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