Papa-pwn":3kxp8181 said:
DavidSeven":3kxp8181 said:
They didn't play a good defense all year. They barely even played any average defenses. They played the Giants early when they were a mess. KC was a paper tiger and finished #24 in total defense. They played Houston at the end of the season after they had already tanked.
To get to the Super Bowl, they outlasted an 8-8 Chargers team and beat a decimated Patriots team that lost their #1 CB.
Denver played 5 games this year against top 10 defenses, in terms of points. I've noticed a lot of threats regarding the yards given up by Denver's opponents, but not points. To say they haven't played an average defense is pure bias, as any team ranking in the top 10 defensively against points is at least an above average defense. Even more impressive is only one of Denver's offensive weapons was completely healthy all year, the least talents of the bunch, Eric Decker. Demaryius, Julius, Welker, and Moreno all missed time with injuries this year. Despite those injuries, and playing several games against top 5 scoring defenses, Denver still scored the most points in NFL history.
San Diego was 9-7.
You're right, the Patriots did lose their #1 CB after the game was essentially over. I don't see how that has any relevance though.
Kansas City finished top 10 in points allowed, but they far from had a top 10 defense, that's why they went 1-6 against teams with a winning record, with that 1 win coming against the Eagles early in the season, well before they had their offensive breakout. 2 of the
three defenses that Denver played that finished top 10 in scoring defense also finished bottom 10 in yards, the other 20th.
You can't be a top 10 defense if you give up that many yards - scoring defense is something, but look at the Ravens for example, who were 12th in yards allowed, which is far better than all 3 of those defenses, and 12th in points allowed, but allowed less touchdowns than both the Patriots and Colts on defense, but more field goals (and importantly, had 4 interceptions returned for TDS).
Additionally, Flacco had 22 interceptions, only 5 less than Alex Smith, Tom Brady and Andrew Luck combined. That will always have an effect on your scoring defense, as it leaves the opposition typically in good field position. Those 3 teams have very good ball-control offenses that allowed
Regardless, the Seahawks have played 6 games against 3 of the top 4 teams in points allowed, and won 5 of them (the one team they didn't play they practice against every week), All 3 also finished in the top 5 in yards allowed. 8 of their 18 games this year were against teams that finished in the top 10 in both yards and points allowed, yet the Seahawks still finished top 10 in scoring, less than 30 points shy of the 2nd placed team.
Just 4 of their games came against teams that finished in the bottom half of the league in both yards and points allowed.
Using a very simple metric, I ranked teams by combined points allowed and yards allowed (if you finished 1st in points and 1st in yards as Seattle did, 2 points, 31st in yards and 32nd in points as Minnesota did, 63 points etc), and ranked them.
11 games out of 18 for Seattle against top 10 teams, just 5 against bottom 16 (and averaged over 33 PPG in those 5).
Denver played just 2 games out of 18 against top 10 teams (NYG and Baltimore, who, incidently, finished top 10 in DVOA as well, though oddly, both of these were among Denver's highest scoring games, though it should be noted that NY conceded ovver 30 points in each of their first 5 games, and 27 in the 6th), and TWELVE games against bottom 16 teams.
