question is will today’s 3-0 teams be 4-0 when Week 5 commences? Well, it’s not a trick question when it comes to the Bengals and the Cardinals, the two teams are at Bye Week during Week 4, but the Eagles could be 4-0 and still be leading their division should they defeat the 49ers as predicted. The 49ers are now the NC West’s last place team from being 1-2 and division worst in points. Some experts are saying that the 49ers could be ready to leap forward and anyway will lose to the Eagles but by no more than seven. Among the 2-1 franchises, the Broncos are also at Bye, and rival team, the Seahawks, yep, Bye Week. In addition, the Bills will be facing the Texans on Sunday. Both are division number ones, their likely final score either side but not by much considering that the defense of each has improved greatly. And, analysts expect the Patriots to take down the Chiefs on Monday by a TD and a field goal, the same analysts commenting that on Sunday the Cowboys will defeat the Saints by more than 10. Another consensus among experts is that the Lions will beat the Jets by 10 or more, and that the Falcons will probably defeat the Vikings also by around 10. Can the Bears undo the Packers? That’s anyone’s guess, though some analysts say yes but not by much, could be by three.  .  .  GIANTS 45, REDSKINS, 14. . .  WASHINGTON, D.C., fans will be blaming last night’s humiliating Redskins loss to the Giants on QB Robert Griffin III’s absence from the field due to ankle trouble, which discredits a skillful Giants offense and a smart and fast-reacting Giants defense that included superb pass rushes and fast and powerful coverage of the Redskins receivers and runners. Giants QB Eli Manning proved again that he is among the more versatile QB’s playing today; he can drive an offense forward relentlessly from different and accurate pass tactics as well as from various and cagey ground pursuits. We may be seeing a reconstituted Giants, they are now at 2-2, though until the team’s Bye on October 26 the Giants will be challenged by the NC South’s now leading franchise, the 2-1 Falcons (Week 5), then by the AC East’s now number one team, the 3-0 Eagles (Week 6) and then by the team that has been ahead of the Giants in the AC East, the now 2-1 Cowboys (Week 7).  .  .  NOTEBOOK---A MLB-2014 FACT, the American League West’s 98-61 L.A. Angels will finish the current MLB season as a division championship team playoff headed, now leading the AL West from an 11 game jump over number two team, the Oakland A’s. So, too, will the AL East’s 95-64 Baltimore Orioles complete the current season as a division championship team, today 14 games ahead of second place team, the N.Y. Yankees that won’t be playoff headed when 2014 regulation comes to an end. The Orioles winning edge is second best today in the AL, likely to stay that way. And, playoff slotted today are the AL Central’s leading team, the 89-70 Detroit Tigers, which can be reversed by the K.C. Royals, just two games behind the Tigers today. Within the NL, the NL East’s 93-65 Washington Nationals are the league’s leading team and third within both leagues behind the Angels and the Orioles. A division championship team surely, the Nat’s have the best division lead in either league, a 16 game edge over the NL East’s Atlanta Braves.  .  . THE NL WEST’S 66-93 Colorado Rockies have underscored the phrase, “Never Say Never.” After numerous losing streaks and at the bottom of the NL West, the Rockies have moved upward, winning game after game this month, now at fourth instead of last place within the team’s division. Though too late in the season to finish at .500 and also narrow an away-from-home 21-57 win-loss gap considerably, the Rockies can boast of a fine at-home record, 45-36, second best in the NL West, also just three at-home wins behind the NL East’s first place Nat’s.  .  .  THE DEREK JETER GOODBYE has been a New York extravaganza, an “eastern seaboard matter.” Big media is “east” and from its vantage point NYY shortstop Jeter is today’s All America Star. Yet American baseball’s central and western markets have never hooped and hollered over and for Jeter, in that the central and western portions of the nation have had their own heroes, some of whom if Yankees would have been media-hyped names from the east to L.A. and Seattle, example, the Colorado Rockies now retired 1B, Todd Helton. But Derek Jeter has been a highly above-the-margin ballplayer, deserving the praise that he’s been given. Okay, cynics, Jeter hasn’t offered accomplishments the likes of those delivered by Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Pete Rose, Hank Aaron, instead Jeter’s been an all tools master, for which those baseball giants were not as highly regarded. Jeter is Hall of Fame headed from versatility and expertise “across the board of baseball skills,” landing him a reputation as fielder as well as hitter, as “Clutch King” when it mattered most, e.g., his walk-off single in the ninth inning of his last career game, pulling the Yankees ahead of the Orioles, 6-5. Moreover, Jeter has had more hits than any other ballplayer since the players strike of the mid-1990’s, and these hits have been across the spectrum of type singles, doubles, triples, HR’s, and then there have been those leaps above and the slides across the ground as baseball’s number one shortstop, plus what ought to be a best in the modern era award for a ballplayer handling fame and fortune consistently with grace and respect . . . NBA QUESTIONS are coming into focus as NBA 2014/15 regulation approaches. What we think about: Will the LeBron return to Cleveland yield a playoff slot for the Cav’s? Can the San Antonio Spurs repeat? Will it be proven that the Heat’s success was always more about James than about his partners in the “tres amigos” scheme? Can the Lakers prove that age and experience can outmaneuver enough of the young and finish a season better than last year and the year before? Will there ever be a Celtics team matching the Celtics greatness of the past if the strategies and tactics employed can differ positively from what has made the Celtics a lesser team? Can the Chicago Bulls enact a makeover in the same way? Will this be the year that the Thunder does it, becomes the NBA championship team? Can the Nets rise past last season’s record with their new head coach? Will the Phoenix Suns be the year’s big surprise and reach the playoffs? Will the Knicks get there, aided by a Carmelo Anthony best year and Phil Jackson helping to guide that? And, will the Nuggets prove that its spread of talent focused by HC Brian Shaw on teamwork over individualism can force the Thunder and the Trail Blazers, the Clippers, even the Spurs, to step back in the standings? Will the 2014/15 NBA season be defense over offense, of least number of at-the-post wins, the max being from those fast breaks and from above the key FG’s, from three-pointers and deep corner shots? If defense dominates, will it be from coordinated one-on-ones transitioning more speedily to zone and switching back, will it be because of the seven+.

END/ml   

NFL: BRONCOS LOSE TO SEAHAWKS; WEEK 3's RESULTS.

