Fantasy Index

Factoid

Fantasy defense wins championships?

Among the possible Super Bowl matchups, New England versus Green Bay seems to have a pretty decent chance of coming to pass. Of the remaining playoff teams, those two had the best defenses in the regular season -- fantasy defenses, anyway. Maybe that will be the X factor that helps them both make it to Arizona.

The Patriots and Packers both finished in the top 5 in a fantasy scoring system that awards 1 point for sacks, 2 points for turnovers, and 6 points for all touchdowns. Two other playoff teams, Denver and Carolina, finished in the top 12. Over the last decade, the Super Bowl has featured such teams far more often than not.

Since 2005, six of the nine Super Bowl matchups have featured two teams that had top-12 fantasy defenses. Maybe this will be the seventh. Fourteen of the 18 Super Bowl teams in the past nine years (78 percent) have had top-12 fantasy defenses, which bodes well for the grouping of Green Bay, New England, Denver and Carolina.

The table below shows the fantasy defensive ranking of teams over the last decade. Rankings of Super Bowl participants in each season are in bold.

FANTASY DEFENSE RANK, 2005-PRESENT
Team'14'13'12'11'10'09'08'07'06'05
Philadelphia1153010102132824
Houston232614321325122830
Buffalo37215271719161219
Green Bay4191436339427
New England511261212931029
St. Louis531025243124211510
Pittsburgh7262731319822136
Arizona869182798723
Miami924252629181228117
San Francisco10818416422312213
Denver111231630532181612
Carolina115202725121726251
Detroit11222918273072618
Cleveland14161632202320202428
Minnesota14221219231110434
Dallas141026225251110925
Baltimore1719147196223220
Indianapolis1816243021241511295
Jacksonville18282813313228172711
NY Giants181811111122146213
Seattle182681328185148
Chicago228129146212
Tampa Bay2314222118105143114
Atlanta24272215122623302315
Kansas City2513223171626291822
Cincinnati26461228202713199
Tennessee27245201415715617
San Diego2831424159161526
Washington29131228223031253216
NY Jets3030189784242021
New Orleans3129172926121193032
Oakland3219301742913271731

--Andy Richardson

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