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