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: BRONCOS LOSE TO SEAHAWKS // WEEK 3’s RESULTS. . . // . . . BRONCOS, SEAHAWKS---WHAT’s that saying, “You can be defeated, but not destroyed?” Try other phrases, like those about every loss being a lesson for mind, heart and soul, that Hallmark card gush for the beaten that at first taste are most sour, making the losing side of a game want to run from a locker room and shout words that we wouldn’t repeat here. “Hey, fellas, what matters is how you play the game,” someone shouts, and the losing players think about pouring slime all over him. None of the sugary phrases can erase the immediate hurt, the confusion and the sadness of a loss that was just seconds away from a win, especially when it may have been from the other side’s luck, the upside of a coin toss. Okay, a few of those phrases can be soothing eventually, and anyway when it comes to a loss the professional team sucks it up, the NFL player starts focusing on next week’s game. If he’s lucky, he’s got Bye week and so time to reconstitute, to look at what went wrong in a game lost during OT, 26-20, when sweet revenge for a humiliating 43-8 Super Bowl defeat slipped away. It’s time, then, for hope to replace hopelessness, to send hopelessness to the garbage pit. Recap: for the Broncos and Seahawks on Sunday, regulation ended 20-20, an OT situation became last chance saloon, a Broncos opportunity to have that drink of victory, but the Broncos D could not stop a Russell Wilson-led drive that allowed the game-winning TD. So, are the Seahawks really better than the Broncos, and would another Broncos/Seahawks SB match leave the Seahawks as a reigning NFL champion? Fact: the Seahawks got slammed by the San Diego Chargers during the current NFL season’s Week Two, and on Sunday a fourth quarter Broncos offense found holes in the Seahawks D and closed a 14 point deficit in superfast time. The notion of a Seahawks impenetrable D is surely a myth, it isn’t seamless, it can be broken through, taken down; it is likely that Seahawks HC Pete Carroll will be stunned again as good offenses drive through that good D, yes, a good D but not good enough to guarantee win after win from Week Four until the post-season. The Seahawks D has its weaknesses, among them, loss of stamina after a third Q, a pass rush unit that lacks consistency for the sack or other pass disruption means, more speed than skill for stopping the long, high and at an angle pass. Too bad for Denver, however, that QB Peyton Manning hadn’t a full reading of the Seahawks D weaknesses until Sunday’s fourth Q. And, let’s not forget what’s on the board now, even after Sunday’s Seahawks win: the Broncos and Seahawks are now neck-and-neck, both 2-1. The Seahawks, like the Broncos, are behind three other franchises, but within the AC the Broncos are behind only one franchise, and within the NC the Seahawks have to climb over two franchises, the 3-0 Cardinals and the 3-0 Eagles, these two teams being a lot harder for the Seahawks to beat than for the Broncos to beat the 3-0 Bengals. In addition, and a negative for the Seahawks, is that the still unbeatable Cardinals are in the same division as the Seahawks. Moreover, the Broncos are still in first place of the AC West, the Seahawks being second behind the Cardinals. And, let’s look closely at the stats from Sunday’s Broncos/Seahawks match, starting with the fact that the Broncos attacked for 20 first downs against the Seahawks D, which averages out to five first downs per Q, thus 50 yards forward per Q from say, starting at one’s 20 yard line, enough in each Q for end zone occupancy and a TD pass. Of course, this did not happen “on average” on Sunday regarding steady accumulation of Broncos TD opportunities, but it reflects a strong and effective Broncos assault versus a D that’s been hyped as being seamless. Too, the Broncos gross passing yards exceeded those of the Seahawks, 303 over 275, net passing yards 298 over the Seahawks 255, and QB Manning had more pass completions than counterpart Russell had, 31 against Russell’s 25. As to Russell’s performance, credit has to go to the Broncos D for keeping Russell from more pass completions, forcing him to enact a rushing game, though this backfired for eh Broncos, in that the Seahawks surely dominated the rushing category on Sunday with more than 120 yards gained from rushing vs. the Broncos less than 50, + 3.5 Seahawks yards gained per rush vs. the Broncos less than 2.0 per. Regarding special praise, that has to go to a Broncos fourth Q sack of Wilson at the one yard line and to that pivotal moment when the Broncos D intercepted a Wilson throw and got the football back to the Broncos offense at the Seahawks 19 yard line. We then saw what a Broncos offense can do when opportunity and pressure come together for it---a Manning pass to TE Julius Thomas for a TD, to WR Emmanuel Sanders for a 42 yard go for another fourth Q TD, to TE Jacob Tamme for a 26 yard TD pass, to WR Demaryius Thomas taking a high throw for a 20-20 end of reg. score. What, then, were the Broncos weaknesses vs. the Seahawks that must not be repeated if the Broncos are to be 2014 conference champions and SB-slotted, maybe vs. a SB-slotted Seahawks again? In Sunday’s second half, the Broncos D kept the Seahawks from scoring, held them to a lead that could be overcome by the Broncos, which is what happened, and in the first Q the Broncos D held the Seahawks to a field goal, although in the second Q the Bronco’s D unraveled and the Wilson offense accrued two TD’s. But in that first half, the Manning-led drives were held back before any of the obtained opportunities could yield TD’s, due largely to the Seahawks pass rush and close-in receiver coverage, the Broncos not being able to execute successful rushing for additional first downs and first and goal chances. As a wrap here, what was to be the NFL’s most unstoppable offense against the NFL’s best and impenetrable defense, such turned out to be neither showing up---a coin toss may have dominated on Sunday, may have been the Seahawks real MVP, and surely the action afield before that toss had highlighted the possibility of a different outcome. . . // WEEK 3--- THREE undefeated NFL-2014 franchises existed after Sunday’s games: the NC West’s 3-0 Arizona Cardinals, NC East’s 3-0 Philadelphia Eagles and the AC North’s 3-0 Cincinnati Bengals. Behind them are 12 2-1 franchises, five from the NC---Seahawks, Cowboys, the Lions, the Falcons and the Panthers---, and seven from the AC---Broncos, Chargers, the Bills, Patriots, Ravens, Steelers, the Texans. Way back, and still at the starting gate, are the NC’s 0-3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the AC’s 0-3 Oakland Raiders and 0-3 Jacksonville Jaguars. The remaining NFL teams went to 1-2. Except for the Lions rising to first place within the NC North and the Bears stepping back into second, and the Falcons atop the Panthers for the NC South leadership slot, there’s no change in the other four NFL divisions. The Cardinals have remained number one, NC West, the Eagles same, NC East. The AC West still has the Broncos on top, the Bills leading the NC East, Bengals the AC North, Texans the AC South. END/ml

NFL: BRONCOS & SEAHAWKS ON SUNDAY; SIGNIFICANCE OF WEEK THREE // MLB: COLORADO ROCKIES, NOT WITHOUT QUALITY; AL & NL RANKINGS.

