SPORTS KISZLA: NFL ENJOYING EXPLOSION OF OFFENSE
In the NFL, where scoring has skyrocketed and television ratings are making a healthy comeback, maybe all it took for America to feel good about pro football again was those kneeling players to stand up and do touchdown dances.
History will record 2018 as the year America’s favorite game outlawed sacking the quarterback, banned slobber-knocking a receiver and frowned on defense in general. This is not your father’s NFL. In fact, I’m not certain it’s even football any longer. Often, it more closely resembles hoops with helmets.
In three playoff games on their way to winning Super Bowl 50, the Broncos surrendered a stingy 14.7 points per game. That was barely three seasons ago, but seems like ancient history in the new NFL.
“The only way you’re giving up less than 20 points a game is your whole secondary has to be great, with no weak links, and your D-Line has to be just amazing, too,” Denver cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said Wednesday.
How true. What’s any self-respecting, talented defender supposed to do?
As New Orleans defensive end Cameron Jordan, one of the sport’s premier pass-rushers, told SB Nation earlier this year, Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady are now almost as untouchable as if they were playing Madden from the safety of the sofa. “Hit the quarterback, but don’t,” Jordan said. “Sack the quarterback and help your team out, but before he lands, put a pillow underneath his head, read him a bedtime story … all
after asking if you can invade his personal space.”
The Broncos beat Carolina in Super Bowl 50 by pouncing ferociously on Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. How 2016 was that? The league is now all about 54-51, with points scored so fast and furiously on “Monday Night Football” the mouth of analyst Jason Witten cannot possibly keep up.
In a league were touchdowns have become cheap, perhaps we need a new way to look at the stat sheet. Points per possession are just as important as total passing yards or completion percentage. On defense, maybe there should be less focus on getting stops than producing killer turnovers that can be taken all the way to the house for a score, or at least set up a short field in addition to a change of possession.
By this new, evolving standard, there’s no question Chicago is the No. 1 defense in this new NFL. The Bears rank first in the league in both points per possession allowed (1.58) and turnovers forced (27). The Broncos don’t quite measure up. The Denver defense ranks 18th of 32 teams in points per possession, at 2.08, and a pedestrian 15th in turnovers, with 14.
But it was an interception of a screen pass by Broncos linebacker Von Miller, who returned a ball thrown by Philip Rivers 42 yards to put Denver’s offense immediately in business in the red zone, which completely flipped a game late in the third quarter in Los Angeles.
Up until that point, the Chargers had not been forced to punt a single time, and Rivers was well on his way to throwing for 401 yards, a single-game total surpassed by John Elway only once in the 234 regularseason games of his illustrious career. Throwing for 400 yards isn’t the big deal it used to be, another reason why the value of forcing turnovers has increased.
“Turnovers are killers,” Miller said. Turnovers might be the only legal weapon left for an NFL defense.
Let’s replay the offensive fireworks ignited by the Rams and Chiefs that has the whole league buzzing this week, as hot-take kings declare it will soon be that even the first team to 50 points won’t be guaranteed to win. But is this really the new NFL? Seems to me I recall seeing this movie before, way back in 2013, when Peyton Manning and Tony Romo blew scoreboard fuses in Dallas during a 51-48 Broncos victory.
The rules of engagement, however, have changed enough NFL defenses need a new way to keep score in order not to get overwhelmed by frustration that even Harris, a Pro Bowl cornerback, has admitted to experiencing.
Despite six TD passes and a career-high 478 passing yards by Mahomes, a primary reason the Rams won the game that defines 2018 was their defense scored a touchdown off a fumble, an interception and also flipped the field on a strip sack by defensive tackle Aaron Donald.
Yes, all the rules in the new NFL are stacked against the defense. Harris got flagged for pass interference against the Chargers while getting smacked in the head by a receiver. Please, don’t remind him. It’s annoying for anyone who loves — or plays — defense.
“You all saw me cover a guy with my face crooked, and I got called for PI,” Harris said. “That tells you right there. We’re definitely set up to lose.”
So here’s a new mantra for effective defense in the new NFL: Get turnovers, or get frustrated.