"Top Defenses" are overrated; this is still a QB league

[kskboys]

1)Great GM - hires right personnel/drafts right guys
2)Coaching - self explanatory
3)QB - Gun slinger type or Bus driver - Neither can be turnover machines
4)Defense - Pressure on the QB

You have all of those, you have a Super Bowl caliber team.

A gun slinger is a TO machine. It's his nature, and why Favre only won one super bowl.

 

[Clove]

A gun slinger is a TO machine. It's his nature, and why Favre only won one super bowl.

Oh, like Romo?

 

[wssaustin]

"What happened to that vaunted Jaguars D?"

Shredded in Pittsburgh AND New England

"What about the Vikings?"

Shredded by Nick Foles in a championship game (let that sink in for a while).

"Okay, well, Philly's D can take down Brady and the Patriots."

You know that will be the rhetoric over the next 2 weeks. If you believe that, let me have some of that kool aid you're drinking.

Enough of this "build through the defense" crap. Give me a franchise QB with a stout OL, good HC, and serviceable defense and you can keep your "top notch" D with a pedestrian QB. This is the way it is in the modern day NFL. Especially since so many defensive maneuvers that were acceptable 30-40 years ago would get flagged today.

Edit: New England's D is better than average for sure, probably top 10 in the league, but they can be had too. But when you have Brady and Bill...

Jaguars got screwed by the refs.
Plenty of examples prove you false, Broncos D carried a half-dead Peyton Manning for a SB win; Bucs D got Brad Johnson a ring; Ravens D made Trent Dilfer a SB champ.

 

[Cebrin]

A good TEAM wins championships.

 

[LACowboysFan1]

Jaguars got screwed by the refs.
Plenty of examples prove you false, Broncos D carried a half-dead Peyton Manning for a SB win; Bucs D got Brad Johnson a ring; Ravens D made Trent Dilfer a SB champ.

You are correct, however, those teams you mention didn't just have a good defense, they were a dominating defense, and more specifically a scoring defense. Those type of defenses happen rarely, and it's near impossible to keep that up, offensive coordinators always find a way to neutralize that defense. That's why the 1985 Bears won only one SB, and why the Broncos didn't even make the playoffs in 2016 after the defense "carried a half-dead Payton Manning" to a SB win. Now sure, Manning retired after the SB win, but if the defense continued their dominating ways, even with another mediocre quarterback they should have at least made the playoffs.

I think that while getting a Ravens/Broncos/Bears level defense is certainly something you should aim for, it's not for sure you'll ever get there, so don't neglect the offense, either.

 

[Jake]

You are correct, however, those teams you mention didn't just have a good defense, they were a dominating defense, and more specifically a scoring defense. Those type of defenses happen rarely, and it's near impossible to keep that up, offensive coordinators always find a way to neutralize that defense. That's why the 1985 Bears won only one SB, and why the Broncos didn't even make the playoffs in 2016 after the defense "carried a half-dead Payton Manning" to a SB win. Now sure, Manning retired after the SB win, but if the defense continued their dominating ways, even with another mediocre quarterback they should have at least made the playoffs.

The 2016 Broncos that missed the playoffs were 4th in scoring defense. Unfortunately, they spent their first round pick on a bum QB who some of our fans want to trade for now.

As for the current playoffs, the Eagles and Patriots were 4th and 5th in points allowed this season. Brady hasn't been dragging along garbage defenses to titles - the worst they've been in a SB winning year is 8th.

 

[kskboys]

Oh, like Romo?

Absolutely. That's why you saw Romo throw 19 picks early on. However, as his career progressed, he became much less of a gunslinger and his INT #'s went way down. Unfortunately, our team let the OL fall apart in 09 and ruined his career by not getting it built to even a decent level for several years.

 

[kskboys]

A good TEAM wins championships.

No, not necessarily. BUFF was even better than a good team for 4 years running.

The best a team can do is try to get at least decent on both sides of the ball. The most important aspect by a mile is to build a big nasty DL in order to beat playoff Qb's.

 

[Clove]

Absolutely. That's why you saw Romo throw 19 picks early on. However, as his career progressed, he became much less of a gunslinger and his INT #'s went way down. Unfortunately, our team let the OL fall apart in 09 and ruined his career by not getting it built to even a decent level for several years.

Like Tom Brady & Ben Roethlisberger? Putting up 300 and 400 yards a game? That type of gunslinger?

 

[Cebrin]

No, not necessarily. BUFF was even better than a good team for 4 years running.

The best a team can do is try to get at least decent on both sides of the ball. The most important aspect by a mile is to build a big nasty DL in order to beat playoff Qb's.

They weren't the better team.

 

[atlantacowboy]

Threads claiming you don't need a top defense or top QB to win are overrated.

 

[Idgit]

It's passing game differential. You can get away without having a great defense if you have a big passing game advantage on offense. You can negative a team with a huge passing game on offense by having a much better passing defense.

When both teams have good defenses, guess who wins? The one that gets the better QB play. Not surprising to anybody. We saw that yet again in both Championship games.

The Cowboys, for years, have had very good QB play, but mediocre or bad defensive passing game support. That gets you wins against teams that have their own flaws, but when you go up against a really good QB or a really good all around team, it's tough for Romo or for Dak to overcome the differential. So what you end up with is a lot of unnecessary risk.

What makes it more frustrating, is that it's not all that difficult to build a good defense. It primarily just takes resources. And we have the edge rushers and ok man/press CBs. The rest is just slotting in the pieces and spending enough draft picks and money.