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: BRONCOS & SEAHAWKS ON SUNDAY; SIGNIFICANCE OF WEEK THREE // MLB: COLORADO ROCKIES, NOT WITHOUT QUALITY; TODAY’S AL & NL RANKINGS. . . // NFL---THE Week Three Broncos vs. Seahawks game has been hyped as a best NFL offense vs. best NFL defense match, and that could be the case but without proving whether all of a nearly impenetrable defense can always prevail against a fully developed and mostly unstoppable offense, or whether the opposite is so, an offense close to perfection always neutralizing the best possible defense. For instance, the overall Broncos Peyton-Manning-led offense has flaws but it does have subsets that could place limits on the Seahawks defense, allowing QB Manning and his WR’s, a Broncos tight end and an RB to secure numerous first downs and multiple TD’s. Signaled here is the Broncos pass protection unit and the deep and close-in defense-within-offense capacity for tackles and blocks deliberately freeing WR’s Emmanuelle Sanders, Demaryius Thomas, Julius Thomas, J. Tamme and RB Monte Ball for the Manning throw or hand-off. This is “capitalization of talent inside squads within the larger platoon,” it’s not trying to stop a powerful defense by just speed and physical strength vs. physical strength of a full line, instead it’s winning from smarts, a QB and his favored few, i.e., two receivers, a TE and a rusher being canny in exceptional ways. As for the much improved but still proven to be vulnerable Broncos D, capitalizing on speed and strength re. the few also makes sense, and that means extra effort over what has been seen this year of the D’s pass rush, that is, Von Miller can do better. And, Seahawks QB Wilson keeps hoping to match or exceed successful passing yards gained by Manning whenever the two will compete, which an effective pass rush can destabilize and force Russell to initiate a ground maneuver, which happens to be the easier tactic for the Broncos D to prevent the Seahawks from gaining first downs. But if QB Wilson can execute that long pass, the Broncos D will need the more intuitive, “eyes literally on the ball and faster cornerback execution.” Watching the Broncos D in third and fourth periods of their Week One and Week Two games, one may have wondered if the Broncos D coordinator, Jack Del Rio, and also Broncos head coach, John Fox, have placed limits on the D being improvisational during critical second half situations, therefore preventing the D from adjusting to an opposing offense’s second half readings of how the Broncos D has been functioning, or if the opposite has been in play, thus the Broncos D improvising too freely in the wrong way at the wrong time. Somewhere in the middle of this could be the arrow pointing to where the Broncos need to go to improve even more over last year’s D. Maybe it will show up against the Seahawks on Sunday. Conservative thinking says it won’t appear with any consistency, underscoring that the Broncos/Seahawks face-off will be quite close, neither franchise ever having more than a seven point lead, either ahead at game’s end by three, maybe seven . . . NFL WEEK THREE isn’t pivotal in the truest sense, but it has its implications. If an NFL franchise ends Week Three at 0-3, or has upgraded from 0-2 to 1-2 or from 1-1 to 1-2 by the end of Week Two, surely when one-fourth of the season is over none will be ahead of the curve toward a winning record. In this regard, Week Three is crucial, and so seven winless teams and the 18 that are 1-1 are most eager for victory on Sunday, not to fall as the now 0-3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers did last night to the currently 2-1 Atlanta Falcons, score: 56-14. Ahead of the curve thus far, that is, at 2-0, are the Denver Broncos, the Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Arizona Cardinals, Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans, the Carolina Panthers. No two of these seven 2-0 franchises are from the same division, and the challenges that the seven will face during Week Three can cause negative changes to their status. The Broncos will be facing the 1-1 Seahawks on Sunday, a team that whipped them mercilessly during the last Super Bowl. The Seahawk’s defense has ranked higher than that of the Broncos, and the Seahawks Russell Wilson-led offense is enough of a match for the Broncos Peyton Manning-led offense. The Bills will be challenged by the 1-1 San Diego Chargers, a team that defeated the Seahawks last week, and the Bengals could find it hard to defeat the 1-1 Tennessee Titans, a team that in Weeks One and Two weren’t asleep against the now 0-2 K.C. Chiefs and the 1-1 Dallas Cowboys, and the Cardinals could lose to the 1-1 S.F. 49ers, a team far from having been highly vulnerable in Weeks One and Two vs. the Cowboys and the 1-1 Chicago Bears, and the Eagles could be pressed to ground by the 1-1 Washington Redskins, a franchise that humiliated the Jaguars during Week Two, and the Texans probably won’t fall to the 0-2 Giants but it won’t be easy for them to maintain, meanwhile the Panthers won’t be gathering high double-digits vs. the 1-1 Pittsburgh Steelers. In other words, these seven 2-0 teams won’t be victorious with ease during Week Three. . . // . . MLB/COLORADO ROCKIES---IT’s Tuesday night, September 16, 2014, fifth inning at Coors Field, the then 59-90 Colorado Rockies are ahead of the 85-64 Los Angeles Dodgers, score 5-0, so you ask how come the Rockies own next to last place in both leagues, why are they last in the NL, why are they occupying the NL West basement from 26 games behind first place team, the Dodgers, a team that’s leading the NL and that’s third re. both leagues? As the ninth inning closes, the score will be 10-2, and the next day the Rockies will deliver another blow to the Dodgers, 16-2. But with nine competitions to go now before the Rockies 2014 season ends, the best that one can say about them with regard to final standings is that the Colorado ball club may not lose 100 games; furthermore, the team could finish the month of September close to .500. Yet there are high points, there is another part to the Rockies MLB-2014 story---there are reasons for praise. For example, of the Rockies 62 wins since April 5, 2014, more than 20 have been against teams now in first or second place within their respective divisions, seven vs. the Dodgers. Of the team’s 19 scheduled 2014 games vs. NL West second place club, the S.F. Giants, the Rockies have won 10. On Tuesday, the Rockies became first in the NL and second behind the AL Central’s Detroit Tigers as a team finishing the most games with 10 or more hits, 69, the Tigers ahead with 70. Too, the Rockies hold today’s record of having the most home runs in the NL, 170 as of two days ago, leading the NL’s three division leading clubs, the Dodgers, the 84-68 St. Louis Cardinals and the 88-64 Washington Nationals, each of fewer than 150 HR’s. And, Rockies 1B Justin Morneau is a contender for finishing the current season as the NL’s best batting average holder, on Tuesday .317. Team BA? It’s above-the-margin, 286. Also, the Rockies are among the 18 of 30 MLB teams that have a better than .500 average when it comes to home games, 39-35. So, what has anchored the Rockies to the bottom? In addition to being held back by injuries to top players IF Troy Tulowitzki, and OF’s Carlos Gonzalez and Michael Cuddyer, one cannot look away from the dampening and holdback ERA’s of the Rockies rotation and bull pen, surely an invite to baseball’s lowest levels, though this week’s performances by Rockies LHP Tyler Matzek and by LHP Yolan Flande vs. the Dodgers are an encouraging contradiction to the Rockies overall uninspiring moundwork . . . MLB RANKINGS---THE NL East’s 88-64 Washington Nationals, AL West’s 95-57 L.A. Angels and the AL East’s 92-60 Baltimore Orioles own their divisions and will be kings of the hill when playoffs commence, each is now atop second place clubs by more than 10 wins. Least secure among division leading clubs are the AL Central’s 84-68 Detroit Tigers, just one win over the K.C. Royals, and the NL West’s 87-66 L.A. Dodgers are only two wins above the S.F. Giants, while the NL Central’s 84-68 St. Louis Cardinals are two atop the Pittsburgh Pirates. Races for second place season finishes are tighter. Possible are several exchanges between second and third, in that the NL Central’s 79-73 Milwaukee Brewers are only three wins behind the Pirates, the NL East’s 74-78 Miami Marlins just two back of the Atlanta Braves, the AL East’s 77-75 Toronto Blue Jays one back of the N.Y. Yankees. The clubs that could finish the 2014 regular season with 100 or more wins are the Angels and the Orioles, today the only MLB franchises with more than 90 wins, the Angels 95-57 record being best re. both leagues. END/ml

