Quote:
Originally Posted by TigerUppercut
How many teams did Denver blow out on their way to the SB this year?
Defense wins rings.
|
Just because a thing is said over and over again doesn't make it true.
Think about this: starting in 2000, you can find just a small handful of teams in who can be said to have won it all based primarily on their defense.
The 2000 Ravens
The 2002 Bucs
The 2015 Donks
The 2012 Giants
And I'll throw in the 2014 Seahawks too.
The rest have had excellent to Hall of Fame quarterbacks. In other words, 2/3 of Superbowl winning teams have done it based primarily on the quality of their quarterback. And that list is a short one:
Brady
Rogers
Roethlisberg
Manning
Bledsoe
And except for Bledsoe, all those guys have been to more than one Super bowl.
If you go back and look at the entire Superbowl era, you'll see the same trend: a who's-who list of HOF quarterbacks sprinkled with some teams who won championships based primarily on their defense. Of course, there's room for debate. For example, the question of whether Terry Bradshaw would've developed into who he eventually became without that defense is a worthy debate. But he eventually did become a great player.
I don't really care to debate anything about Alex Smith in particular. I just hear the whole "defense wins championships" thing thrown around as if it's as true as gravity when in fact, it isn't. The more accurate way to put it is, "With enough excellent players, together with a great defensive coordinator, a defense can win a championship."