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NFL-2014: Playoffs & The
Possibilities.
NFL---EIGHT from 32 NFL teams have reached the year’s playoffs, soon to be
two from the AFC and two from the NFC for a go at respective “Conference crowns,” then two from that for “Super Bowl
XLIX.”
But we can
only guess which six of the eight will be swept away in coming weeks, and not
with much certainty. For example, there’s much speculation that February’s SB
will include the AFC East’s 12-4 N.E. Patriots against the NFC West’s 12-4
Seattle Seahawks, but the possibility of wild card teams leaping ahead and
landing afield for the SB title can’t be minimized because it’s happened in NFL-
past, therefore could happen soon in that wild card teams are ready to do battle
this weekend each with enough mojo to
afterward face the AFC’s Patriots and the AFC West’s Denver Broncos, + the NFC’s
Seattle Seahawks and the NFC North’s Green Bay Packers. Take note that one of
the two AFC wild card teams, the AFC North’s 10-5 Cincinnati Benglas, defeated
the Broncos during NFL-2014’s Week 16, 37-28, and one of the two NFC franchises,
the NFC East’s 12-4 Dallas Cowboys, prevailed against the Seahawks this year,
30-23.
The wild card line-up for Saturday includes
the AFC North’s 10-6 Baltimore Ravens against the AFC North’s 11-5 Pittsburgh
Steelers, and the NFC West’s 11-5 Arizona Cardinals versus the NFC South’s 7-8-1
Carolina Panthers. For Sunday, it’s the AFC North’s Bengals vs. the AFC South’s
11-5 Indianapolis Colts, and the NFC East’s Cowboys vs. the NFC North’s 11-5
Detroit Lions.
It won’t be easy for the Ravens to prevail
over the Steelers. Not only have the Ravens lost two of their last five games,
in those losses they allowed 59 points to the winners. Also, the Ravens lost to
the Steelers during NFL Week 9, 43-23. By comparison, the Steelers lost but one
of their last five challenges, three of the four wins against high
above-the-margin franchises, the Bengals twice, and the AFC South’s Atlanta
Falcons. Suggesting a tight game are the 43 TD’s accrued by the Ravens during
NFL-2014 regulation, and the 43 TD’s obtained by the Steelers during the same
period. Running tactics appear to be a stronger attribute for the Ravens when
compared with that of the Steelers, accounting for 16 Ravens TD’s Weeks 1
through 17, vs. the Steelers rushing for 10, while a passing game looks to be
the Steelers advantage, the Steelers having accrued 33 TD’s during the season,
the Ravens 27. It will take the more powerful defense to upset this rough
balance, and that could be the Ravens defense, listed fourth-best D within the
NFL. If the Steelers prrevail on Saturday, it’ll be from Steelers QB Ben
Rothlessberger being able to read into the Ravens D almost isntantly per play
and then outsmarting/outplaying for the pass application.
As to Saturday’s NFC Cardinals vs. Panthers
outing, the Cardinals lost steam after winning nine of the teams’s first 10
games of the year, losing four of the next six, meanwhile the Panthers seeming
to be the flip side of the Cardinals regualtion experience, losing nine of 10
games starting with a Week 3 loss. It’s the Cardinals strong season start that
empowered the team’s 11-5 season finish compared with the Panther’s 7-8-1
finish, which can mask the fact that throughout the season the Panthers accrued
more receiving TD’s and more rushing TD’s than the Cardinals had, 23 over 21
receiver TD’s, 10 above six rushing TD’s. The leg up for the Panthers could be
the Cardinals loss of two top QB’s due to injuries during latter weeks of the
season, plus the Panthers more canny and faster for the throw or run QB, Cam
Newton. This said, among the season’s ironies is that the Panthers have reached
the NFL-2014 playoffs while finishing below
.500.
On paper only, Sunday’s AFC wild card match
between the Bengals and the Colts appears to be a Colts win. The Colts have won
four of the team’s last five games, the Bengals three of their last five, which
isn’t a powerful indicator of victory, but among the Colts 11 regulation wins
the team managed to score higher than 40 points in four of them and more than 30
points during a fifth win, while not within any of the Bengals wins were more
than 37 points developed and that happened only three times. Too, the Colts can
boast of having scored 51 TD’s during NFL-2014, the Bengals 39. Yet the Bengals
proved to have an increasingly close to seamless defense from a 30-zip victory
against the Cleveland Browns during Week 15 and the team’s 37-28 win over the
Broncos in the following week, and there’s that 42-7 Colts loss to the Cowboys
during Week 16, which reflected Colts vulnerabilities within both offense and
defense.
As for the Cowboys vs. Lions wild card game
on Sunday, if we look at the last five games that each team has played, a
Cowboys win seems inevitable. The Cowboys not only won four of the team’s last
five, the four were won sequentially and with more than 40 points on the board
during each, 38 during the fourth win. Also, the Cowboys have recorded 37
receiver-obtained TD’s during NFL-2014, coupled with 16 rushing TD’s, compared
with the Lions 22 receiver-TD’s and 11 rushed TD’s. Atop this is Cowboys QB,
Tony Romo, not highly superior to the Lions QB, Matt Stafford, with regard to
total yards obtained and number of pass completions, instead Romo’s the QB with
the better “Economy of throws = TD attainments,” in effect, “making the drive
count, putting points on the board.”
END/ml
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