jrry32 picking what's important to him:
No, I'm picking the stat that matters.
What would I call a D that lets the other team march down the field but not score TDs? A winning defense.
There isn't a person in this world that would care if their defense gave up 400 yards per game if they only gave up 15 points per game. Yards don't win games. Points win games.
So let me ask you a question, Alan...which defense would you rather have...
Denver - 309.4 yards per game allowed, 21.6 points per game allowed
Arizona - 366.4 yards per game allowed, 18.6 points per game allowed
(I'm using points per game allowed because I haven't updated my DPPG allowed numbers yet)
Ignore the personnel...speaking purely statistically, which defense would you rather have?
Me? It's an easy answer. As I said before, the game is won and lost by points.
I thought we had already established the fact that YOU think it's the most important stat and I don't. No matter how many times you say it, it won't make it true or make me agree with your contention.
Didn't we just lose a game to the Cards where in we didn't allow a TD? That right there invalidates your premise (A winning defense.) doesn't it? Are you talking to me or a wider audience? Because if you're talking to me using prejudicial wording like "There isn't a person in the world" is not only laughably incorrect, it's ineffective as an argument with me. In addition jrry, let's try and stay on the same page here OK? When did we start talking about what it takes to win games rather than what demonstrates/indicates a top ten D? We can have that discussion during the off season when we have nothing else to talk about. In the meantime, let's stick with stats that indicate you have a top 10 D or not OK?
This question, "So let me ask you a question, Alan...which defense would you rather have..." is off subject, prejudicial, allows for for only one correct answer and has nothing to do with whether or not you're a top 10 D. I'll be happy to answer it by rephrasing your question so as to eliminate the cherry picked stats that only allow for one reasonable answer.
I'd rather have a defense that allows 150 total yards and gives up only 7 points versus a defense that allows 397 yards and gives up only 7 points. Keeping the Broncos to only 7 points while giving up that many yards may win you an occasional game but in the long run it's a losing D. Giving up only 150 yards would indicate that for that game at least, your D was dominating, made very few mistakes and undoubtedly a top 5 D that week. Giving up 397 yards and only 7 points says nothing to me about the quality of your D except that you were very lucky to have given up only 7 points. Speaking "purely statistically" I'd rather have the 150 yard D for sure. So would you. In your scenario there is only one answer due to your wording but when you say "purely statistically" you need to identify which stat you prefer and I prefer total yards and not total points given up. That's if I'm trying for a top 10 D and not worrying about wins and losses of course because I'm sticking to our original disagreement.
Here's what I think the difference is in how we view what a top D is. For me, to allow an opposing O to march down the field and get into scoring position requires many failures to stop their offense from doing what they want to do on each of those 11 plays that lead them to your red zone . Great Ds don't make that many mistakes. If the other team coughs up a fumble or fails to score, due to some good plays by your D (finally) when they get into the red zone I don't consider that to be an indication of a top 10 D. You do. If you're lucky enough to stop them regularly then you'll win a lot of games but we aren't talking about winning or losing we're talking about have a top 10 D and no matter how many times you try to ignore what the rest of the world uses as the measuring stick for that, it's not going to go away just because you disagree with it. Doesn't make you wrong but allowing you to pick your own stat as a measuring stick doesn't make you right either.
So to bring this back to the original subject which is whether we have a top 10 D now and will have a top 5 next year, we don't have a top ten D now IMO and we'll not have a top 5 D next year unless we fix some of the problems I mentioned.