NFL: STANDINGS, WEEK TWO; BRONCOS DEFEAT CHIEFS, SEAHAWKS LOSE TO CHARGERS // MLB: INTO THE WOODS, THEY GO--POST-SEASON PICKS

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: STANDINGS, WEEK 2; BRONCOS DEFEAT CHIEFS, SEAHAWKS LOSE TO CHARGERS // MLB: INTO THE WOODS THEY GO--POST-SEASON PICKS Picks. . . //. . NFL---WEEK Two of NFL-2014 saw eight teams rise to 2-0, and seven drop to 0-2, the remaining NFL franchises landing at 1-1. That’s eight teams highly motivated now to keep a lead from where a Super Bowl appearance sits on a visible horizon, while seven are behind a curve from where the land of nowhere is seen from behind a gate that the leading eight and 17 other franchises left behind. Not surprising relative to performance-rankings of recent seasons, and/or re. this year’s scouting reports, are the Broncos, Bengals and the Eagles approaching Week Three at 2-0, and surprising is that the Bills, Cardinals, Texans and Panthers are 2-0. Not a surprise at the 0-2 end of the spectrum are the Jaguars, the Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while unexpected at the bottom are the Giants, the Saints and the Chiefs, anyway this early in the season. As to surprises within the broad middle, that is, among teams expected to be leading the pack at 2-0, are the now 1-1 Patriots being last in the AC East, and the 1-1 Packers being at the bottom of the NC North, and the NC West’s 1-1 S.F. 49ers being second behind the Cardinals. But Week Two is mostly initial scrambling, all teams rushing to leave the grid behind, with the weeks ahead playing that merciless role of unexpected lunges forward, sudden setbacks in the standings and some fast elimination from any hope of finishing a season as a winning team. Where could we say hope lifted high and mighty during Week Two, and then got sucked back into football reality? How about that Redskins routing of the Jaguars on Sunday---41-10, yet Redskins QB Robert Griffin III buying a sprained ankle. The Redskins are 1-1 today. . . BRONCOS, SEAHAWKS---THE Broncos are one up over the Seahawks, facing NFL-2014 Week Three at 2-0, having won games against the Colts and the Chiefs, while the Seahawks are at 1-0, having lost to the Chargers on Sunday, 30-21. The Broncos and Seahawks will soon face each other, which could indicate how the one may prevail over the other during a repeat SB. But---there are different races that each must compete within, their respective division and conference match-ups. Of the three AC West teams that the Broncos have to contend with to maintain division leadership, one of them, the Chargers, well, the Chargers took down the Seahawks that at the last SB took down the Broncos, and there are this season’s AC West Chiefs, which almost took apart the Broncos on Sunday, a game that the Broncos commandeered but without ease, no different than the team’s difficult win versus the Colts during Week One. Although at 2-0, and at the top of the AC West, “INVINCIBILITY, thy name is NOT Broncos!” There are troubling aspects that the Broncos will have to overcome if they are to once again ride across a regular season triumphantly and dominate playoffs for the ACLC and for another go at the SB. Yes, it’s a better Broncos defense than seen in past seasons, but it has been softening and fading when up against second half challenges. Fortunately for the Broncos, its defense gained a second wind and a return to high-end skill and tenacity in the last moment of Sunday’s game vs. the Chiefs, when a Chiefs TD looked imminent and with a two-point conversion could have placed the Broncos at 1-1 from what would have been a 25-24 Broncos loss. However, signaled by the 24-17 Broncos win over the Chiefs, and the Broncos win against the Colts in the previous week, is that a defense that can win games is, from kick-off to final, consistently intuitive with eyes on everything afield that could change in seconds, plus having the speed, flexibility and strength for getting between receivers and a football no matter the situation---the Broncos are a good defense but nowhere near being that impenetrable defense, yet! which compounds difficulty for the Broncos offense, in that it must offset the weaknesses in the Broncos D, that is, it must score three or more TD’s preferably in the first half and it has to be more adept in a second half for confusing an opposing defense that by a third period can have good readings on the Broncos offense capabilities, especially the by then more readable pass protection and receiver crossover attempts. During the vs. Chiefs game on Sunday, the Broncos third period offense seemed to have lost ability to deceive and escape the Chiefs hurried-up coverage. While the Peyton Manning-led Broncos offense scored 14 and 7 points in the first two periods against the Chiefs, the Broncos offense was zero in the third Q and they had but a field goal in the fourth. Endgame showed Manning with fewer completed throws than accrued by counterpart QB, Alex Smith, and some inefficiency in the Broncos defense was reflected in the Chiefs QB having been able to launch 42 passes, more than 50 percent of them completions, helped by Broncos pass rush failures during the second and fourth periods, though across the four periods the Broncos pass rush was usually above the margin of effectiveness. On the upside for the Broncos, receivers Emmanuelle Sanders, Demaryius Thomas, Julius Thomas, TE Jacob Tamme and RB Monte Ball received Manning’s football in near-perfect ways, which led to the Broncos three TD’s . . . THE Seahawks were not as lucky as the Broncos on Sunday, the team’s 30-21 loss due to Chargers QB Philip Rivers throwing for 284 yards over Seahawks Russell Wilson’s 202, a result of that the unexpected three TD catches by Chargers TE Antonio Gates, and points from a field goal in the first Q and another FG in the fourth, bookending the 17 points that the Chargers drove and passed for during the second Q and the seven gained by the Chargers in the third Q, an overall take being that the Seahawks D may not be what it was during NFL-2013. . . // . . MLB---IT seems from number of accrued wins only that today an AL sendoff to the WS would be an L.A. Angels/Baltimore Orioles series, with the currently 93-56 Angels defeating the 89-60 Orioles. The Angels 10 game lead over AL West second place club, the 83-66 Oakland A’s, and the Orioles 11 game edge forward of AL East’s 77-71 Toronto Blue Jays implies this strongly, but then post-season games constitute a new slate---therefore, we could see the now 83-66 A’s, the AL Central’s 83-66 Detroit Tigers or the AL Central’s 81-67 K.C. Royals, or the 77-71 Blue Jays, as LC contenders. Within the NL, today’s number of wins suggest an LC series competing the NL East’s 10 game leading club, the 85-63 Washington Nationals, battling the NL West’s 85-64 L.A. Dodgers or the NL West’s 82-67 S.F. Giants, or versus the NL Central’s 83-67 St. Louis Cardinals or the NL Central’s 79-70 Pittsburgh Pirates, today’s win-numbers reflecting a Nationals/Angels WS and the Angels sending the Nat’s back to D.C., heads bowed---however, while numbers can say a lot, there’s much more than numbers when it comes to which team will win an LC series and a four out of seven WS. END/ml

