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Does Defense Actually Win Championships Anymore? · NFL explained.

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Speaker 1: and five G content optimization. You're familiar with it. Longtime
1:08
Speaker 1: football fans of the NFL. They know all about Pittsburgh
1:11
Speaker 1: Steel Curtain, the defense of the seventies, the Bears forty
1:14
Speaker 1: six defense that shuffled their way to the Super Bowl
1:17
Speaker 1: in the eighties and perhaps the most dominant defense ever
1:20
Speaker 1: the two thousand Ravens, who allowed just ten point three
1:24
Speaker 1: points per game. You gotta be kidding me. But in
1:26
Speaker 1: the twenty years since that Baltimore team hosted the Lombardi
1:30
Speaker 1: Trophy scoring the NFL. Yeah, here it is. It's of
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Speaker 1: and it begs the question, in the era of dynamic offenses,
1:38
Speaker 1: does defense actually win championships? What's going on? Everyone? I'm like,
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Speaker 1: dam joined us always by the defense apologist, Dude Kinkawala
1:46
Speaker 1: ready to rock and roll today. I'm just throwing it
1:49
Speaker 1: out there. It's not being an apologist if it's factual
1:52
Speaker 1: and true, right Mike. We'll find out by the end
1:54
Speaker 1: of this episode if it's factual and true. Today on
1:57
Speaker 1: the NFL Explained, does defense win Championships? We will examine
2:01
Speaker 1: Super Bowl winners past and present to determine if you
2:03
Speaker 1: in fact need a top rated defense to hoist the
2:07
Speaker 1: Lombardi Trophy or this is where I'm going to quick bowl.
2:11
Speaker 1: I'm taking a little random aside right here, Mike. I
2:14
Speaker 1: don't think you need a top rated defense. I just
2:17
Speaker 1: think you need an outstanding defensive effort. And we will
2:21
Speaker 1: come to that when we come to the team that
2:24
Speaker 1: you and I grew up rooting for and the last
2:26
Speaker 1: time they want a Super Bowl tease. Tease tease, Okay,
2:29
Speaker 1: Have offenses become the key to unlocking the championship code
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Speaker 1: in recent years? There are definitely a few ways to
2:35
Speaker 1: look at what makes the top ranked defense. So we'll
2:38
Speaker 1: look at it from a few different angles, and we
2:40
Speaker 1: will hopefully have an answer for you by the end.
2:43
Speaker 1: Although I already do have my answer, Mike, although it
2:45
Speaker 1: sounds like you're hedging just a little bit without your
2:48
Speaker 1: little aside, I feel like, you know what, This is
2:50
Speaker 1: one of those things, Mike, that we want to keep
2:52
Speaker 1: people involved, and so even though I feel so strongly
2:55
Speaker 1: about how I feel, it's probably important to keep an
3:00
Speaker 1: open mind and see if we can allow our listeners
3:04
Speaker 1: to come away with a different p o V. Of course,
3:06
Speaker 1: if they disagree with me, it's not necessarily the correct
3:09
Speaker 1: p o V. Here we go in DDT the next
3:14
Speaker 1: episode of NFL explained. So we're going to look at
3:16
Speaker 1: scoring defense first, Mike. It's the defense that's allowed the
3:19
Speaker 1: fewest amount of points per game. Then we'll look at
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Speaker 1: a combination of defense season statistics of points per game
3:25
Speaker 1: and the total yards given up per game. And then
3:28
Speaker 1: finally we've got what we talked about in one of
3:30
Speaker 1: our most recent episodes, analytics. It's a new wave or
3:34
Speaker 1: a more complete way to perhaps rank offenses and defenses.
3:39
Speaker 1: So Mike, just really quick heads up here for you
3:42
Speaker 1: and for all our listeners. Probably a lot of numbers today,
3:46
Speaker 1: So don't operate any heavy machinery while listening to this episode.
