The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

[55]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

The thing I remember most about the 2000 Ravens is that they had a five game stretch where they didn't score a single touchdown. It's a safe bet that a Super Bowl winning team never does that again. They literally went a third of a season without scoring a single touchdown.

[JayBee74]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

The thing I remember most about the 2000 Ravens is that they had a five game stretch where they didn't score a single touchdown. It's a safe bet that a Super Bowl winning team never does that again. They literally went a third of a season without scoring a single touchdown.

Yeah, that five game stretch produced a 3 game losing streak (12-0, 15-10, 3-10, 6-14, 6-9), which finally prompted Billick to bench Tony Banks in favor of Dilfer. We ended up 12-4 to Tennessee's 13-3, and they were the only team I was remotely worried about.

[slickdtc]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

Grits Blitz! - '77 Falcons nickname. They were literally a flash in the pan, though.

[JayBee74]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

Grits Blitz! - '77 Falcons nickname. They were literally a flash in the pan, though.

Great Def. They don't get a lot of credit, because the team couldn't produce even a winning record, much less a title.

[SPTO]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

Grits Blitz! - '77 Falcons nickname. They were literally a flash in the pan, though.

They were an AWESOME defense in '77. Not sure if I have any '77 Falcons games off the top of my head but I know they lived off the reputation of that season for a couple years afterwards. If you thought the 46 was an aggressive defense than you didn't see the Gritz Blitz because i've seen some games from that era and Glanville brought the kitchen sink on about 80-90% of the snaps.

[55]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

It's crazy to think they only allowed 9.2 points per game and didn't even make the playoffs.

[swaldo]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

There's so many factors (rule changes etc) it's really impossible to name a number 1. And I can't take a list like this seriously without opponent strength being factored. You also have to factor in how good their offense was, I'd give extra points to a good "D" who had a lousy offense.

The 2014 Seahawks faced 8 offenses that ranked 21-32 in the regular season, and only 4 teams ranked in the top ten. In the 8 games where they had to face a reasonable offense (ranked in the top 20) they allowed a mortal 20 PPG average.

The 1985 Bears is probably the best I've ever seen - but they caught the league off guard with the "46" D and they had a meltdown against Dan Marino.

The 1976 Steelers is also up there on my list. They have some of the best numbers even though they started their season 1-4. At that point Joe Green actually got pissed and told his team "From here on nobody gets past the 50 yard line!" They proceeded to allow only 28 points over their remaining 9 games and completely shut-out 5 teams! But they slipped against the Raiders in the playoffs.

I don't see the 86 Giants listed, and you "hated" putting the 1990 team on the board? They were one of the best I've seen, playing Joe Montana twice and allowing only 20 points. Those were some of the best games I've ever seen, finesse Hall of Famers vs Brutal Killers. The Giants hit Montana so hard it symbolically ended his career with the Niners, and they also gave him a nasty concussion in 1986. In the Super Bowl they beat the high flying Bills no-huddle offense who were just rolling over teams (they beat the Raiders 51-3 in the Championship game.) The Giants had to switch to nickel & dime packages designed by defensive coordinator Bill Belichick and won the game 20-19.

The 1986 team was just as nasty. They harassed QB's while only bringing four bodies (DL's Marshall, Martin & Burt with "LT" flying in from all over the place.) The other 3 LB's were top notch - Carl Banks who shut down TE's while Carson & Reasons stuffed runs up the middle and they had a solid rookie in Pepper Johnson. They used a "bend but don't break" soft 2-deep zone that didn't allow any big plays. With the LB's speed you couldn't throw to the flats or run outside, and you couldn't run inside either against Burt, Carson & Reasons. All you could do was throw little underneath stuff in the middle of the field...and promptly get blasted. Thus, they were a WR's nightmare.

In 1986 they beat Bill Walsh's Niners twice, John Elway twice, the Eagles Ron Jaworski/Randall Cunningham twice, Neil Lomax twice, Dan Fouts, Jim Plunkett and the Vikings Tommy Kramer. They also beat the Redskins 3 times against 4000 yard passer Jay Shroeder who had the hogs & one of the best receiving duo's ever (Monk & Clark.) They should've been led by Joe Theismann, but...well the Giants broke his leg in 1985. The only ones who beat them was the Cowboys Danny White (who they beat & knocked out in the 2nd game) and Seahawks Dave Kreig. That's crazy, I mean how many Hall of Famers did this team face?

