The top defensive teams right now...does it matter?

[Mojo Ram]

After watching our Rams D struggle and watching most defenses struggle to look even competent most weeks i started to wonder, with the game clearly being pushed and morphed into Arena league style...how relevant is a good defense at this point?

I'm a fan of defensive football more so than track meet shootout football. I love a knockdown drag out 16-13 football game...but what i like doesn't matter. The average Joe and Jane viewer wants scoring. Lots of it. The NFL has given Joe and Jane what they want. Whatever, that's not my point.

Here are the top 15 defensive teams by yardage as of week 9. We'll look at points allowed also.

Huh? What?
The top four teams in the NFL are widely considered by most to be:
Kansas City, New England, New Orleans and our LA Rams. None of those teams are on that list.

Who are the next tier of best teams? Subjective of course but in the NFC it's probably Washington, Carolina, Minnesota, Chicago, Philadelphia.
PHI, CHI, WASH and MINN crack the top 15.

In the AFC after the Chiefs and Patriots you've got the Chargers, Houston, Pittsburgh.
Yeah there's the Chargers in there. Nada for the rest of the AFC's best.



Now lets look at what many consider to be a more relevant stat in determining a quality defense. PPG allowed.

Looks a bit more accurate in terms of relevant defenses and relevant winning teams. Still, only the Rams and Patriots are in the top 15. No Chiefs, no Saints. Probably the best teams on this list behind the Rams and Pats are the Chargers, Vikings and Steelers but they're not in the top 10 here.
Chicago and Philly are relevant teams (i guess) and are in the top 5 of points allowed,...but are the Bears really considered a contender? Philly is 4-4.

Tennessee, Baltimore and Dallas are the stingiest D's? A combined 11-14 and not exactly contenders IMO. Seattle in the top 5 and will be lucky to get a wildcard the way things look right now.



Here are the top 15 offensive teams in points.

Well shit there they are. Rams, Chiefs, Patriots (top 5) and Saints. There's Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Chargers, Carolina, Houston. Atlanta scores points and despite bad D might be considered by many to be relevant.

So does elite defense really matter in 2018? Maybe it only matters in the playoffs. I think the more interesting discussion is...Are there any elite defenses in the league right now? I've been pondering that all week after watching supposedly "good" defenses get torched all season including our own. I mean, Carolina gave up a 50 burger to the Roethlesberger.

I have a feeling we're not the only fanbase who might be panicking and discussing that our defense looks bad and overmatched.

 

[Ramlock]

You raise a good question and I agree with the conclusion that the “league” has crafted an offensive bias in the modern game.

I like a good defense as well. A 75 point over/under is ludicrous.

I grew up with late ‘60’s, early ‘70’s Rams. Fearsome Foursome. Sacks. Head slap.
Playing with a broken leg.

 

[Karate61]

To much offense sucks!

I'd say defense is dead. Look at the stats of last years Super Bowl. Was it like a combined 1,000 yards or something?

If I was a GM these days, I would go 90% offense. Best QB, RB, 3 Core Receivers, a couple stud tight ends and one outstanding Offensive Line. Then, just piece together some shit defense. That's a Super Bowl winner these days!

 

[sjm1582002]

Today you've got to be able to get consistent pressure on the QB.

After the franchise QB and an elite LT comes the pass rushers like AD and Quinn in his prime.

First glimpes of Fowler are encouraging.

This area has to be the top priority in the draft/fa.

 

[Merlin]

Yes it matters. And the current potency or lack thereof with our defense is greater than the ppg we are seeing above because the ppg includes some early season production with Talib. They are worse without Talib, to the point where even an inferior Saints defense was far better in comparison vs our own offense.

I think the key here is that IF they get Talib back and he's up to his normal self, they are the team to beat in the NFC. If somehow they can get Peters to correct his flaws and play with more eye disclipline on top of Talib's return, they're the team to beat in the Super Bowl.

If not, they're going to be eliminated one of the two conference rounds before the Super Bowl. The current defense is so glaring a flaw that it's unlikely they advance without improvement in the secondary.

 

[Merlin]

Today you've got to be able to get consistent pressure on the QB.

After the franchise QB and an elite LT comes the pass rushers like AD and Quinn in his prime.

First glimpes of Fowler are encouraging.

This area has to be the top priority in the draft/fa.

Yeah I liked some of what Fowler did in that game, and he might help us once he knows wtf he's doing.