MLB; "THE RANKINGS AT SUNSET" // NFL: WEEK TWO: BRONCOS & CHIEFS; Excerpt from "SPORTS & THE HEROIC"

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 . . . MLB: “THE RANKINGS AT SUNSET” // NFL: WEEK TWO: “BRONCOS & CHIEFS”// EXCERPT FROM “SPORTS & THE HEROIC.”. . . MLB---BASEBALL fans in L.A. and Baltimore are surely smiling, for the AL West’s 91-55 Angels and the AL East’s 86-59 Orioles own 10-game leads today over their respective division second place clubs, the Oakland A’s and the Toronto Blue Jays. Meanwhile, fans at Denver and all over Texas are probably feeling torched from the NL West’s 59-87 Rockies and AL West’s 54-92 Rangers occupying the two last place positions within the majors. The Rockies are 24 games behind NL West first place team, the 83-63 L.A. Dodgers, the Rangers 37 behind division first place club, the Angels. Likely, then, with fewer than 20 games left in the regular MLB season for the 30 MLB teams, is an Angels/Orioles face-off for grabbing an AL-LC series berth, and that the Rockies and Rangers won’t be finishing the season at or above .500, they will land where usually seen are the now 64-82 Chicago Cubs (NL Central) and the 65-81 Houston Astros (AL West). The Angels and the Orioles are also the two top teams in the majors now, and atop the NL are the NL East’s 83-62 Washington Nationals tied with the Dodgers, the Nationals being ahead from one less loss. Sandwiched between the top and bottom in the majors, however, are leading teams that could be unseated quickly as the season closes. While the Nat’s have a secure eight-game lead over the NL East’s second place team, the 75-71 Atlanta Braves, the Dodgers are leading the 81-65 S.F. Giants by only two wins, and the NL Central’s 80-67 St. Louis Cardinals sit above the Pittsburgh Pirates by just two, the AL Central’s 80-65 K.C. Royals over the Detroit Tigers by one. Encouraging in all this for the second place clubs is that only two of the six third position clubs have a chance to move up as replacements, the NL Central’s 76-71 Milwaukee Brewers and the AL Central’s 76-69 Cleveland Indians being but four wins behind second place. The four other division third place teams---the NL West’s S.D. Padres, NL East’s Miami Marlins, the AL West’s Seattle Mariners and the AL East’s N.Y. Yankees---are 10 and more games behind respectively. Were numbers alone the driver of which teams would comprise the WS today, it’d be the Angels vs. the Nat’s. . . //. . NFL---IF this Sunday the 1-0 Denver Broncos defense can perform across four periods as effectively as it had during the first half of last week’s Broncos/Colts game, and the Broncos QB Peyton Manning-led offense can repeat in the same manner, the 0-1 K.C. Chiefs won’t be assaulting much in ways that are meaningful for points on the board. It could be an embarrassing zero for the Chiefs by the third period. Yet the Chiefs QB, Al Smith, can read a defense certainly by that period and could engineer a series of TD breakthroughs but only if the Broncos defense softens and slows down in a second half as it had vs. the Colts last Sunday, although, like the Colts, the Chiefs will achieve from this a “respectable loss.” From what was seen during Week One, the Chiefs defense won’t be keeping the Broncos offense in a freeze at any time, not in counter-penetration plays that the Broncos couldn’t escape from, and likely is a Broncos defense operating from lessons learned from last week’s vs. Colts game. Against the Tennessee Titans last Sunday, the Chiefs wimped due largely to a defense that couldn’t get close enough to the Titan’s offense that included effective receiver protection and swift receiver positioning for the catch. Our take, the Broncos will polish the Chiefs off by 17 or more. . . // . . “SPORTS & THE HEROIC,” an excerpt from this book that pertains to the recent NFL mishap, the Rice saga (paraphrased:)---“. . . Professional athletes have been accused of murder, have cheated on and abused their wives and kids, cold-cocked a nagging drunk at the bar and have been that nagging drunk at the bar . . . they have ingested PED’s, meth and heroin, paid large for hookers while depriving their families of basic needs, taken bribes, lied to their owners and to their coaches, lied to their teammates and to the public. . . Add all this up and you’ll see the same dark side of many other professions . . . but in professional sports, these actions exact a heavy toll because the good society maintains when professional athletes, like elected officials, are held to high standards of behavior.” Yes, it can be hard for some professional athletes and their counterparts in other professions to “walk the line,” and those that fail should accept the consequences of their acts and be exiled from their sport, which shouldn’t cancel out an NFL-led opportunity for the perpetrator to reconstruct providing that sincerity for such lies within the perpetrator. According to Baltimore Ravens head coach, John Harbaugh, and Rice’s Ravens teammates, Ray Rice should NOT be forgiven for what he had done to his then fiancé, now wife, but, they have argued that Rice is also salvageable, probably in need of behavioral adjustment-treatment supervised by professionals. So, too, is NFL leadership re. its responsibility toward the unconscionable Rice act “salvageable,” and such ought to begin with “NFL zero tolerance” of any physical abuse, whether against girl-friend, wife, a child---the perpetrator should be exiled from the NFL for life, but without any taking away of his opportunity to enter rehab or accept another form of help, say, from a psychologist or from a neurologist, or via all three methods if such is a requirement that’s been determined via thorough examination(s). . . Marvin Leibstone’s non-fiction book, SPORTS & THE HEROIC, is available by order from Barnes & Noble and through Amazon. END/ml

