Isn't this interesting?

[BWillie]

ESPN NFL analyst John Clayton in his weekly 1st and 10 column.

The Super Bowl defense eliminator: Don't you get the feeling an unconventional team could win Super Bowl XLI? Since 1983, every Super Bowl winner has ranked in the top 10 in scoring defense. If that eliminates teams from consideration, then you can scratch seven teams -- the Chiefs (11th at 19.7 points a game), the Saints (13th at 20.1), the Eagles (15th at 20.5), the Seahawks (19th at 21.3), the Cowboys (20th at 21.9), the Colts (23rd at 22.5) and the Giants (24th at 22.6). Five of the defenses not ranked in the top 10 for scoring are in the NFC, meaning only the Bears would have a chance of winning the Super Bowl. The four AFC teams in the top 10 are the Ravens, Patriots, Jets and Chargers. The Chargers are clearly the most complete team. They score 30.8 points a game and they give up 18.9 points a game, eighth best in the league. The Ravens score 22.1 points and give up a league-low 12.6. Will defense win the championship or will it be offense?
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I had no idea about this stat. Even the best show on turf with Warner had a top 10 defense evidently. 23 years and NO TEAM that had a defense worse than a top 10 scoring defense has won the Super Bowl. That is pretty amazing. Good thing is the Colts aren't going anywhere. The worst thing is we happen to be..11th! DOUGHT! After this year, maybe they will be saying since 1983 no team has won the super bowl with a defense ranked lower than the top 11th in the league...

[tk13]

Yeah that Rams team was something like 4th in scoring defense. People just equate it with bad defense becuase it went to crap after Vermeil left. Not that they were the 85 Bears, the offense definitely helped them out, but even when they got in defensive battles with teams like Tampa Bay they held up.

[Silock]

11th isn't too bad.

[DaWolf]

Coach Vermeil once said the most important stat in terms of telling how good of a football team you were was point differential. In this case, the Chargers come out looking real good...

[RINGLEADER]

A couple observations about this thread (which, being a fan of stats, is quite fascinating)...

* We are less than five points away from being in the top ten of scoring defense -- and if you want to get real technical about it our scoring defense is actually in the top ten since at least seven of the points we've surrendered came from Brodie Croyle's pick-six INT in Pittsburgh;

* I'm curious if using the top TEN was just an arbitrary threshold or, if not, how many of the Super Bowl winners were in that tenth spot;

* Also interested to know how many seasons our current scoring defense (19.7 avg. ppg) would rank in the top ten -- since ESPN's stats only go back five years it's hard to say although one of the past five seasons (2002) our current average would have landed us in the top ten.

Personally, I think we're close enough to warrant inclusion... ;) For the first time in a long time I feel good about the Chiefs chances on the road even though they're gonna be playing a winning team (just not in the last six weeks).

[CupidStunt]

Coach Vermeil once said the most important stat in terms of telling how good of a football team you were was point differential. In this case, the Chargers come out looking real good...

It can be pretty unindicative at times.

Example: 16 games, 4 against elite winning teams, 4 against winning teams, 8 against garbage teams. You lose by a combined margin of 15 points to all 4 elite teams; you break even against the 4 winning teams (2-2 and even points); and you rack up a 40+ point margin over the 8 garbage teams, beating 6 of them.

Your overall point differencial is +35, yet you're 8-8 and did nothing against decent teams.

[CupidStunt]

* We are less than five points away from being in the top ten of scoring defense -- and if you want to get real technical about it our scoring defense is actually in the top ten since at least seven of the points we've surrendered came from Brodie Croyle's pick-six INT in Pittsburgh;


Not quite because many teams below us also had non-offensive touchdowns scored against them.

I don't have the figures with me but I know the Chiefs are even lower than 11th when you work it out for the entire NFL.

But then that, of course, doesn't get into how many possessions the opposing team started in good field position, etc. Football's way too complicated a game for surface stats.

[RINGLEADER]

Not quite because many teams below us also had non-offensive touchdowns scored against them.

Don't ruin my fun...

But I still betcha we're in the top ten... ;)