Face-Off: Chad Underwood says "Defense Wins Championships"

"Oh Yeah, Rick. It is going down right now. How dare you disrespect us."- Steelers Defense 

 
 "Defense wins championships" is not just some worn out saying used to keep teams grounded, it is a fact. When Rick and I decided to write these dueling columns, I thought the battle would be much harder than it has been. In my opinion, the numbers tell the story just fine.

   As we saw on last Thursday night with Packers/Saints, any two teams can get together and play no defense and possibly get a win. Does that mean they are complete offensive juggernauts? In some cases, yes. But last Thursday's performance by the Saints and Packers (and you could ask both head coaches this) is no way to get back to the Super Bowl. 

   Super Bowl champions have delivered when it comes to defense. Out of all forty-five champions, 15 of them were ranked number one in "team defense". On average, a Super Bowl winning team has a overall team defense of 4.95, making it very important to crack the top five each season if you want the best chance at winning it all. 

   As for offense, the numbers tend to fall a little. Super Bowl champs have only had the number one rated offense 10 times and averages out to be an all-time 6.44. So there is real proof that through the leagues' history, defense has had the slight edge versus offense. 

   Now some might try to make the case that the offenses have been better lately and that the league is trending a certain way, but that is where the numbers continue to reveal the truth. The past three Super Bowl champs have had a total team offense of 10.3, while their defenses ranked 7.6.

   It pains me to type this, but look at last season's Super Bowl: Clay Matthews forces a fumble that enabled the offense to score once again. What did it take for the Packers to win in the fourth quarter? Was Aaron Rodgers on the field? No. It was a great Packer defense shutting down one of the best quarterbacks to run to two-minute drill ever (Ben Roethlisberger)* 

   I think what can confuse some is that we have seen some great offenses in the past decade, but they have not won the titles. The entire Manning era of the Colts,  although it has been an incredible thing to watch, has only produced one championship. The San Diego Chargers have been a Top 5 offense since 2004 but have not even been to a Super Bowl in that time frame. The 2008 Patriots (which I think is the greatest offense of all time) failed to win a championship after flipping off the league all year long. Offense alone cannot get it done. 

   I had a talk with a close friend when I was preparing to write this column, and he seemed to say it best when it came to this debate.** He said, "Defense is more important if, for no other reason, it makes a team adapt more so than an offense. The best defenses never have to change." 

   The Steelers have been running the same stuff for years and it always puts them in a excellent position to win. So it should not come to a surprise that they have the most Super Bowl championships! (I had to sneak that one in).

   Fact: Defense Wins Championships is a really lame and cheesy line. But it happens to be true, and I have feeling it will be for a long time.   

   


*I hate Super Bowl XLV.
** Thanks to Steven Stone for the quotes.


Chad Underwood is the editor-in-chief of Students Of The Game. He is currently attending Auburn University at Montgomery and majoring in Mass Communications.