NFL: BRONCOS DEFEAT OF THE COLTS // THE RAY RICE EPISODE

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: BRONCOS DEFEAT OF THE COLTS // THE RAY RICE EPISODE . . . IT was a near-perfect series of attacks with increasing momentum, that first half during which the Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos offense put 24 points on the board over the Indianapolis Colts seven. At the end of the first period of that initial NFL-2014 regular season game for both teams, the Colts were zip, zero, Nada! The Broncos reconstructed defense looked like the punch that QB Manning needed last February at the Super Bowl, when the Seattle Seahawks gave their best lesson in NFL defense strategy and sent the Broncos packing. But in the second half of Sunday’s match, against a reinvigorated and smarter Andrew Luck-directed Colts offense the revised Broncos D was no longer seamless: QB Luck’s passes and improvised rushes raised the Colts numbers dramatically, still behind the Broncos at endgame, 31-24. In the game’s second half, the Broncos couldn’t surpass seven points, while the Colts put up 17. Humiliation denied, the Colts demonstrated to Broncos HC John Fox and QB Manning that linked to the team’s new defense strengths are vulnerabilities that could keep the Broncos from another conference championship and from a 2014/15 SB appearance, and surely a lesson for QB Manning was that his offense isn’t to where it could always offset weaknesses in a Broncos defense and win easily against an opposing team’s double-digit scoring. But---a win is a win, and the Broncos are 1-0 and second in the NFL as they head into Week Two to face the K.C. Chiefs on Sunday, then the Seahawks on September 21. If the Colts learned anything Sunday night, it had to be about its defense being unable to read an opposing offense quickly enough for handing that football to its offense early on, and on Sunday the Colts offense needed to seek a first down more conservatively, incrementally instead of via the extraordinary distance-grab via passing and the long run, this to achieve some game control and own more time to read an opposing defense correctly for red zone occupation. As for the Broncos second half, the big question is why the sudden lapse in quality of the D? One answer is QB Luck advantaging what he learned during the first and second quarters about the Broncos pass rush tactics and the Broncos deep and wide field coverage, notably cornerbacks spoiling crossover attempts for the Luck pass. Figuring out where the holes for a breakthrough will be is key to offense success, and that seems to be what Luck had going for him in the second half---in this context, Luck became Peyton Manning. And probably contributing to the Broncos defense losing seamlessness were downward spirals in speed and within the intuitiveness that puts defenders between a football and chosen receivers. By endgame, the Colts had accrued as many first downs as the Broncos—24. Luck passed for 370 yards and two TD’s, Manning for 269 but for three TD’s . . . RICE EPISODE---TAKE morality out of a sport and there’s sudden suspicion that what’s been good will unravel, that from around the corner will be rot and stink. Abuse of a child, wife or girl friend are behaviors that no sports team, no league commissioner, should ever tolerate. Yes, the perpetrator of such conduct may need therapy, rehab, he may deserve a second chance at some later point in his life, but for the moment the football player, Ray Rice, is the dog with rabies that cannot be allowed in the village. Unfortunately, there isn’t an honor code in the NFL that encourages a wrongdoer to ‘fess up and resign from his job. That the NFL has dumped Rice after release of a video showing him beating up his fiancé is appropriate and should be the standard NFL response whenever a member is discovered to have abused another person unlawfully. But accusations of the Rice firing taking too long, of some tolerance of Rice’s violent action lasting for many months, of a mere two game suspension, such is cause for alarm and certainly needs looking into and fixing. END/ml.

