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 |
Philadelphia | 1 | 15 | 30 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 32 | 8 | 24 |
Houston | 2 | 32 | 6 | 14 | 32 | 13 | 25 | 12 | 28 | 30 |
Buffalo | 3 | 7 | 21 | 5 | 27 | 17 | 19 | 16 | 12 | 19 |
Green Bay | 4 | 19 | 14 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 27 |
New England | 5 | 11 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 21 | 29 | 3 | 10 | 29 |
St. Louis | 5 | 3 | 10 | 25 | 24 | 31 | 24 | 21 | 15 | 10 |
Pittsburgh | 7 | 26 | 27 | 31 | 3 | 19 | 8 | 22 | 13 | 6 |
Arizona | 8 | 6 | 9 | 18 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 23 |
Miami | 9 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 29 | 18 | 12 | 28 | 11 | 7 |
San Francisco | 10 | 8 | 18 | 4 | 16 | 4 | 22 | 31 | 22 | 13 |
Denver | 11 | 12 | 3 | 16 | 30 | 5 | 32 | 18 | 16 | 12 |
Carolina | 11 | 5 | 20 | 27 | 25 | 12 | 17 | 26 | 25 | 1 |
Detroit | 11 | 22 | 29 | 1 | 8 | 27 | 30 | 7 | 26 | 18 |
Cleveland | 14 | 16 | 16 | 32 | 20 | 23 | 20 | 20 | 24 | 28 |
Minnesota | 14 | 22 | 12 | 19 | 23 | 11 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
Dallas | 14 | 10 | 26 | 22 | 5 | 25 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 25 |
Baltimore | 17 | 19 | 14 | 7 | 19 | 6 | 2 | 23 | 2 | 20 |
Indianapolis | 18 | 16 | 24 | 30 | 21 | 24 | 15 | 11 | 29 | 5 |
Jacksonville | 18 | 28 | 28 | 13 | 31 | 32 | 28 | 17 | 27 | 11 |
NY Giants | 18 | 18 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 22 | 14 | 6 | 21 | 3 |
Seattle | 18 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 13 | 28 | 18 | 5 | 14 | 8 |
Chicago | 22 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Tampa Bay | 23 | 14 | 22 | 21 | 18 | 10 | 5 | 14 | 31 | 14 |
Atlanta | 24 | 27 | 22 | 15 | 12 | 26 | 23 | 30 | 23 | 15 |
Kansas City | 25 | 1 | 32 | 23 | 17 | 16 | 26 | 29 | 18 | 22 |
Cincinnati | 26 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 28 | 20 | 27 | 13 | 19 | 9 |
Tennessee | 27 | 24 | 5 | 20 | 14 | 15 | 7 | 15 | 6 | 17 |
San Diego | 28 | 31 | 4 | 24 | 15 | 9 | 16 | 1 | 5 | 26 |
Washington | 29 | 13 | 12 | 28 | 22 | 30 | 31 | 25 | 32 | 16 |
NY Jets | 30 | 30 | 18 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 24 | 20 | 21 |
New Orleans | 31 | 29 | 17 | 29 | 26 | 1 | 21 | 19 | 30 | 32 |
Oakland | 32 | 19 | 30 | 17 | 4 | 29 | 13 | 27 | 17 | 31 |
--Andy Richardson