Offense or Defense?

A good defense will choke the life out of a good offense. Always has been, always will bee. See 2007 16-0 New England Patriots vs 10-6 New York Giants.

How'd that Giants / Pats Superbowl work out? How about Steelers / Cards? Just sayin'



A good defense will choke the life out of a good offense. Always has been, always will bee. See 2007 16-0 New England Patriots vs 10-6 New York Giants.

Great posts.
A good defense and a good running game are more important than having a high flying offense. Come playoff time a running game and a defense that shut down other teams will win championships. Epecially when the weather gets bad in December/Jan in cities like Pittsburgh, Philly, NY, and Chicago.
Ask the most prolific passers of the past Dan Marino and Dan Fouts how many SB rings they have? None.
Even the great John Elway did not win one until Suberbowl MVP Terrell Davis showed up. Peyton Manning finally won one on a rather pedestrian 247 yards passing one td and one interception. But Dominic Rhodes rushed 113 yards and J. Addai added 77 yards. It is better to be balanced.
It is easy to get seduced by a high flying offense, but good ol fashioned smash mouth football will win more times than not.
Ask Snyderato who rather draft WR's and TE rather then draft linemen.

Well defense does when championships, but thats assuming that the Defense has a decent offense on the other hand. Us being 30th doesn't help. Look at the Ravens offense on their superbowl team, a veteran QB who knows what he's doing, a decent OL that could protect him, and a good running game. We have none of those.

no way D all the way baby

Gotta score to win. Give me offense all day every day.

What does the Giants win over the Patriots prove? The Patriots had a higher ranked defense than the Giants in 2007. While that stat is a tad misleading because of the degree to which their offense dominated time of possession, that game was not a triumph of defense over offense so much as health over injury, with a little bit of luck thrown in (helmet catch anyone?). How about mentioning the 2006 Colts who had the worst run defense of all time? The 04-09 Skins who have been largely dominant on defense and haven't won a thing. And the 09 Cardinals? Give me a break, they were a tremendous underdog who made it all the way to the Superbowl and almost won by outscoring people all through the playoffs. That proves that offense isn't important?

If we are looking at Superbowl winners you will be hard pressed to find a recent winner that wasn't extremely competitive on both sides of the ball. With a few historical anomalies (the 00 Ravens come to mind) that has always been the case. The Steelers had one of the great defenses last year, but they also have a top five quarterback in his prime, a solid line, and excellent skill position players. Their offense underachieved for a large part of last season due to injury, but they got it together for the playoffs and were able to move the ball. They also won the championship on a last minute drive after their defense failed in the clutch. The old adage defense wins championships ignores the degree to which things like rule changes favoring the offense have changed the complexion of the game.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that this question is superfluous. You gotta have both.

The popular sports saying "Defense wins champonships" is correct. Slingin Sammy's post are perfect examples. Of course there will be exceptions every now and then (Greatest show on turf Rams early 2000s), but generally you want a Defense over Offense any day.

If your objective is to win championships, it's imperative you be among the best in both areas. One without the other is going to consistently lead to uneven results.

Don't underestimate special teams...seriously

In today's NFL, a great O will beat a great D most of the time. I would rather have a good offense than a defense. Nearly every year the rule changes benefit the offensive side of the ball. This isn't 2 yards and a cloud of dust anymore. This is a game where you need to be consistently scoring 21+ points or you have little to no shot to being a good team.

If I were building a team. Id build my D to be opportunistic and turnover happy, even if that costs big plays -- because Id spend a lot more time on me O.

Really? Care to toss out some examples?

Maybe you can apply that to the regular season, maybe, but playoff football is always about defense and the running game.