NFL: PACKERS LOSE TO SEAHAWKS; BRONCOS & COLTS ON SUNDAY; THE NFL'S UGLY SIDE // MLB: CURRENT STANDINGS

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: PACKERS LOSE TO SEAHAWKS; WILL THE BRONCOS DFEEAT THE COLTS?// THE LEAGUE’S UGLY SIDE, CAN IT GO AWAY? MLB: CURRENT STANDINGS . . . LAST night, the Green Bay Packers had the distinction of scoring NFL-2014’s first touchdown, but soon after came a Seahawks demonstration of overmatch as the Seattle franchise and last season’s SB winner constructed a 36-16 victory against an actually improved QB Aaron Rogers-led offense. The Seahawks defense shut down the Packer’s perceived drive opportunities via blocks, tackles, ball stops at wide angles and during crossovers, and from pass rushing that could remain unequaled throughout the season. And, the Packers defense, far from being slow and wimpy, just couldn’t spoil the Russell Wilson/WR Percy Harvin and RB Marshawn Lynch connectivity, each rushing for more that 100 yards, nor could the Packers come close to interfering with Wilson’s second period 33 yard throw to WR Ricardo Lockette for a TD rush that began the Seahawks substantial lead. While defense seems to dominate the Seahawks skills-power equation, the Wilson-led offense isn’t by any means little brother carried by the big. QB Wilson’s offense drove forward from 25 first downs, compared with the Packers 19, accruing 398 total net yards vs. the Packers 255. Next up for the Seahawks, the S.D. Chargers on Sep. 14, and the Denver Broncos, Sep. 21. The Packers will face the N.Y. Jets Sep. 14, the Detroit Lions Sep. 21. . . BRONCOS VS. COLTS---IF Broncos QB Peyton Manning still has thoughts about the Indianapolis Colts letting him go two years back, the thoughts are 500 miles behind Manning’s primary motive for beating the Colts come this Sunday, which links across 17 weeks and 16 games to February’s Super Bowl, for which the Broncos must obtain a 2014 win/loss record that’s as good as, if not better than last year’s. Of course, winning an opener matters, it spells “winning team,” something to hold onto instead of to reach for, an edge if not a giant leap forward. Yet adversity never goes on holiday---Manning’s Broncos have lost star WR, Wes Welker and top kicker, Matt Prater, to suspensions, and so from first possession forward on Sunday the Broncos offense will need to quickly break away from the tense awkwardness that can result when a QB and replacements are teamed beyond practice hours and pre-season games. This could be a first period downside for the Broncos unless pass protection is such that Manning can obtain “early” the time and space needed to adjust to new receivers and to the options they can provide. This said, Broncos replacement WR, Emmanuelle Sanders, has shown that he has the speed and catch skills for the Manning drive via the pass, and RB Montee Ball has already been a Manning go-to guy for the rush and breaking through walls. With that freedom for Manning in the pocket, sufficient receiver and RB speed and their obedience to the receiver-crossovers + catch-positioning, and/or rushes, that Manning prefers, a second period could end with the Broncos ahead by seven, providing that the Broncos defense lives up to the improvements shown in training and during the pre-season “with consistency,” especially from a pass rush unit, read: Von Miller. However, for the Broncos the D has to be in hard and accurate play consistently, in that Colts QB Andrew Luck has the skills and speed for passing and rush TD’s almost comparable with that of Manning but he hasn’t had the offense’s line defense, nor the close-in pass protection, nor the deep and wide angle receiver connectivity, that could complement his skills/speed value, which the Broncos defense will surely attempt to exploit on Sunday. A likely take, Broncos winning by as many as 17, largely from a Broncos defense getting that ball back to Manning more than the Colts D can provide that for Luck. . . the UGLY---EXAMINE any American institution, not just sports but also local and national politics, law enforcement, big business, the entertainment industry, education, and you’ll find corruption of the ideal, behaviors considered immoral by the general population. Capturing headlines recently inside the NFL are behaviors that seem to re-occur---drug abuse, and off-the field violence. How to look at this, and figure out what to do to reduce, if not eliminate the behaviors? Well, the process shouldn’t be easy, that is, it shouldn’t be a rush to judgment, especially when an act is short of obvious venality. Yes, the NFL has an advantage; it is not fully a democracy and can impose stiff fines and game suspensions at will, that is, without a trial, but there is no NFL rule saying that a franchise owner must order the perpetrator of, say, drug and alcohol abuse, or of assault and battery, into therapy of one kind or another along with a ruling that requires statements of “perceived proof of correction post-rehab, or repeated rehab must be enacted,” which could never be full guarantee of correction but as close to that as could be delivered after, say, a 12-step rehab along the lines of AA, or from whatever the most reliable rehab procedurals of the hour happen to be, whether psychological, spiritual or intellectual. In other words, serious and not sham rehab, not that of the Hollywood genre. It usually takes the best moral strategy available, even if that strategy is flawed some, to put the moral back into any person and into his game. . . MLB---EXCEPT for the NL East’s Washington Nationals and the AL East’s Baltimore Orioles, no other MLB Division first place franchise has a commanding lead for being where they are in the standings last day of the current MLB season. The NL West’s first place 78-62 L.A. Dodgers can feel the 76-64 S.F. Giants right behind, and the NL Central’s 77-63 St. Louis Cardinals are just four wins ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers. In the AL, the 84-55 L.A. Angels are but four wins above the Oakland A’s, and the 77-61 K.C. Royals are only one win up on the Detroit Tigers. When July ended, the Brewers were ahead of the Cardinals, the Nationals had only a one win advantage over the Atlanta Braves, the A’s were two above the Angels and the Tigers were five above the Royals, so in less than 10 days time, and with around 20 games left for most MLB clubs, a lot can happen to alter the rankings. But what hasn’t changed has been the bottom of the pile. The same last place teams of the six MLB divisions haven’t budged sine July except to accrue more losses, the NL West’s Colorado Rockies falling from 61 losses on July 28 to 84 as of today, the AL West’s Texas Rangers from 64 to 87. . . . Leading both leagues today are the Angels, 84 wins, next the Orioles, 82 wins. Best within the NL are the Nat’s, 79 wins. END/ml

NFL: THE BRONCOS & SEAHAWKS, THEIR RACE TO THE FINISH LINE // YES, WE'RE SERIOUS, "THE RETURN OF ROLLER DERBY."

