Scoring Defense and Division Leaders (1 Viewer)

[diehardfan]

One of the pregame shows alluded to the importance of Defense this year. This morning I took a look at the top 10 scoring defenses.

Here are the top 10 scoring defenses in the league (points allowed):
1. Philly 9.0
2. Minn 13.3
3. Seattle 13.5
4. New England 15.3
5. Denver 16.0
6. Buffalo 17.0
7. Baltimore 18.0
8. Houston 18.3
9. Los Angeles 19.0
10. Dallas 19.3

It goes without saying that any team with a top 10 defense should be decent. But all of these teams are either leading their divisions or are 2nd in their divisions.

Also, the reverse is true for Scoring Defenses this year. The bottom 10 are either last in their division or tied for last. The only anomaly is Atlanta, who is ranked 29th, giving up 31 points a game but is leading the NFC South at 3-1. Then again, the whole NFC South is wacky.

After looking at this, it surprised me a bit and made me think.

We all know the old saying: "Defense wins championships" but I thought it could be done with a decent one, as we did (especially in today's NFL).

The top 10 scoring defenses are allowing 20 points or less per game. It surprised me that even after the rule changes that favor offense and the new spread offenses that make defenses cover the entire field, that defensive success was so important to winning in today's NFL.

It has really made me think about how a team should be constructed.

Granted it's only Week 4 but I really thought this was interesting.

We are ranked 32, dead-last allowing 32.5 points per game. Obviously, turnovers are the wildcard. Like in 09, we not only got turnovers but we also scored TDs on defense.

I'm not saying any of this is gospel, I just thought it was interesting and worthy of discussion.

 

[blackadder]

One of the pregame shows alluded to the importance of Defense this year. This morning I took a look at the top 10 scoring defenses.

Here are the top 10 scoring defenses in the league (points allowed):
1. Philly 9.0
2. Minn 13.3
3. Seattle 13.5
4. New England 15.3
5. Denver 16.0
6. Buffalo 17.0
7. Baltimore 18.0
8. Houston 18.3
9. Los Angeles 19.0
10. Dallas 19.3

It goes without saying that any team with a top 10 defense should be decent. But all of these teams are either leading their divisions or are 2nd in their divisions.

Also, the reverse is true for Scoring Defenses this year. The bottom 10 are either last in their division or tied for last. The only anomaly is Atlanta, who is ranked 29th, giving up 31 points a game but is leading the NFC South at 3-1. Then again, the whole NFC South is wacky.

After looking at this, it surprised me a bit and made me think.

We all know the old saying: "Defense wins championships" but I thought it could be done with a decent one, as we did (especially in today's NFL).

The top 10 scoring defenses are allowing 20 points or less per game. It surprised me that even after the rule changes that favor offense and the new spread offenses that make defenses cover the entire field, that defensive success was so important to winning in today's NFL.

It has really made me think about how a team should be constructed.

Granted it's only Week 4 but I really thought this was interesting.

We are ranked 32, dead-last allowing 32.5 points per game. Obviously, turnovers are the wildcard. Like in 09, we not only got turnovers but we also scored TDs on defense.

I'm not saying any of this is gospel, I just thought it was interesting and worthy of discussion.

This is proven out many times over.

Teams with top tier defenses almost always are successful in W-L but it takes a truly dominant defense like the Ray Lewis Ravens to win a championship if they don't have at least an average offense.

On the other hand we have seen over and over examples back to the Coryell Chargers as well as the Payton Saints that having a virtually unstoppable offense is doesn't carry a team the same way a good defense does.

I didn't think Payton or Loomis or anyone ever doubted this which is why they've been making all these moves back to the hire of Spagnoulo. They just whiffed on the moves but I think they recognized to get back to a championship they needed a decent defense.

 

[diehardfan]

I just think about how kick-*** our Defense was during the Mora years, but it didn't always equate to wins.

 

[Hootis47]

Definitely something to it, but it's not the whole recipe. Looking at the last 10 years Super Bowl Champs, here's where their def. ranked in scoring:

Denver - 4th
New England - 13th
Seattle - 1st
Baltimore - 12th
NY Giants - 27th
Green Bay - 2nd
New Orleans - 20th
Pittsburgh - 1st
NY Giants - 17th
Indianapolis - 23rd

Now this is just looking at the eventual champions, but you have 4 top tier, 2 Middle of the road, and 4 lower half of the league. I think you're definitely right that turnovers can be the difference if you don't have a strong defense.

 

[diehardfan]

That's some good info there ^

It does seem like it's trending upwards. In the last 4 years, the Super Bowl Champs were 13th or higher.

 

[blackadder]

I just think about how kick-*** our Defense was during the Mora years, but it didn't always equate to wins.

I didn't equate to post season success, but the offense was pretty pathetic...but they won a lot of games.