The best offense is a strong defense.
Defense wins championships.
It might be purely coincidental, or it may be because the Seahawks won the most recent Super Bowl while sporting a pretty wicked defense, but I have been hearing the latter cliche' in seemingly record amounts lately.
So it's got me wondering, does defense really win championships? Will an especially resilient defense make up for a deplorable offense?
Certainly there are examples of teams with a defensive focus making the Super Bowl, even a few of them winning it. As a Bears fan my mind immediately goes to the 1985 Bears, who fielded one of the top defensive units of all time, and the 2001 Ravens. The 1985 Bears also fielded the 2nd highest scoring offense in the league that season, while the 2001 Ravens were led by Trent Dilfer at QB (ouch) and their offense was fairly mediocre.
The Super Bowl XLVIII champion Seattle Seahawks team from last season fielded the NFL's toughest defense. Nicknamed the "Legion of Boom", the Hawks made a strong statement in the Super Bowl, nearly shutting out Peyton Manning and the electric Broncos offense and allowing just one score in the blowout win.Offensively, the Seahawks fielded an offense in the lower half of the league in terms of total performance.
So what is the trend? What is the big takeaway here?
I think the cliche has some truth to it. Defense will, more often than not, put a team in a position to win a championship. However I think when considering super bowl winners from the past two decades, it becomes apparent that neglecting the offense to stack the defense will decrease a teams chances to win a championship. Even moreso in today's NFL than the older era, defense is becoming much harder to play well. New rules prohibit many things that were previously considered normal on the football field, so while the "Legion of Boom" were able to defy that truth and win the Super Bowl, their ability to repeat such a feat is questionable.
I don't believe that the cliche "defense wins championships" holds much weight in today's NFL. With the rules being the way they are, and punishing hard hits and plays that have always been legal, we have seen points per game increase, as defenses find it harder to make the plays they are expected to. In today's NFL, the best way to win seems to either have a great defense mirrored by a good offense, or a great offense that can score on every possession to outpace the other team.
But if I were to pick one reason, my biggest reason for not believing the formula that the top defensive teams win the championships, it would be this. If the formula were to hold true, then the team that has led the NFL this season in total defense would be the most likely candidate to win the Super Bowl, and that team is none other than....
THE DETROIT LIONS.
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I'm telling you people, that isn't gonna happen, and if it does, I'll eat my sock*.
*The Committed Fan reserves the right to cut the sock into smaller pieces in the event that consumption is called for...
Well there's two ways to look at it, IMHO, that is.
ReplyDeleteFirst, your defense can keep the other team from scoring AND they can cause turnovers which can lead directly or indirectly to scores.
Your offense can score (obviously), but just as importantly, if they can maximize time of possession, they can tire the opposing team's defense, as well as minimize the scoring opportunities for the opposing offense.
Ironically, in this era of no huddle offenses, spread offenses, and big time passing quarterbacks, the opportunities for milking the clock become more limited.
Now the Lions are the Cubs of the NFL. In baseball they say pitching wins championships, but give the Cubs 4 Cy Young pitchers, and they'll still find a way to blow it!