Defense Wins Championships.

CHA_CHING · 06-24-2019, 04:44 PM

Good podcast, but I disagree. Will offer my sentiment -

Defense wins championships only when you have an offense that achieves a positive net ratio on yards, first downs and ANY/A yardage and don't turn the ball over. Teams like the 2000 Ravens and 2015 Broncos where the defense does 90% of the hard work to win the SB are incredibly rare and both of those teams were "at the right place, at the right time" to put it, in circumstantial situations.

I'll give you the best example - the 1985 Bears. Their offense is shockingly underrated in terms of historical value. 1985 was the one year that Chicago had an above average passing game (they ranked in the top 5 all year on passing stats and had a better than average ANY/A ranking). Most people just assume Walter Payton was their entire offense, but that was not true in 1985. The one year Chicago has a legit offense, they won the SB. They same couldn't be said for 1984, 1986, or 1987. The old Ditka Bears are a great example of having the possible GOAT defense and GOAT running back, still not getting you anywhere without a legit passing game.

I can also point to Baltimore for examples. In 2006 they had a defense that was arguably better than the 2000 team and had played a much tougher slate of QBs. Their 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2017 teams also had elite defenses ranked in the top 5 but in the playoffs, they all lost to teams that could also keep up with them defensively and limit mistakes. People love to say the Colts defense carried Manning in the 2006 playoff run, but the difference was, he actually moved the ball down the field, while McNair and the Ravens couldn't even muster a TD that night. Go through all those playoff losses with Baltimore's elite defense and you'll see where they lost due to the offense being lackluster or making big mistakes (Joe Flacco's dumb interception vs New England in 2014).

Our offense tanked last year beginning with the Dallas game and they were carried by the defense the rest of the way. We lose to Tampa, Carolina and Pittsburgh if not for the defense trying to move heaven and earth to bail us out. My point here is, if our offense didn't regress, we wouldn't have had to rely on the defense.

They scored 20 and 23 points in the playoffs. I think what gets lost in all the talk about the non-call is that we let Philly linger around in a game where the defense dominated them for 3 quarters, all cause the offense couldn't stop committing dumb penalties and not executing drives into TDs.

If the defense plays the same from last year, I'm not concerned about them. I'm concerned about the offense having another lack luster year or having some peak and then crashing hard.

06-24-2019, 04:44 PM	#5
CHA_CHING 1000 Posts + Join Date: Jan 2019 Location: Mobile, AL Posts: 1,159	Re: Defense Wins Championships. Good podcast, but I disagree. Will offer my sentiment - Defense wins championships only when you have an offense that achieves a positive net ratio on yards, first downs and ANY/A yardage and don't turn the ball over. Teams like the 2000 Ravens and 2015 Broncos where the defense does 90% of the hard work to win the SB are incredibly rare and both of those teams were "at the right place, at the right time" to put it, in circumstantial situations. I'll give you the best example - the 1985 Bears. Their offense is shockingly underrated in terms of historical value. 1985 was the one year that Chicago had an above average passing game (they ranked in the top 5 all year on passing stats and had a better than average ANY/A ranking). Most people just assume Walter Payton was their entire offense, but that was not true in 1985. The one year Chicago has a legit offense, they won the SB. They same couldn't be said for 1984, 1986, or 1987. The old Ditka Bears are a great example of having the possible GOAT defense and GOAT running back, still not getting you anywhere without a legit passing game. I can also point to Baltimore for examples. In 2006 they had a defense that was arguably better than the 2000 team and had played a much tougher slate of QBs. Their 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2017 teams also had elite defenses ranked in the top 5 but in the playoffs, they all lost to teams that could also keep up with them defensively and limit mistakes. People love to say the Colts defense carried Manning in the 2006 playoff run, but the difference was, he actually moved the ball down the field, while McNair and the Ravens couldn't even muster a TD that night. Go through all those playoff losses with Baltimore's elite defense and you'll see where they lost due to the offense being lackluster or making big mistakes (Joe Flacco's dumb interception vs New England in 2014). Our offense tanked last year beginning with the Dallas game and they were carried by the defense the rest of the way. We lose to Tampa, Carolina and Pittsburgh if not for the defense trying to move heaven and earth to bail us out. My point here is, if our offense didn't regress, we wouldn't have had to rely on the defense. They scored 20 and 23 points in the playoffs. I think what gets lost in all the talk about the non-call is that we let Philly linger around in a game where the defense dominated them for 3 quarters, all cause the offense couldn't stop committing dumb penalties and not executing drives into TDs. If the defense plays the same from last year, I'm not concerned about them. I'm concerned about the offense having another lack luster year or having some peak and then crashing hard. foreverfan likes this.