Defense still key to championships
Even in QB-driven era of NFL, shutting down the opposition counts the most
INDIANAPOLIS — Two of the last three Super Bowl champions won with defense — Denver (Super Bowl 50) and Seattle (Super Bowl XLVIII). And it would be three in a row if New England didn’t make a goal line interception against Seattle toward the end of Super Bowl XLIX.
“It’s an old axiom, it’s ancient, and I believe it — offense scores points, defense wins championships,” said Carolina general manager Dave Gettleman this week during the NFL Scouting Combine. The Panthers’ NFL-best scoring offense (31.3 points per game) was shut down by Denver in this year’s Super Bowl.
“It wasn’t an accident two of the best defenses in the league were in the Super Bowl.”
In the last 10 Super Bowls, the NFL’s topranked defense (by yards per game) has made four appearances. The NFL’s top-ranked offense has made three appearances. The top-ranked defenses are 3-1, the top-ranked offenses are 1-2.
In those 10 Super Bowls, defenses ranked in the league’s top 10 have made 11 appearances while offenses ranked in the league’s top10 have made 10 appearances.
That would seem to indicate that even in this era, one which is generally defined by the phrase, “It’s a quarterback- driven league,” defense can win titles
Yet most NFL teams remain committed to throwing the ball as the way to win Super Bowls.
“It’s a passing league,” Tampa Bay general manager Jason Licht said. “It’s going to come down to it’s a quarterback-driven league. So you want a great quarterback. If you’ve got a great quarterback, you’ve got a chance.
“Winning with defense, you want a strong defense, too. If you have both, then you’re winning Super Bowls every year. You want both.
“But I think if you can solve the quarterback problem first, then I think you’re ahead of the game.”
This year’s Super Bowl matched the NFL’s No. 1 defense (Denver) against the No. 6 defense (Caroli- na). It matched the league’s No. 11 offense (Carolina) against the No. 16 offense (Denver).
Still, sentiment around the NFL generally swings toward being led by a quarterback.
“I think it’s a quarterback league,” said Gil Brandt, Dallas’ vice president of player personnel from 1960-89 and an analyst for NFL.com and SiriusXM NFL radio.
“I think what Denver did this year is an anomaly, so to speak.”
Trent Baalke, San Francisco’s general manager, rode the league’s No. 3 defense to Super Bowl XLVII, where they lost to Baltimore. He isn’t sure why NFL teams that don’t have elite quarterbacks still choose to be led by offense.
“It’d be hard for me to answer on behalf of everybody,” he said, “but I’ve always believed defense wins, and the run game wins. You have to be able to stop the run, you have to be able to run the football, you have to be able to play good defense, you’ve got get off the field on third down.
“If you can get off the field on third down and you’re good at stopping the run, and you can run the ball effectively, you’ve got a great chance to win a lot of games in the National Football League.”
Washington coach Jay Gruden, an offensive assistant on the defense-led Tampa Bay team that won Super Bowl XXXVII, favors a balanced approach to building a team.
“I think [quarterback] Russell Wilson will have an argument with you about Seattle winning with defense,” he quipped.
Gruden points out that the Buccaneers did more than play good defense.
“When we won the Super Bowl with Tampa Bay everybody talks about how great the defense was, but [quarterback] Brad Johnson had a heckuva season, our running game was pretty solid, and we did some good things in the passing game.”
Still, Gruden comes to the same conclusion as many others.
“You’ve got to have a quarterback,” he said.
Bucky Brooks, an analyst for NFL.com, thinks teams are coming around to the old-school way of thinking.
“It’s shifting,” he said. “There are only a handful of elite quarterbacks. I think what teams are realizing is if I don’t have one of those dudes, a Tom Brady, Drew Brees or the like, then I need to build a balanced team that allows me to win with a quote, unquote, game manager at the position, meaning that I have a strong defense that can keep the score down and give us the ball on offense, I have a running game that alleviates the quarterback so I don’t have to throw it 40 times.
“And then I’ve got the surrounding pieces on the outside that allows our guys to play kind of lowrisk, high-yield football.
“Complementary ball is what we call it. All of the pieces have to work in con. cert. So as much as we like to think it’s always about the quarterback, and some [of ] that is true about fantasy football, it’s never been all about the quarterback. It’s about the quarterback that plays with the best defense.”