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NFL--- OF THE eight NFL-2014 teams of 32 that at Week 16 have double-digit
wins, three are leading their respective divisions from 11-4 records. They are
the National Conference West’s 11-4 Arizona Cardinals, American Conference
East’s11-4 N.E. Patriots, the AC West’s 11-4 Denver Broncos.
The remaining five teams with double-digit
wins are at 10-4 each, three of them also division leading franchises---the 10-4
NC East’s Dallas Cowboys, 10-4 NC South’s Detroit Lions, and the AC South’s 10-4
Indianapolis Colts. Two of the five 10-4’s, then, are second place teams---the
NC West’s 10-4 Seattle Seahawks and the 10-4 Green Bay Packers, which could
reverse position and be division number ones should the Seahawks defeat the
Cardinals on Sunday and the Packers take down the now NC South’s last place
team, the 2-12 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (most likely), meanwhile the Lions losing to
the NC North’s last place 5-8 Chicago Bears (not likely).
Another shaky division lead exists for the
NC East’s 10-4 Cowboys, they’ve but a single win above the NC East’s 9-5
Philadelphia Eagles. The Cowboys will be facing the 10-4 Colts on Sunday, odds
favoring the Colts, while the 9-5 Eagles have a better than fair shot at
defeating the NC East’s last place 3-11 Washington Redskins on Saturday.
And, the season’s final week could see the
NC South’s leading team, the now 5-8 Carolina Panthers, and the now 5-8 N.O.
saints still tied for first should the Panthers defeat the AC North’s last place
7-7 Cleveland Browns on Sunday and the Saints take down the NC South’s now third
place 5-9 Atlanta Falcons, or both of the NC South’s leading teams lose on
Sunday and the Falcons jump to first place from being
6-9.
Tenuous within the AC is the lead held by
the AC North’s 9-4 Cincinnati Bengals over second place team, the 9-5 Pittsburgh
Steelers. On Monday night, the Bengals will meet the 11-3 Denver Broncos, which
has a three game lead atop the AC West’s second place team, the 8-6 K.C. Chiefs
and so can afford to lose to the Bengals re. its division number one slot “but
the Broncos surely want a playoff first round Bye from a Week 16 win,” while a
Bengals loss and a Steelers defeat of the Chiefs on Sunday could settle the
Steelers into the AC North’s lead
position.
A likely Patriots win over the N.Y. Jets
could place the Patriots at the top of the AC if the Broncos lose to the
Bengals, the Patriots then having a four game lead within the AC East over the
Buffalo Bills should the latter lose to the AC West’s weakest team, the 2-12
Oakland Raiders that are yearning and burning for a win so as not to finish the
season last among the league’s 32
franchises.
Broncos, Bengals; Seahawks,
Cardinals---SEVERAL pundits and analysts could go snooty, smug, smart-alecky, if,
as they predicted at the start of NFL-2014 regulation, the AC West’s 11-3 Denver
Broncos and the NC West’s 10-4 Seattle Seahawks obtain conference crowns in
January, 2015, and Super Bowl slots therefrom.
Some pundits are saying now that the Broncos
don’t have to defeat the AC North’s 9-4 Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night for a
division or conference crown to be theirs, yet doing so could mean a first round
playoff Bye for the Broncos, which is the easier road toward a conference
championship, although a likely Broncos match vs. the N.E. Patriots for that to
be is in the brewing, which will be tough going for either team.
The Bengals, well, they want a defeat of the
Broncos from desperation, in that the Bengals could lose division supremacy to
the AC North’s 9-5 Pittsburgh Steelers should the Steelers defeat the AC West’s
second place 8-6 K.C. Chiefs on Sunday and the Bengals lose to the Broncos.