Imagine having to go up against the 49ers Roger Craig, Jerry Rice & Dwight Clark? San Diego's Joiner, Chandler & Winslow? The Redskins Monk & Clark? Dallas had WR Tony Hill along with Herschel Walker & Tony Dorset in the backfield. The Raiders had Marcus Allen, Seattle had RB Curt Warner & WR Steve Largent. I'd like to see some of the other mentionable defenses play and beat those offenses.

And just for the record I'm a Niners fan. The 80's Giants were just scary man, I don't think any team from any era would want to face them. I think the 85 & 86 team knocked 9 QB's out of the lineup which included Joe Theismann, Tommy Kramer, Ron Jaworski, Danny White and Joe Montana.

Medical report: On the play on which he was injured, Jaworski took such a deep drop to avoid the rush that he ended up completing a pass for an 11-yard loss. Hit by Hunt just as he threw, Jaworski tore the tendon in his right little finger when he hit the artificial turf. He was out for the season.

Jaworski won't lose any sleep if he never sees the Giants again. In the first meeting, at Giants Stadium Oct. 12, Jaworski lost feeling in his right hand after being hit by Marshall. Jaworski was sacked six times in that game.

"I looked at the film again and I took 13 clean hits," Jaworski said. "I mean clean hits. I came home and asked if I really wanted to do this. They just kept coming. They just kept moving Taylor from side to side."

[SPTO]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

Just a little note on the '85 Bears the 46 defense was introduced late in the '83 season and took a while to be perfected. It wasn't a one year phenomenon.

[swaldo]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

Just a little note on the '85 Bears the 46 defense was introduced late in the '83 season and took a while to be perfected. It wasn't a one year phenomenon.

The 46 was first used in 1981 - "46" was named from the jersey number of safety Doug Plank. You are right, it took awhile to perfect. When it woke up the league and was viewed as "the real deal" it took offenses time to adjust. Those who rigidly stuck to their pro-set game plan got destroyed.

[SPTO]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

The 46 was first used in 1981 - "46" was named from the jersey number of safety Doug Plank. You are right, it took awhile to perfect. When it woke up the league and was viewed as "the real deal" it took offenses time to adjust. Those who rigidly stuck to their pro-set game plan got destroyed.

Yep '81 that was a booboo on my part. I have the game where the 46 was used for the first time as the primary defense against the Chargers.

[swaldo]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

Cool man, the first appearance of the 46 vs Air Coryell is definately a keeper! Dan Fouts was the man, it felt like an automatic touchdown every time he stepped on the field.

I have a tape of the '82 Niners vs Chargers. Montana & Fouts threw for 800 yards combined with over 1000 yards gained total. The Chargers won 41-37. Somewhere around 100 pass attempts with 0 sacks

[SPTO]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

I have a tape of the '82 Niners vs Chargers. Montana & Fouts threw for 800 yards combined with over 1000 yards gained total. The Chargers won 41-37. Somewhere around 100 pass attempts with 0 sacks

Yeah that's another great game in my collection as well. It was magical seeing two great masters at the craft dueling it out in such fashion.

[footbrawl]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

I don't see the 86 Giants listed, and you "hated" putting the 1990 team on the board?

Not too fond of them beating my Bills in the Super Bowl

[SPTO]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

Not too fond of them beating my Bills in the Super Bowl

I've seen enough of the '86 Giants to know their defense was better than the '90 team. The Giants didn't win SB XXV based on their defense but rather based on killing the clock with time consuming drives.

[swaldo]

Re: The Best Defense in NFL History? (My Project)

True, the whole game plan was all about keeping Buffalo's offense off the field and the Giants executed perfectly. I do remember a lot of people thinking the Bills had a big advantage because the secondary was the Giants biggest weakness and they would be forced into a nickel & dime defense. Still, they made the Bills punt 6 times which was impressive, nobody even knew who the punter was because he rarely had to show himself that year.

And I think you're right, the 86 team was better, here's a video of a typical play from them...

<iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="270" src="//www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x1ea72h" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ea72h_herb-welch-picks-off-schroeder_sport" target="_blank">Herb Welch picks off Schroeder</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/mattinsgs" target="_blank">mattinsgs</a></i>