3:52
Speaker 1: That's the beauty of these podcasts. Now you can just
3:53
Speaker 1: hit ten seconds back and you'll be able to just go,
3:56
Speaker 1: what was that number? One more time because you're right,
3:58
Speaker 1: a lot of the statistics in the data it can
4:00
Speaker 1: get a little overwhelming at times, but I think it's
4:02
Speaker 1: really important to use some of these numbers to paint
4:04
Speaker 1: the picture when we're trying answer this question about defense
4:07
Speaker 1: winning championships. But I think you, you know, look your
4:09
Speaker 1: old school, right, like you like this idea of running
4:12
Speaker 1: the football playing defense. Doesn't get more old school than
4:15
Speaker 1: Paul bear Bryant, who's I think many consider the greatest
4:18
Speaker 1: college coach of all time, and he said, offense tells tickets,
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Speaker 1: defense wins championships when one, another Alabama great, was asked
4:26
Speaker 1: if it's still true Nick Saban, who I think you
4:29
Speaker 1: might be able to make an argument, is actually the
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Speaker 1: greatest college football coach of all time. He actually made
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Speaker 1: a really good point. He said, it used to be
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Speaker 1: if you had a good defense, other people weren't going
4:37
Speaker 1: to score, you were always going to be in the game.
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Speaker 1: I'm telling you it ain't that way anymore. So things
4:45
Speaker 1: have shifted over time, at least according to one of
4:48
Speaker 1: the all time great coaches at the college level. But
4:50
Speaker 1: then you start thinking, what about the NFL? Dudes? Right,
4:52
Speaker 1: did you see that ESPN show a d d when
4:55
Speaker 1: Belichick and Saban were together and they actually showed personality
4:58
Speaker 1: which was kind of fun and watch film and told stories.
5:01
Speaker 1: You know, when I saw some personality out of Bill Belichick.
5:05
Speaker 1: It was just recently after this Monday night game in
5:08
Speaker 1: the snow in Buffalo, when Bill Belichick believed so much
5:13
Speaker 1: in offensive football that he had his quarterback attempt exactly
5:18
Speaker 1: three passes. Okay, extenuating circumstances when you're in the middle
5:23
Speaker 1: of a tornado and a windstorm as well. Yeah, tell
5:26
Speaker 1: us what Bill Belichick said about to said, we kind
5:31
Speaker 1: of disagreed with Sabin, but I think he heads a
5:34
Speaker 1: little bit. He's typically disagreed. Look, I'll let our listeners
5:38
Speaker 1: be the judge of this. Each game is its own game,
5:41
Speaker 1: so it's hard to generalize. Doesn't sound like he's disagreeing
5:43
Speaker 1: to me, at least off of that. I don't think
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Speaker 1: having your good defense is a bad thing. It's hard
5:47
Speaker 1: to score fifty points every game. It's nice when you
5:50
Speaker 1: don't have to score a lot of points. We want
5:52
Speaker 1: a super Bowl scoring thirt team points. That's not a
5:55
Speaker 1: bad thing. He also went on to say football is
5:57
Speaker 1: a team game, and there's three facets to it. If
6:00
Speaker 1: you're not good in an area, it's probably going to
6:02
Speaker 1: catch up with you against a better balanced team. I
6:05
Speaker 1: understand what Nick saying. We've talked about that because they're boys, right.
6:10
Speaker 1: I think Bill's point, at least in the NFL perspective,
6:12
Speaker 1: like colleges, is a different animal. I spent a long
6:14
Speaker 1: time covering college football. The teams aren't always balanced, and
6:18
Speaker 1: they're certainly not always equal on the field. The NFL
6:21
Speaker 1: is a different monster and a different machine. You know,
6:23
Speaker 1: as we go through a lot of these stats of
6:25
Speaker 1: d D, it should be noted sometimes we're only talking
6:27
Speaker 1: about a percentage or two that gives way to a
6:30
Speaker 1: team being ranked significantly higher than another. And that's why
6:33
Speaker 1: that phrase any given Sunday ener Jamie Fox and al Pacino,
6:36
Speaker 1: and we can do the whole movie thing. That's why
6:38
Speaker 1: you do see so many upsets and so much parody,
6:40
Speaker 1: where on the college level you don't. So I think
6:42
Speaker 1: Bill's point about balanced teams is actually a really good
6:46
Speaker 1: one and why obviously those Patriots teams have had as
6:48
Speaker 1: much success as they've had, and and to that point,
6:52
Speaker 1: him saying that, really, at the end of the day,
6:56
Speaker 1: football is not being a slave to anyone's scheme, but
6:59
Speaker 1: it's recognizing the top of your quote right there, was
7:02
Speaker 1: each game is its own game. So each game calls
7:06
Speaker 1: upon you to do something perhaps a little bit different.