So, Monday night’s Broncos/Bengals match has
significant drama regarding order of standings, but also because it’s been
touted that the game will remain close. Lots of high rollers are seeing either
team capable of winning but by a mere three to six or seven points, largely
because of their placing weight on comparisons falsely, for comparisons can be
deceptive, for instance, while the Broncos receivers can claim 37 TD’s accrued
to date compared with the Bengals 16, the latter team can claim 18 rushing TD’s
alongside the Broncos 11. That said, within the Broncos last four games it was
the Broncos running strategies that led them to locations from which Broncos
receiver TD’s could occur. The Broncos rush tactics could be as effective as
those of the Bengals today, while QB Manning’s pass completions for the season
exceeds that of the Bengals QB, Andy Dalton, greatly, 346 for 4,143 yards and
313 first downs vs. Dalton’s 265 for 3,008 yards and 274 first downs.
Add that when the Bengals lose, they lose
big, the least number of points allowed a winning opposing team this year being
24 to the Cleveland Browns, meanwhile giving away 43 to the Patriots, 42 to the
Steelers and 37 to the Panthers. The Broncos have defeated better teams than the
four that the Bengals have lost to, and during the Broncos last three games the
team’s defense allowed no more than 16, 17 and 10 points respectively.
Yes, the Bengals humiliated the Brown last
week, 30-zip, but in a loss to the Indianapolis Colts the Bengals were zero
against 27 points, and vs. the Browns during Week 10 the Bengals lost,
24-3.
As for the Seahawks and Cardinals match on
Sunday, the Seahawks hadn’t the better season start compared with that of the
Cardinals, but catch-up since Week 8 has included seven Seahawks wins above only
one loss, not one of the losing teams able to score more than 20 points against
the Seahawks, the one loss being a giveaway of 24 to the Chiefs.
And, during Week 12 the Seahawks defeated
the Cardinals, 19-3.
Too, the Seahawks are superior to the
Cardinals re. running game TD’s, 16 over 6, and the Seahawks are behind the
Cardinals in receiver TD’s by just a single digit, 18 vs. the Cardinals 19.
The above noted, we’re going with the
Broncos defeating the Bengals by seven or more, and a Seahawks knockdown of the
Cardinals by seven or more.
Of course, football is not just about the
numbers, no amount of data can guarantee a future NFL outcome
exactly.
NBA---FOUR NBA franchises, the Denver Nuggets, Brooklyn Nets, San Antonio
Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks have been middle of the rankings when having
exhibited reasons to be closer to the top within their respective conferences
and divisions, and while there’s no way of knowing if either will surge forward
and land higher within the NBA-2014/15 rankings, should each remain as they are
now, that is, if each maintains the same rate of wins over losses, it’s unlikely
that any will own a playoff slot come mid-April 2015, when regulation ends.
Right now, neither of the four NBA teams
cited here is higher than third position within a division. Using the Nuggets as
being representative of the four, the team is now at 10 wins over 15 losses,
which means the Nuggets have finished playing 25 NBA 2014/15 games, more than a
fourth of the season’s 82 games.
Winning 10 of the next 25 contests puts the
Nuggets at 20 over 30, and winning 10 of the next 25 places the Nuggets at
30-45, with only seven games left on the team’s schedule. Even winning the
season’s final seven games keeps the Nuggets very hard put to achieve a
post-season billet.
Should the same fate re. rankings infect the
other NBA teams listed here, the end-of-season outcomes for them, that is, for
the now 10-14 Nets, 17-9 Spurs and 19-8 Mavericks, won’t be enough for
post-season appearances. If this doesn’t seem so for the Spurs and the
Mavericks, note that the two teams are competing within divisions where the
first and second place teams have already accumulated 21 and 19 wins over four
and six losses respectively and they, too, can maintain a status-quo or progress
further.
But the above is commentary, speculation.
It’s quite possible that with 57 games left in the season the Nuggets, Nets,
Spurs and Mavericks could leap ahead and look back on current win/loss data as
prelude to better days, to numbers underscoring post-season candidacies, e.g.,
the Mavericks may have reinforced for the standings by acquiring guard Rondo
recently from the Celtics, a formidable addition to an already effective line-up
of NBA starters.
END/ml
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