Just a quick thought about the upcoming playoffs in the NFL.
Where is the Defense?
The old adage "defense wins championships" has been going the way of the dodo bird for a while now. Offense is the way of the league now. As a fan of great defense I am disappointed just how offense-centric the league has become.
But what about the Pittsburgh Steelers win last year you ask? If you think they won that game with defense, you watched a different game than I did. Lights out 2 minute offense won the Superbowl last year, not a shut down defense.
So why has defense gone away? Here are my top reasons:
-The rules and officiating today penalize defenders. There were two pass interference calls today against the Panthers in their game against the Patriots that were at best bad calls, and at worst just outrageous. Defenders cannot touch receivers after 5 yards, and really jamming at the line is a borderline holding call as well. The rules favor offense, it is clear.
-The talent level on offense is much greater than on defense. In years past I would say talent was well balanced between the two sides, now the offensive players are clearly levels above defenders. This becomes self-reinforcing as more and more talented players will go for offensive positions early on in their football careers (high school, college) further depleting defensive ranks.
-There seems to be a lack of interest in defense. By this I mean teams seem to be content to lay back and play "prevent" styles of defense rather than mix it up.
Add it up and defense is a fading art in the NFL. This makes games higher scoring, and to some more exciting, but without balance it resembles arena football.
Where are the Deion Sanders, Ray Lewis (in his prime), Reggie White, Bruce Smith, Tedy Bruschi level players? We need some defense!
Have a good night.
18 comments:
Against a grey December sky, the Four Horsemen rode again on Sunday. You know them, Pestilence, Death, Famine, . . . Dallas.
Season's over. These Cowboys won't win another game. And why? Offensive play calling.
Jason Garrett is an idiot. What the hell is this? March 78 yards down the field, get to the goal line, motion the fullback to the left, have the guard pull to the right, hand off the Marion Barber, who gets tackled behind the line of scrimmage for a loss, three and out, settle for a missed field goal. That's the game right there.
It is true that defense wins champions, but offense wins games. And the championship is a game.
I totally agree with you, GYC, we need defense. But we also need offense and special teams. You have to be able to play well in all three aspects of the game, if you want to win consistently.
Gawains,
I was very dissapinted in he Cowboys; they had it all there for them today and came up short. We are a sad pair indeed.
Dallas is @Saints, @Skins, host Philly. Wade Phillips will not be coaching Dallas much longer.
Damn. Just looked at the remaining schedule of teams in the hunt for wildcards in AFC. Denver needs to win out to guarantee a spot. They host Oakland, visit Eagles and host KC. 2 very winnable, 1 iffy.
I think Denver will be ok. They did lose, but thats core was deceptive; the game was very close.
Gawains would agree, Wade Phillips has to go. Mike Shanahan pick up the phone!
I wanted to really depress myself so I looked over the draft potentials for the off season and available free agents; my take...The Patriots are screwed because there is not much out there.
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Curious to me that the first defensive player to come to your mind is Deion Sanders.
I agree wholeheartedly, Sanders was one of the best "cover" corners out there. However, when I think of Sanders, my gut reaction is always "great in coverage, couldnt tackle to save his life".
The dynamic would change if offensive holding were ever called but protect the quarterback is the new unspoken rule.
While we are discussing rule changes points after should be taken straight out from where the ball crosses the plane. Don't get me started about throwing away the ball calls.
Anon at 8am;
I always think of Neon Deion when it comes to conerback. The best pure cover corner in history IMO. It is tru he could not tackle a punter, but nobody would even throw to his side of the field when he was on. As a long time Saints fan I can remember Sanders spoling plenty of games versus the Falcons!
RobDawg,
that extra point idea is way cool! We have to get into the competition comittee.
Boulder Buddy;
please dont start your crap here I will delete any of your posts.
"The best pure cover corner in history IMO."
Better than Herb Adderly or Dick "Night Train" Lane? Sounds like a "recency" bias to me...
BTW think Jerry Rice is the best WR in history? Maybe so, but first, look up the records of Don Hutson. The stuff he did in the 30s & 40s will blow your mind...
Anon,
Herb Adderly and Night Train Lane are from a different era and cannot be compared to "recent" players. I stick by Sanders as the best corner I have ever seen.
All,
I never really had an issue with the comments until today. There is a disgruntled poster making his issues a part of this site and it is going to stop or I will have to "moderate" comments which sucks. Cut it out and do not motivate me to reverse search for you (the internets are far from anonymous if you are motivated) get it? Clean it up.
GYC, the malicious comments didn't really start popping up until late last week. I had to draw the line and moderate comments - at least for the time being - as one of posters plastered a couple of addresses in the Denver area of families with my last name. I received a call from one of them this morining asking if I had been receiving a rash of "caller i.d. blocked" hang-ups. So for now, I have to have the moderation filter in place.
In my view, the more commentators like you and I are targeted by morons like this, the more it reinforces that our views are correct. If these people like Boulderbuddy, CommonSenseGuy and JoeM don't like my views, why don't they take the time to publish their own views with their own commentary. It's free to set up a blog. I'd be happy to post a debate between the pro and anti gold views. I think it's more likely that people like this are spineless, peanut gallery cockroaches who scatter when the lights switch on. I've invited all three of them to contact me directly via email if they want to conduct an off-blog discussion, and of course that had the effect of turning on the lights. Thankfully this blog software has it's on version of Raid LOL.
Dave,
Agreed. Sniping and complaining is easy, having an open discussion is hard. Some choose one and not the other.
Deion way overrated. But he promoted himself and many bought what he was selling so he's considered one of the best. BS. Very good cover guy, like about 40 other cover guys over the past 20 years. Very good db's also have to tackle running backs.
Other things - despite Denver being atrocious, they'll make the playoffs by virtue of playing Oakland and KC so that's two more wins for them - puts them in. And offensive holding calls are ALWAYS called, not sure where that poster came up with that line about it helping the offense.
You guys need to watch more football.
"I stick by Sanders as the best corner I have ever seen."
Thats a bit different than best corner in history. Whats the point of saying "in history" unless you mean to compare different eras.
Anon,
I try to stick to the "modern" era. I think you would have to agree that the DB's of old could never cover the 4.40 speed demons of today plus the QB's are much better.
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