7:10
Speaker 1: It's a matchup game more than it is a slave
7:13
Speaker 1: to a scheme game. But you know what, before we
7:16
Speaker 1: even get into any of that, and we talk about
7:18
Speaker 1: the defensive plan that Todd Bowles came up with for
7:20
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay Bucks against Patrick Mahomes, or the defensive
7:23
Speaker 1: plan that Perry Fuel came up with for the New
7:25
Speaker 1: York Giants against the Patriots all those years ago. Let's
7:29
Speaker 1: just talk about some of the numbers, right, and some
7:32
Speaker 1: of the most memorable defenses in the National Football League.
7:36
Speaker 1: We have to start with the group that you outlined first,
7:39
Speaker 1: the Steelers of the nineteen seventies, the Steel Curtain. The
7:43
Speaker 1: Steelers won the Super Bowl. Do you know how many
7:45
Speaker 1: times in the nineteen seventies behind the Steel Curtain? Four
7:49
Speaker 1: times handling business because of those dudes on defense. That's right,
7:53
Speaker 1: Joe Green, And I mean, we could just sit here
7:56
Speaker 1: and keep on naming Hall of famers, but the whole
7:57
Speaker 1: point here is that their defense had top five finishes
8:00
Speaker 1: in both points allowed and yards allowed in six different
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Speaker 1: seasons from nineteen seventy two in nineteen seventy nine, And
8:06
Speaker 1: as much as we want to look at Golden Boy
8:08
Speaker 1: Terry Bradshaw, it is that defense that drove that team. Look,
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Speaker 1: there was Joe Green, there was Mel Blunt, there was
8:15
Speaker 1: Donnie Shell, there was Jack Ham, there was Jack Lambert.
8:18
Speaker 1: There was L. C. Greenwood. Who is the only one
8:21
Speaker 1: of all those names that I just mentioned who's not
8:23
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame, but whose teammates all believe
8:24
Speaker 1: that he absolutely should be a part of that Hall
8:27
Speaker 1: of Fame. And then look at Super Bowl twenty winners,
8:29
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears. They were known as the Monsters of
8:32
Speaker 1: the Midway. They had the fewest points allowed per game
8:36
Speaker 1: three point three, basically a field goal. They basically allowed
8:40
Speaker 1: a field goal per game, fewest yards per game allowed.
8:44
Speaker 1: And then in their playoff run, which by the way,
8:48
Speaker 1: ended with a forty six to ten win over the Patriots,
8:51
Speaker 1: they pitched shutouts against the Giants and the Ramps. So
8:56
Speaker 1: it wasn't just a season of shutting people down, it
8:58
Speaker 1: was a playoff run of shutting people down. More impressive
9:01
Speaker 1: when you think about the postseason. Those are supposed to
9:04
Speaker 1: be the best teams and they were all that dominance.
9:07
Speaker 1: So you're making a case for defense. But look, I
9:09
Speaker 1: think you can look at Ditka Mike t former Bears
9:13
Speaker 1: head coach, and in that year he said, you win
9:16
Speaker 1: with offense in the National Football League. Now, and this
9:20
Speaker 1: is a dude who won with one of the greatest
9:22
Speaker 1: defenses ever, which is really impressive when you consider just
9:25
Speaker 1: sort of the shift in philosophy. Now. Once again, he
9:27
Speaker 1: made those claims back in twelve and I think we've
9:31
Speaker 1: even sewed even more heavily to some of these offensive numbers.
9:34
Speaker 1: But let's take a look back at some of these
9:35
Speaker 1: other defenses. Two thousand Ravens, for sure, Absolute Beast Super
9:39
Speaker 1: Bowl winners had the lowest scoring offense twenty point eight
9:42
Speaker 1: points per game. Can you imagine just putting up twenty
9:44
Speaker 1: one points a game, Like, you're not gonna win a
9:46
Speaker 1: whole lot unless you have a defense that's giving up
9:48
Speaker 1: ten point three points per game. They led the league
9:51
Speaker 1: that year, um and it was the best scoring defense
9:53
Speaker 1: in the last forty years, so certainly impressive. You got
9:56
Speaker 1: the Seahawks of the twenty tens, the legendary secondary Lesion
10:00
Speaker 1: of Boom. I know we touched on them during our
10:02
Speaker 1: Names episode. Encourage you to go back and listen to
10:04
Speaker 1: that episode of NFL explained those guys were tremendous, that
10:07
Speaker 1: Legion of Boom, the number one is scoring defense, top
10:09
Speaker 1: five in yards allowed from and then of course they
10:12
Speaker 1: won the Super Bowl back in and of course when
10:16
Speaker 1: you have a nickname that good, there's gonna be some offshoots.