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: THE BRONCOS & SEAHAWKS, THEIR RACE TO THE FINISH LINE // YES, WE’RE SERIOUS, “THE RETURN OF ROLLER DERBY!” . . . NFL---FORGET the NFL pre-season, it was disconnects from a true ranking of the league’s 32 teams. All 32 were behind starting gates, the result entertainment and a trimming of the roster trees. The real thing kicks in on Thursday night, Seahawks versus the Packers. The lion’s share of NFL franchises will follow with games on Sunday, and Monday night will include a Chargers/Cardinals match. On Sunday, the Denver Broncos, last season’s AFC championship team that lost to the Seahawk’s at February’s Super Bowl, will be challenged by the Indianapolis Colts. Presently, and as written and spoken of, pundits have the Broncos and Seahawks returning to the 2014/15 Super Bowl from records similar to those that the two teams achieved last year, and pundits have argued that the Colts and the Packers could be teams getting in their way. Will this week’s outcomes begin to underscore this prediction that is being tagged as conventional wisdom? The upside for the Broncos leans in that direction, though no team that has lost a Super Bowl has returned the following year to win it since the Dolphins pulled it off in 1977 (Yikes! 37 years ago). From 2011 on, this team has, under head coach, John Fox, finished a regular season nicely above .500---eight, 13 and 13. Fox’s 107/85 win/loss record is impressive enough to suggest his steerage of the Broncos to another conference championship and a Super Bowl berth. Broncos QB Peyton Manning, well, he’s Peyton Manning, 2013’s MVP (fifth time for this), largely from his 55 touchdown passes. If there’s an offense downside, it’s slight. WR Eric Decker has gone to the N.Y. Jets and his highly regarded replacement, Emmanuel Sanders, will be for regular season plays regarding the QB-receiver links that Manning prefers, that fast spreading outward of multiple receiver options and sudden turns inward for line-of-sight throws, the effective “redirect.” But the possible uneasiness and awkwardness that can exist in a first time NFL regular season dual effort can be offset easily by seasoned Broncos receiver, Demaryius Thomas, and tight end, Julius Thomas. The same came be said for new Broncos WR, Cody Latimer, and re. Montee Ball replacing RB Knowshon Moreno. Ball will be relied upon greatly for those TD rushes from within the red zone. Of course, much will ride on the already demonstrated competence shown by the Broncos pass protection unit, key to Manning’s success when the Broncos are up against a franchise that can boast of owning the NFL’s more dynamic pass rush (read: Seahawks). As for the Broncos defense, on paper it’s much improved with regard to speed of thrust and fast readings of opposition tactics. Credit is expected to go to Von Miller once more re. the pass rush, and will likely be matched re. number of sacks by free agent from the Cowboys, the experienced D.E. DeMarcus Ware. In training, the Broncos defense line has seemed closer to seamlessness and power than in the past three years. . . On Sunday, the Broncos will begin their season vs. a Colts team led again by HC, Chuck Pagano, and QB, Andrew Luck, who pulled the Colts back from a pathetic 2/14 finish for year 2011 (the season that QB Peyton Manning was unable to QB the Colts due to a neck injury). Subsequent finishes were 11/5 (2012) and 11/5 (2013). Presently, Luck holds the record for more yards completed by a QB in his first two years as an NFL QB, yet was sacked more than 70 times during 2013 (Not entirely Luck’s fault, the Colts offense has needed faster and stronger pass protection). Meanwhile, Colts receivers Reggie Wayne, T.Y. Hilton and Hakeem Nicks, and TE, Dwayne Allen, are above the margin and can enact the right timing and positioning for the Luck throw, as can Colt’s RB Trent Richardson for the short pass and handoff. Regarding defense, last season the Colts D was ranked back end, 26th, a standing difficult to climb up from significantly in a single year, but like the Broncos the Colts used the off-season to beef up the D, less so with new personnel and more from reliance on top pass rusher, Robert Mathis, and cornerback, Vontae Davis. A safe bet is that the Broncos will overtake the Colts from the more canny QB Manning enacting economy of drives into the red zone and an offensive line freeing an RB (M. Ball?) for the TD rush. . . SEAHAWKS & PACKERS--- MOST military commanders will tell you that a very good offense can defeat the very good defense because the good offense initiates the battle with mobility and can sustain that initiative from having decoded the defense, knowing its vulnerabilities. The very good defense has to steal that initiative and convert to the offense quickly, if it is to win the battle. Football is similar, and the Seahawks were that very good defense at last February’s Super Bowl when it defeated the not up to its best Broncos, also having the good fortune to have an offense versus a less good Broncos defense. In fact, the Seahawks led primarily from the D throughout the 2013 season, and rarely failed having a very good offense, led afield by QB Russell Wilson, supported by the more than competent receiver, Percy Harvin. But the best defense is eventually de-coded, though it may take a few seasons for this to happen, and more if you can’t tell if the defense is playbook dominant, that is, if it is an almost by the numbers exercise, or if it is mostly improvisational under few but proper guidelines. Right now, the Broncos and other teams know some of the code, it’s how the code is configured for action that confuses---you only have to observe Seahawks cornerback, Richard Sherman, to get it that there’s mystery to the Seahawks defense (How’d he know to get there?”), but there’s a full season of watching the Seahawks. Nor have the Packers broken the Seahawks defense code, the Packers are anyway for the offense-dominant game as long as they can read a defense well enough for a passing-dominant offense to occur enough times to add points on the board, which Packers QB Aaron Rodgers can pull off most weeks with fast and skilled receivers like Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb, Rodgers hoping this year to outsmart defense-dominant teams like the Seahawks with unexpected receiver routes and wide angle passing, also via better pass protection and increased post-flip speed, distrusting the rush when up against a defense such as that of the Seahawks. If the Seahawks defense is comparable to that of last season’s Super Bowl, on Thursday the Packers will probably be staying behind from first period on. . . ROLLER DERBY---THIS was once akin to TV wrestling, more like a circus act, and brutal. People watched it regularly on TV in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, and maybe it was the violence of the Vietnam War seen on TV screens that supplanted Roller Derby hair pulling, jabs to the jaw and teeth, the elbows to the groin---the sport disappeared from general viewing faster than the clunky Stallone pics of recent years. Does a Roller Derby revival make sense, should it shift from its current fourth echelon sports membership today, to perhaps second tier, in other words, from maybe where midgets play water polo to, well, up to where American soccer was around twenty years ago, an again up-and-coming sport? Heck, yes, now that Roller Derby has transformed, now that it has dropped all of the phoniness and unnecessary violence of years past and also updated rules to become competition worth watching. After seeing a Roller Derby team from Portland, Oregon, and a team from Denver, Colorado, execute skating and defense and offense skills superbly during a Sunday match held at Denver, Colorado, we decided on more RD reports for this page about its transformation, starting with how the game now works, its goals, required skills and maneuvers. END/ml