sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . January 16 // 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 now posts its
columns on Friday of each week. . . Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy
& Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner.
NFL--- AND so this weekend it’ll be the AFC East’s 13-4 N.E. Patriots
against the AFC North’s 13-5 Indianapolis Colts, and the NFC North’s 13-4 Green
Bay Packers versus the NFC West’s 13-4 Seattle Seahawks, or, as some fans and
analysts have been seeing it, just the Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, against
the Colts QB, Andrew Luck, and the Packers QB, Aaron Rodgers, vs. the Seahawks
QB, Russell Wilson.
Yet in each conflict and from kick-off on,
it could be defense-maneuverings dominating nearly every minute, forcing each
team’s offense to enact mostly groundwork for the few yards per down toward red
zone occupation that they will rarely achieve, each team robbed too often of the
ideal, of QB’s protected well enough for the long or short pass, in effect, QB’s
being unable to deliver a football past defenders who have been savvy and
skillful enough to have earned their post-season slots.
OF course, we can attempt to determine NFL
game-outcomes by looking at a team’s performance data. Surely, defense
effectiveness can be measured by number of points that each team’s defense
allowed its opposing teams to accrue during a season, for instance, during the
Colts four worst losses of NFL-2014 regulation the Colts defense allowed a total
of 151 points to opposing teams, while the Patriots gave away much less, 117
points during its four losses.
Too,
the total number of season TD’s achieved by an offense + a season’s QB
pass-completion ratings, these can say much about a team, as could number of
rushing and passing yards obtained during a season.
OR, we could set data aside and place hopes
on particular athletes being at the zenith of their skills, such as QB Brady and
TE Ron Gronkowski teaming superbly, or QB Luck throwing with perfection for
catches by Colts TE Coby Fleener, or by Colts WR, Danny
Amendola.
FROM our using past experience as a measure
for choosing a winning team, how could we not believe in other than a Patriots
victory from the team’s head coach, Bill Belichick, being tied with former
Cowboys head coach, Tom Landry, for most playoff wins in the NFL, 20 each, and
from QB Brady holding the NFL’s most post-season wins for a QB, 19
victories?
AND, the Seahawks won last season’s Super
Bowl primarily with a defense that is a better defense this year than last,
rating much higher than that of the Packers, having allowed, on average, only
eight points to opposing teams during their last seven victories.
FROM the data and other ways and means for
separating winners and losers before the fact, it looks like a small Patriot
edge over the Colts on Sunday, and probably a Seahawks victory taken just barely
from the Packers, neither of the two games concluding with a large numerical
deficit between winner and loser.
YET last Sunday, the 12-4 Denver Broncos
entered a divisional playoff match as a better team statistically and with the
more experienced QB, than that which the 12-5 Colts could begin with, and the
Colts came away the victor.
Broncos---GONE fast, swept away! Broncos head coach, John Fox, was suddenly out
the door, thought unfit because the Broncos again couldn’t go all the way,
wouldn’t get to February’s Super Bowl XLIX---they hadn’t landed square on an
opportunity for that Super Bowl win that hasn’t belonged to the Broncos in many
years.
IT seemed to the Broncos management that the
team’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday reflected need for a change if
indeed that desired Super Bowl win is to be in their sights week after week
during the next NFL season.
SO, from the Broncos front-office Super
Bowl-obsession, another head coach is history. Whether John Fox is job-hunting
now or not, at Denver he’ll soon be a forgotten man, like Mike Shanahan, like
that what’s-his-name now with the Patriots, and Jake Plummer, Jay Cutler, Tim
Tebow. But that’s the NFL’s quick turnover culture instead of leadership at the
top risking another season of “a special
goal being unmet,” and for the Broncos that goal has been to obtain more than an
appearance at a Super Bowl, it’s been to win at a Super Bowl.
GONE, too, is Jack Del Rio, from being the
Broncos defense coordinator, now the Oakland Raiders HC for 2015, plus offense
coordinator, Adam Gaze, to the San Francisco 49ers.
NOT that Broncos senior executive, John Elway, should be condemned for
Fox, Del Rio and Gaze having entered the NFL’s musical chairs game. Elway’s
mission has been “Super Bowl Victory, or
Bust!” Well, if
that’s to be the Broncos reason-for-being, if it’s to be the team’s mantra and that
which the organization’s money is to go for, so be it. As Elway might say, “Let
other teams be satisfied with their winning records but no Super Bowl trophy.”
AS always after elimination from a
professional sport’s post-season, it’s time to look ahead, therefore it’s up to
Elway to find the right fits for a Broncos HC and for new Broncos defense and
offense coordinators if the still proud Denver team is to reach and win the big
Five-O, the fiftieth Super Bowl, year
2016.
FOR reconstruction and new field leadership,
Elway will be offering a Broncos team that finished NFL 2014 at 12-4, and that
won a 2014 post-season berth as the AFC-West’s leading team. They’ve been one of
the NFL’s top franchises across several years, and they got to the 2013/14 Super
Bowl. Also, until last Sunday, SB XLIX was within the Broncos reach.
TOO, the Broncos QB, Peyton Manning, has
enough juice for another division championship, more post-season wins and
another Super Bowl appearance.
IT’s that special goal, “the Broncos getting
to and winning the fiftieth Super Bowl,” that the next Broncos HC will have to
strive for---Broncos management seems to want nothing less than that.
End/ml
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