10:18
Speaker 1: Legion of Zoom, what up? Kansas City Chiefs obviously getting
10:22
Speaker 1: it going. But dd I know there's a ton of
10:24
Speaker 1: numbers that we've been getting at but I think when
10:26
Speaker 1: we come back, we gotta make a case for offense,
10:28
Speaker 1: right or is there one stat for defense that really
10:31
Speaker 1: trumps everything? We got the answer coming up next on
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12:03
Speaker 1: always say back in the day because on the chapters
12:05
Speaker 1: office games and as every day they put the points
12:07
Speaker 1: up the board. We had to hold it a little
12:09
Speaker 1: to the welcome back to the NFL Explained Podcast, She's
12:12
Speaker 1: a d D kin kabwala, Mike yam with you and
12:14
Speaker 1: a d D looking at the defenses. It's all about
12:16
Speaker 1: winning championships, isn't it. That's kind of the whole point
12:19
Speaker 1: of this episode. So our research team, absolutely phenomenal, went
12:23
Speaker 1: back last fifty five Super Bowl. So thirty three out
12:26
Speaker 1: of the fifty five Super Bowl winners have had a
12:29
Speaker 1: top five scoring offense. Thirty three out of those fifty
12:33
Speaker 1: five Super Bowl winners had a top five scoring defense,
12:37
Speaker 1: so relatively balanced. Going back to Belichick's quote about having
12:42
Speaker 1: it's about thirty three, yeah it's bounced. So they're both
12:46
Speaker 1: sitting there. Top five scoring offense, top scoring defense. Now,
12:49
Speaker 1: twenty four teams with the number one scoring offense have
12:53
Speaker 1: reached the Super Bowl. Twenty one teams a d D
12:56
Speaker 1: with the number one scoring defense have reached the Super Bowl.
12:59
Speaker 1: And among the one hundred and ten Super Bowl teams,
13:02
Speaker 1: nine six had a top ten scoring offense. So you're wondering,
13:08
Speaker 1: what about those scoring defenses? Right? Well, super Bowl teams
13:12
Speaker 1: eighty eight of them had a top ten scoring defense,
13:15
Speaker 1: and of that group, seventy six had a top ten
13:17
Speaker 1: scoring offense and scoring defense. So once again, maybe the
13:22
Speaker 1: numbers a d D scream or at least quietly say
13:26
Speaker 1: it's all about the offense. Maybe, Except listen, only five
13:30
Speaker 1: Super Bowl winners of all time have had a top
13:33
Speaker 1: five scoring offense without a scoring defense that was in
13:38
Speaker 1: the top ten, So that would actually say you need
13:40
Speaker 1: to be a balanced team who can do both. Broadway
13:43
Speaker 1: Joe Namath, he led the Ninetts to that Super Bowl
13:46
Speaker 1: upset win while that scoring defense was outside the top ten.
13:49
Speaker 1: John Madden coached Ken Stabler nineteen seventy six Raiders team
13:54
Speaker 1: that didn't have a particularly good defense. The three Raiders
13:57
Speaker 1: with Marcus Allen and Jim Plunkett, well, they didn't have
14:00
Speaker 1: a top ten defense. The two thousand six Colts with
14:03
Speaker 1: of course Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison did not have
14:06
Speaker 1: a top ten defense. And the two thousand nine Saints
14:09
Speaker 1: Drew Brees, they did not have a top ten defense.
14:15
Speaker 1: But the flip to that is so let me remind
14:17
Speaker 1: you again, there have been five Super Bowl winners that
14:21
Speaker 1: had a top five scoring offense but did not have
14:25
Speaker 1: a top ten scoring defense. There have been eight eight
14:30
Speaker 1: eight is more than five mic eight Super Bowl winners
14:33
Speaker 1: that had a scoring defense in the top five but
14:37
Speaker 1: a scoring offense that was not in the top ten.
