DtownNative":348gedsn said:
Seattle defense is a MUCH better defense than Denver's by far... but Denver is peaking at the right time
Are they? Or was it more a case of the following:
New England's offense has been decimated with injuries and couldn't get anything going. Brady was throwing to guys like Austin Collie instead of the Gronk.
San Diego were missing their key running back, Ryan Mathews.
I know Denver were also missing several key defensive starters, but your offense was able to dominate early against two very weak defenses (more on that in a moment) and neither SD or NE could sustain a drive to get any early rhythm.
Neither Brady or Rivers is mobile enough to exploit the lack of contain your d-line allowed -- and their desire to sit in the pocket played right into the hands of your best healthy defensive player -- Knighton. Had Kaepernick (and to a lesser extent, Wilson) been playing you in the AFC Championship game, they would've had a minimum of 60-70 rushing yards.
In both cases, your offense absorbed so much TOP and built early leads because they were facing (according to DVOA) the #32 defense (San Diego) and the #21 defense (New England) -- with the Pats defense losing virtually all its playmakers to injury on D.
It makes life easier for a defense when the offense can do what you guys did to two terrible units.
I looked at the performance of your defense across the season and you've given up a ton of points. The offensive DVOA rankings are in brackets:
27 vs Baltimore (#30)
23 vs New York Giants (#31)
21 vs Oakland (#28)
48 vs Dallas (#11)
33 vs Indianapolis (#13)
21 vs Washington (#23)
34 vs New England (#4)
28 vs Kansas City (#15)
28 vs Tennessee (#16)
Maybe you are just peaking at the right time, but that seems unlikely without suddenly your best corner and the continued absence of Miller/Wolfe.
I think it's more a product of your opponents. And in Seattle, you get the #1 defense and the #7 offense. Not two injury hit, productive offenses and two of the worst defenses in the NFL.