A look at how Denver and Seattle fit into the all-time landscape, not for points scored but in terms of yards. The Broncos offense and the Seahawks defense both rank in the top dozen ever. Not quite as high as when looking at scoring, but very good.
On Friday, I tossed around some numbers suggesting that this was maybe the ultimate offense versus defense Super Bowl. Denver ranked No. 1 in scoring, Seattle ranked No. 1 in scoring defense, and adjusting those numbers to account for the changes in the game, it looks like these are two of the top 10 units ever (well, since the league moved to 16 games in 1978).
All of that, however, was based on points – scoring. Some prefer to look at yards. So I decided to run the same study in the same way, only using yards rather than points.
So for all teams (again, among those who’ve played 16 games in a regular season), I looked at their average, versus what other teams did in that season.
The Broncos come out as the 8th-best offense (for yards) in the last 35 years. The Seahawks come out as the No. 11 defense. These are two great units. And no time since the move to 16 games in 1978 have two top-20 units squared off against each other.
As we saw with scoring, slightly more of the offensive teams made it to the Super Bowl. But the defenses groups have tended to do better. Of the four previous top-20 defenses to get their, they’ve all won – 4-0.
Of the six top-20 offenses to get their, they’ve gone only 1-5.
You may recall for scoring, that top-20 defenses went 6-1 in championship games, while top-20 offenses went only 4-5 (with all five of those losing teams scoring under 20 points).
Maybe there’s something to that old saying about defense winning championships.
On the chart below, a black dot (•) means the team lost in the Super Bowl. Two black dots (••) means the team won the Super Bowl.
TOP 20 OFFENSES (adjusted yards) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Team | Yards | NFL | Pct |
2000 | St. Louis Rams | 442 | 319 | 138% |
2011 | New Orleans Saints | 467 | 347 | 135% |
1998 | San Francisco 49ers | 425 | 318 | 134% |
2001 | •St. Louis Rams | 418 | 318 | 132% |
1984 | •Miami Dolphins | 434 | 330 | 131% |
1992 | San Francisco 49ers | 387 | 298 | 130% |
1993 | San Francisco 49ers | 402 | 311 | 129% |
2013 | Denver Broncos | 449 | 349 | 129% |
2000 | Denver Broncos | 410 | 319 | 128% |
2004 | Kansas City Chiefs | 418 | 327 | 128% |
1991 | •Buffalo Bills | 391 | 307 | 127% |
2007 | •New England Patriots | 411 | 325 | 126% |
1981 | San Diego Chargers | 422 | 335 | 126% |
1990 | Houston Oilers | 389 | 309 | 126% |
1999 | ••St. Louis Rams | 401 | 319 | 126% |
2008 | New Orleans Saints | 411 | 327 | 126% |
1986 | Cincinnati Bengals | 406 | 324 | 125% |
1978 | New England Patriots | 373 | 301 | 124% |
1985 | San Diego Chargers | 408 | 329 | 124% |
1978 | •Dallas Cowboys | 372 | 301 | 124% |
TOP 20 DEFENSES (adjusted yards) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Team | Yards | NFL | Pct |
1991 | Philadelphia Eagles | 222 | 307 | 72% |
2008 | ••Pittsburgh Steelers | 237 | 327 | 72% |
1984 | Chicago Bears | 241 | 330 | 73% |
2000 | Tennessee Titans | 238 | 319 | 75% |
2009 | New York Jets | 252 | 335 | 75% |
2002 | ••Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 253 | 328 | 77% |
2000 | ••Baltimore Ravens | 248 | 319 | 78% |
1979 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 247 | 316 | 78% |
2011 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 272 | 347 | 78% |
1985 | ••Chicago Bears | 258 | 329 | 78% |
2013 | Seattle Seahawks | 274 | 348 | 79% |
2004 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 258 | 327 | 79% |
1980 | Buffalo Bills | 256 | 323 | 79% |
1999 | Buffalo Bills | 253 | 319 | 79% |
1988 | Minnesota Vikings | 256 | 322 | 79% |
2012 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 276 | 347 | 79% |
1986 | Chicago Bears | 258 | 325 | 79% |
2003 | Dallas Cowboys | 254 | 318 | 80% |
1997 | San Francisco 49ers | 251 | 315 | 80% |
2008 | Baltimore Ravens | 261 | 327 | 80% |
--Ian Allan