14:40
Speaker 1: So look at the two thousand eight Steelers. You remember
14:42
Speaker 1: those two thousand Stealers, right, They did not have a
14:45
Speaker 1: high rank scoring offense twenty in the NFL. They barely
14:49
Speaker 1: averaged twenty two points per game, but they had a
14:51
Speaker 1: number one scoring defense. That defense allowed less than two
14:55
Speaker 1: touchdowns a game. And those two thousand eight Stealers, of course,
14:58
Speaker 1: won the Super Bowl. And then, as you said, the
15:00
Speaker 1: two thousand Ravens who beat our New York Giants when
15:02
Speaker 1: we were young little kids in New Jersey rooting for
15:05
Speaker 1: the Giant, right, I remember that came Well, I mean
15:07
Speaker 1: for me, that's a wind column for the defense, right,
15:11
Speaker 1: because there's more that had an overwhelming defense that could
15:15
Speaker 1: overcome an underwhelming offense as opposed to the flip side. Okay,
15:19
Speaker 1: but you are talking about the number one scoring defenses
15:23
Speaker 1: in both of those instances making up for maybe a
15:25
Speaker 1: lack of offensive production, which to me means maybe we're
15:29
Speaker 1: looking at least some of those cases they're they're the outliers.
15:32
Speaker 1: So I think, look, the game has changed, right, Like,
15:35
Speaker 1: I think it's abundantly clear. We all watched the game
15:37
Speaker 1: on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays. The point is things do
15:40
Speaker 1: askew on the offensive side. So let's take a look
15:43
Speaker 1: at least at the last eight years and the Super
15:45
Speaker 1: Bowl winners when it comes to their offensive and defensive rankings.
15:49
Speaker 1: Last eight seasons, only one team ranked outside the top
15:52
Speaker 1: eight in either offense or defense, which makes sense, right, Like,
15:55
Speaker 1: you've got to be one of the better teams to
15:57
Speaker 1: even get to the Super Bowl and that was Broncos,
16:00
Speaker 1: who were nineteenth and offense but fourth on defense. Well,
16:04
Speaker 1: and so this goes to my point about we are
16:07
Speaker 1: talking about trends and season long and how a defense
16:11
Speaker 1: walks into a game. And so I'll use the Mannings
16:14
Speaker 1: again and I'll go back to that Giants team that
16:17
Speaker 1: I covered in two thousand eleven, and it actually matches exactly.
16:21
Speaker 1: So Eli Manning is the quarterback of the Giants in
16:24
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven wins the Super Bowl m v P,
16:26
Speaker 1: and Peyton Manning is the quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts
16:30
Speaker 1: in two thousand six and wins his first Super Bowl MVP.
16:33
Speaker 1: Neither the Colts nor the Giants had particularly good defenses
16:38
Speaker 1: that year. In fact, there are two of the very
16:39
Speaker 1: few outliers and that their bottom ten defenses that actually
16:43
Speaker 1: won super Bowls. But look at what happened in the
16:45
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. Let's start with two thousand and six. The
16:48
Speaker 1: Colts beat the Bears twenty nine seventeen in Super Bowl
16:53
Speaker 1: forty one, and so the Bears had both an offense
16:57
Speaker 1: and a defense that was ranked in the top three
17:00
Speaker 1: at the time, but the Colts came up with such
17:03
Speaker 1: a dynamic defensive performance in this one game that they
17:07
Speaker 1: were able to completely contain the Bears, hold them the
17:10
Speaker 1: seventeen points, and that's ultimately why the Colts won. I mean,
17:14
Speaker 1: this wasn't the greatest show on turf. Twenty nine points
17:16
Speaker 1: is not like, oh my god, you're ripping your hair out.
17:18
Speaker 1: Move forward to Super Bowl forty six, when Eli Manning
17:21
Speaker 1: and his Giants were in the house that Peyton built
17:23
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis, Lucas Oil Stadium, and the Giants beat the
17:27
Speaker 1: Patriots one seventeen. That Giants defense was not particularly good.
