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NFL---ON Sunday, the National Conference West’s Arizona Cardinals and the
American Conference West’s Denver Nuggets and AC East’s N.E. Patriots became the
first NFL-2014 teams to accrue double digit wins, they are 10 wins and three
losses each, while three of the remaining five NFL division leading teams have
now obtained nine wins as they head toward Week 15’s match-ups---the NC North’s
9-3 Green Bay Packers, NC East’s 9-4 Philadelphia Eagles and the AC South’s 9-4
Indianapolis Colts. Leading NC South still are the 5-7 Atlanta Falcons, and atop
the AC North it’s the 8-4 Cincinnati
Bengals.
Yet significant edges among division leading teams has continued to be
rare this year. From Week 14, the best lead belongs to the Patriots, three wins
atop the AC East’s second position 7-6 Miami Dolphins. Behind four of the
division leading franchises are second place teams that have won the same number
of games to date, while all other division leading teams are no more than one or
two wins ahead of their respective second place
teams.
Meanwhile, 13 of the 32 NFL franchises are below .500, six of these under
.250 not having won more than two or three games since the season began. Nine of
the 13 are within the NC, four of the nine being of the same division, the NC
South. Only one division can boast of each member team being above. 500, the AC
North, at its bottom the 7-6 Cleveland Browns, which has more wins and fewer
losses than the NC South’s leading franchise, the 5-7
Falcons.
The gap between winners and losers is indeed
wide as NFL-2014 regulation nears its end, although five NC division number two
teams have the same number of wins as the team above. These five could be
leading their divisions after next week’s games---the NC West’s 9-4 Seattle
Seahawks, NC East’s 9-4 Dallas Cowboys, NC North’s 9-4 Detroit Lions and NC
South’s 5-8 N.O. Saints. Within the AC, the AC North’s 8-5 Pittsburgh Steelers
are the only team to have the same number of wins as the leading franchise, the
8-4 Bengals.
The upshot, then, is that Week 15 could
comprise several reversals of fortune.
Broncos, Bills---THE Broncos 24-17 defeat of the Buffalo Bills addressed an unexpected
and favorable exploitation of Broncos assets, QB Peyton Manning releasing control frequently to those who could run the
football forward as if it were practice day, he the quiet trainer handing off
opportunities to RB C.J. Anderson who’d run for three TD’s, no-one of the
opposition capable of stopping him.
Anyone who watched Sunday’s Broncos only to
see Manning throw TD passes bought disappointment. The Broncos win was
ground-dominant, Manning a silent non-flamboyant catalyst. This was by design,
it wasn’t a last minute “Hey, Bro’, take a breather” from HC John Fox, let the
earth-beaters do the work for a change,” it was Manning leading from behind, so
to speak, controlling an offense that into the fourth Q led the Bills 24-3.
Of course, much credit has to go to the
Broncos defense, though it dissipated some in the last Q. The Bills led the
Broncos in nearly every game advantage category, time of possession, first
downs, total yards gained, except for the Broncos 29 rushing plays that
purchased 133 yards and three TD’s vs. the Bills 16 for 74 and the one Bills
rushed-for TD, but until that last quarter surge for points, and an earlier
field goal, the Broncos defense kept the Bills investments in a mostly passing
game from yielding dividends, for the sixth time this year forcing an opposing
team to stay below 20 points by endgame, in all cases the Broncos offense seven
or more points ahead.
NBA---THE Eastern Conference Atlantic Division’s 16-5 Toronto Raptors are
leading both conference and division but as of today are fifth within the full
league, in that the Western Conference Pacific Division’s 18-2 Golden State
Warriors are at the top of the full league, followed by the WC Northwest’s 16-4
Portland Trail Blazers, the WC Southwest’s 16-4 Houston Rockets and 16-4 Memphis
Grizzlies. Ten other NBA teams can also claim double digit wins, all second or
third place holders division-wide, and nine NBA teams are above .700, sustaining
the wide gap between winning and losing NBA franchises.
But except for two leading teams, the
Raptors and the Trail Blazers having seven game leads over their respective
second place franchises, the leads held by first place teams within divisions is
quite fragile, in some cases a tie re. number of wins, or a lead from just one
game, e.g., the EC Central being led by the 12-7 Cleveland Cavaliers, the
Chicago Bills directly behind them,
12-8.
Still feeding at the bottom are the EC
Atlantic’s Philadelphia
Nuggets---GIVEN tactics that won games for the Nuggets before a recent road trip
and four straight losses, one has to apply some blame for the downfall on
injuries that have kept guards Randy Foye and Nate Robinson and forward Kenneth
Faried from court time. The Nuggets have slid below .500, current record 9-12.
This has put excess strain on guard Ty Lawson and forward Danilo Gallinari, both
prone to injury. Too, the four losses weren’t to beneath-the-margin teams, the
Nuggets lost to the Raptors 112-107, an OT loss, by the way. Other hard matches
were vs. the Trail Blazers, the Washington Wizards and the Atlanta Hawks, first
and second place division teams, all above .600 as of now. Many NBA teams lack
sufficient depth for the worst case injury scenario, that is, they haven’t
enough back-up for best players suddenly on a disabled list. The Nuggets are one
of these teams.
END/ml
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