17:33
Speaker 1: They were actually twenty five and points per game allowed,
17:36
Speaker 1: but they had these four tremendous defensive ends that defensive
17:39
Speaker 1: coordinator Peri Fuel used in his Nascar defense. Their stunts,
17:43
Speaker 1: their pressure, they completely messed with Tom Brady, hold the
17:47
Speaker 1: Patriots and Tom Brady to seventeen points, and hey, the
17:50
Speaker 1: Giants win their second Super Bowl under Tom Coughlin and
17:53
Speaker 1: Eli Manning. So while that doesn't necessarily fit our earlier
17:57
Speaker 1: explanation of great defenses over the course of the season,
18:01
Speaker 1: it is about coming up with a tremendous defensive performance
18:05
Speaker 1: and that's what ultimately won the game. In the cherry
18:09
Speaker 1: on the top here is that only nine teams have
18:13
Speaker 1: won a Super Bowl with a scoring offense ranked outside
18:16
Speaker 1: the top ten. But those nine teams were basically bailed
18:21
Speaker 1: out by their defenses. Seven Green Bay Packers they were
18:26
Speaker 1: the thirteenth worst in points per game, the New York
18:30
Speaker 1: Giants they were fourteenth worst, the two thousand to Tampa
18:33
Speaker 1: Bay Bucks fifteenth worst in points per game, the two
18:37
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Steelers, which we just talked about, thirteenth worst in
18:40
Speaker 1: points per game. On the two thousand fifteen Denver Broncos
18:44
Speaker 1: fourteenth worst in points per game. None of those offenses
18:48
Speaker 1: were setting anybody on fire, but their defenses drove them too,
18:55
Speaker 1: and then led them to Super Bowl titles. Well, one
18:59
Speaker 1: of the things that's kind of interesting is you make
19:01
Speaker 1: reference to some of those teams in some of those
19:03
Speaker 1: instances we're talking about decades ago, and I get the
19:05
Speaker 1: Denver Bronco that's not that long ago. But the point is,
19:09
Speaker 1: I think we can all agree that the game is
19:12
Speaker 1: trending more towards offenses. And if you look at the
19:15
Speaker 1: last ten Super Bowl winners according to d v o A,
19:18
Speaker 1: and some people are like, what's d v o A. Well,
19:20
Speaker 1: if you're static you know exactly what we're talking about.
19:22
Speaker 1: The analytics experts, they love to use d v o A,
19:26
Speaker 1: which stands for defense adjusted value over average. Basically, it's
19:30
Speaker 1: stats that measure a team's efficiency by comparing success on
19:33
Speaker 1: every single play to the league average based on situation
19:37
Speaker 1: an opponent. Trust me, it sounds complicated, and it is
19:41
Speaker 1: actually complicated, So we won't go into full details around
19:44
Speaker 1: that stuff. But if you just trust in that metric
19:47
Speaker 1: and you look at those last tense Super Bowl winners
19:49
Speaker 1: using d v o A, the average rank of the
19:51
Speaker 1: defenses z LEMN, where's the offense. It's actually ranked higher,
19:56
Speaker 1: sitting at eighth. So it does seem like the offenses
20:00
Speaker 1: more recently seem to have a little bit more success
20:03
Speaker 1: in some of those bigger games. I just feel like
20:06
Speaker 1: you're reaching at this point with the d v o A.
20:11
Speaker 1: I think that that's one of the magical qualities of numbers.
20:14
Speaker 1: You can make them tell you whatever you want them
20:16
Speaker 1: to tell you. But here I'll give you numbers that
20:19
Speaker 1: you cannot quibble with, and that is takeaways. To me.
20:25
Speaker 1: One of the most important, not just exciting, but important
20:29
Speaker 1: defensive metrics is how good is your team at taking
20:33
Speaker 1: the ball away, Can you stem momentum, can you change
20:36
Speaker 1: the tide? Can you stall a drive? It's what Steeler
20:39
Speaker 1: said coach Mike Tomlin called splash plays. So how about
20:43
Speaker 1: this one thirty six out of the fifty five Super
20:47
Speaker 1: Bowl winners, that means more than sixty five per cent
20:50
Speaker 1: of every team that's won a Super Bowl ranks in
20:53
Speaker 1: the top ten in takeaways. Seven teams won a Super
20:58
Speaker 1: Bowl after finishing first in takeaways that season, and really
21:03
Speaker 1: six of the first thirty five Super Bowls were won
21:06
Speaker 1: by the team that ranked first in takeaway. So there's
21:09
Speaker 1: only three teams. Though. Let me tell you this because
21:11
Speaker 1: it's kind of cool. There's only three teams in the
21:14
Speaker 1: entire Super Bowl era that finished number one in total
21:17
Speaker 1: yards per game allowed, which we talked about earlier, and
21:20
Speaker 1: points per game allowed, which we talked about earlier, and
21:22
Speaker 1: this stat takeaways. That's the Seahawks, which of course won
21:27
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, the Chicago Bears, which of course won
21:30
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, and then the nineteen seven Minnesota Vikings
21:34
Speaker 1: who lost in the divisional round. But you know, I'm
21:37
Speaker 1: not blaming that entirely on the defense. I actually buy
21:40
Speaker 1: into what you're saying with regard to takeaways. I don't
21:42
Speaker 1: know if you realize this, Adity. I don't think you
21:44
Speaker 1: and I have talked about this, but I actually do
21:46
Speaker 1: my own statistical analysis and modeling on my own and
21:51
Speaker 1: I always use yeah we can, Yeah, we could talk
21:54
Speaker 1: about that off air, but I always use turnovers as
21:57
Speaker 1: a metric because I do think it. It leads to it.
21:59
Speaker 1: It is a predictor to success. So I'm not suggesting
22:02
Speaker 1: that defense doesn't win championships or does because you obviously
22:07
Speaker 1: need a really strong defense. We chronicle the numbers and
22:09
Speaker 1: what they mean. Generally speaking, being in the top five,
22:12
Speaker 1: top ten in both offense and defense get a really
22:14
Speaker 1: good chance of making it to the Super Bowl. I
22:16
Speaker 1: do think the importance of takeaways is really significant. But
22:19
Speaker 1: off of those takeaways, Adity, you're kind of relying on
22:22
Speaker 1: your offense to deliver and score unless we're talking about
22:25
Speaker 1: a scoop and score or a pick six. So you
22:27
Speaker 1: need to be able to score. And look, I know
22:30
Speaker 1: where you're at, and you're a defense wins championship type
22:33
Speaker 1: of person. I think the game the way it's played
22:35
Speaker 1: right now, you need offense. It is skeewed heavily. Some
22:37
Speaker 1: of the rules, some of the things that we've seen
22:39
Speaker 1: on the field does give offenses an advantage. And the
22:43
Speaker 1: only thing that I will say is, while it's fun
22:46
Speaker 1: to watch, you know, defense and the toughness, I think
22:48
Speaker 1: if your team has the mentality that you're just tougher
22:51
Speaker 1: no matter how you deliver it, whether it's on offense
22:53
Speaker 1: or defense, you still got a pretty good chance of
22:55
Speaker 1: winning the game because this is a game for tough
22:58
Speaker 1: players to try to achieve at the highest peaks, which
23:01
Speaker 1: is winning a Super Bowl. Sure, but here's my last
23:04
Speaker 1: final point, Mike, and you're not going to be able
23:08
Speaker 1: to talk your way out of this one. This is
23:10
Speaker 1: when we come to our quiz section. Okay, so seven
23:13
Speaker 1: times in the Super Bowl era, the number one scoring
23:17
Speaker 1: defense in the NFL met up with the number one
23:20
Speaker 1: scoring offense. Got it, super Bowl matchup, number one scoring
23:26
Speaker 1: defense versus the number one scoring offense. Give me a record.
23:30
Speaker 1: I would imagine it's not heavily favored towards the offensive players.
23:34
Speaker 1: Knowing where you stand and how you give me a record,
23:36
Speaker 1: give me a record, stop and give me a record.
23:38
Speaker 1: Four and one. I won't go with a clean sweep,
23:41
Speaker 1: just to seven seven seven? Uh? Then I will go
23:47
Speaker 1: one game above them, will do a little four in
23:49
Speaker 1: three action No. Six and one. Six times the number
23:57
Speaker 1: one scoring defense took it to the number one scoring offense.
24:01
Speaker 1: The one exception was in nine when San Francisco beat Denver,
24:07
Speaker 1: but that's because that offense was so outrageous and ridiculous
24:10
Speaker 1: the score was ten. I'd also love to know what
24:14
Speaker 1: those defenses were offensively and what those offensive teams were defensively,
24:18
Speaker 1: because then I'll circle back right to what Bill Belichick
24:21
Speaker 1: said and the quote from the start of this podcast,
24:23
Speaker 1: being a well balanced team will get it done. So
24:25
Speaker 1: me and I don't know enough about it can and
24:27
Speaker 1: maybe we can dig if you have the teams in
24:29
Speaker 1: front of you. I'd love to know the rankings because
24:31
Speaker 1: that's how I would talk my way out of that
24:33
Speaker 1: situation and team. You know, look, I have covered Mike
24:35
Speaker 1: Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers and the a f C
24:37
Speaker 1: North for a long time, and there's one ethos in
24:40
Speaker 1: this sort of weather and in this division, and that
24:42
Speaker 1: is that when you have a good defense, you always
24:45
Speaker 1: have a chance. And in fact, that is something that
24:47
Speaker 1: Mike Tomlin has said repeatedly. He's been a part of
24:49
Speaker 1: a number one defense as an assistant coach in Tampa
24:52
Speaker 1: Bay with those two thousand and two bucks. He was
24:54
Speaker 1: with the Steelers when the number one defense won the
24:57
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight Super Bowl. So again, for me,
25:01
Speaker 1: I think that if you can stop the other guys,
25:04
Speaker 1: you're in good shape. And if I we're building a team,
25:06
Speaker 1: I'd build my team around a great pass rusher before
25:09
Speaker 1: I would behind a great running back. You know, Mike
25:12
Speaker 1: Tomlins quote does resonate for me, and I think you're
25:15
Speaker 1: right because when your offense is having a bad day,
25:17
Speaker 1: if you can rely on your defense and win ugly,
25:19
Speaker 1: for sure, I think there's something to be said for that.
25:21
Speaker 1: And hopefully your bad day doesn't come when the world's
25:25
Speaker 1: eyes are on you in the Super Bowl. And if
25:27
Speaker 1: it does and you have that better defense, maybe it
25:30
Speaker 1: is a way to make the case to win a championship.
25:32
Speaker 1: But the way the rules are set up, the way
25:34
Speaker 1: things are trending, I'll still take my offense and feel
25:37
Speaker 1: good about my chances. But I'll go back to what
25:39
Speaker 1: you said a little while ago when you were talking
25:40
Speaker 1: about toughness. Don't you feel like defensive players have a
25:43
Speaker 1: little different mentality than offensive players. Yeah, I think generally speaking,
25:47
Speaker 1: there's something to that. But I'm the last guy that
25:49
Speaker 1: says some of those big boys, those mushroom men up
25:51
Speaker 1: front on an offensive line that have done a tremendous
25:54
Speaker 1: job in in You know, if you want to run
25:56
Speaker 1: the football, for example, which is by the way, part
25:58
Speaker 1: of offense, like those are tough dudes as well, and
26:00
Speaker 1: it's not always the easiest thing to be the target.
26:02
Speaker 1: You know. It's one thing when you know the hit
26:04
Speaker 1: is coming because you're the guy unleashing it, and there's
26:06
Speaker 1: definitely a tough mentality. It's another thing to be a
26:09
Speaker 1: wide receiver going across the middle know that some dude's
26:11
Speaker 1: trying to take your head off as well, and that's
26:13
Speaker 1: not always the easiest thing. The game is filled with
26:15
Speaker 1: tough people. But to your point, I would generally say,
26:19
Speaker 1: maybe that does lie on the defense. But if I'm
26:22
Speaker 1: building my team, I just want tough dudes fair. But
26:24
Speaker 1: I mean, we'll see what happens, right, We've got another season,
26:27
Speaker 1: We've got another data point to add in just a
26:30
Speaker 1: few months. But I'm still going to ride with the
26:33
Speaker 1: idea that, especially in January, especially in bad weather, it's
26:38
Speaker 1: your defense that's going to carry you well. I would
26:40
Speaker 1: love to know what some of our listeners think about this,
26:43
Speaker 1: and we have actually got a lot of interaction lately,
26:46
Speaker 1: and of course we've got our mail Bag episode coming
26:48
Speaker 1: up very very soon, so continue to fire off some
26:51
Speaker 1: of those tweets. I'm compiling the list at Mike Underscore,
26:54
Speaker 1: yam at a king kabwala. You can use the hashtag
26:57
Speaker 1: NFL explain And if you think defense wins championships, don't
27:01
Speaker 1: at me just you can just at a d D
27:03
Speaker 1: and you guys can have your little celebration party. But
27:05
Speaker 1: you think it's all about the offense, to make sure
27:07
Speaker 1: you hit up a d D ki kabwala tag me
27:09
Speaker 1: on that so I can get the last last, all right, Mike,
27:11
Speaker 1: And that for everybody out there, and you especially is
27:15
Speaker 1: the supremacy of defenses explained brought to you by up work,
27:25
Speaker 1: where you can build the team that will build your business.
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