Re: the draft... The way the league is trending the pass rushers, cover corners, and pass catchers are going to push even moreso up the draft board than usual. Also I think teams will be more likely to take pass catching RBs high too, although that is countered a bit by the supply/demand side of things where teams know they can get them outside of the early part of the draft.

This draft has some great edge options early on, not sure what lower first round will look like though. It's gonna suck to watch the whiners get an elite front seven addition.

 

[Mojo Ram]

Yes it matters. And the current potency or lack thereof with our defense is greater than the ppg we are seeing above because the ppg includes some early season production with Talib. They are worse without Talib, to the point where even an inferior Saints defense was far better in comparison vs our own offense.

I think the key here is that IF they get Talib back and he's up to his normal self, they are the team to beat in the NFC. If somehow they can get Peters to correct his flaws and play with more eye disclipline on top of Talib's return, they're the team to beat in the Super Bowl.

If not, they're going to be eliminated one of the two conference rounds before the Super Bowl. The current defense is so glaring a flaw that it's unlikely they advance without improvement in the secondary.

Sure, but WHERE are the good defenses around the league? I don't see any. They're all getting whooped up on, including ours.

 

[LesBaker]

The narrative of pyrotechnics on offenses scoring like mad is not born out by actual real scoring in the games overall.

I would agree that a few teams each year score lots, and have a great passing game that helps to do that.

But it's not like the average games are that wildly different for the last 20-30 years.

Here is a graph that shows PPG by team as an average forever.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/NFL/scoring.htm

It's not what the perception is, and not what people think.

More yards? Yes. But that doesn't mean MORE POINTS. Fewer three and outs probably.

 

[Loyal]

When the weather gets colder and the snow starts to fly...A team with a good running offence who also has the ability to defend in such weather has an advantage in the payoffs. It won't matter in the Super Bowl, but it might for those on the path to getting there...

 

[Merlin]

Sure, but WHERE are the good defenses around the league? I don't see any. They're all getting whooped up on, including ours.

No doubt. And the Super Bowl teams will be the ones who get their BS together defensively down the stretch. Usually the Cheatriots are that team, have to think Belichick gets them going again in time for the playoffs.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

If offensive holding was called on pass plays, those stats would look completely different. Teams with very good Dlines would be rated higher. The Rams opponents have so many drives extended by blatant holding on pass plays.

So IMO defensive stats have become meaningless, due to the emphasis on offensive football.

 

[James Otto]

Those YPG stats are not valid. You sorted them by TOTAL YARDS ALLOWED instead of YARDS PER GAME. Not all teams have played the same amount of games.

 

[fearsomefour]

At some point during the playoffs you have to run the ball and play defense.
Joe and Jane fan suck donkey balls.
But, Mojo is right.
To me, just me, it's pathetic to change the game to suit ignorant fans.
That said, if the Rams D could evolve to the point they give up 20 points a game they would largely be unbeatable.
So....in my opinion it is the endless holding that is now allowed and the offensive PI and pick routes that are allowed that lead to the O.
That said with this team I would be drafting D, D and D......and OL in this coming draft.

 

[Rams43]

I have a few random thoughts on this topic.

Experts used to claim that the best athletes gravitated to the D side of the ball. Is that still true?

And if it is still true, does that not mean that those elite D players become even more valuable? Recent salaries might indicate that.

Rule changes have been helping O’s for years and it’s resulted in increased scoring, no doubt. Only oldtimer fans like myself can remember the headhunting days in every secondary back in the day. Or the brutal pre tutu days for QB’s that once existed.

And, as others have already mentioned, the refs simply are ignoring blatant holding calls these days. This directly and positively impacts big plays on O and consequent scoring. I just saw a still, for example, that showed AD in a chokehold on the very play where Brees threw the 72 yard TD pass to Michael Thomas. There was a time that that was a certain flag thrown, but these days it’s the “let ‘em play” policy in full force.

I support rules that promote player safety. I think we all do. But to ignore blatant holding in order to increase scoring doesn’t promote safety. It hobbles stellar D players and changes game outcomes. Pisses me off, tbh.

The excuse that too many penalties slow up the game is crap, too. Replays slow up the game, but who in their right mind doesn’t want to get the correct call, where possible? The correct call and correct game outcome is well worth the few minutes of replay per game. So, why not enforce at least the BLATANT fouls? We are talking a matter of mere seconds here. And trust me, once the offenders realize that the risk/reward of blatant holding is tilted against them, then the blatant holds will become drastically reduced. Problem solved.

Just enforce the freaking rules and the problem will solve itself? Yep. No need to overthink this, y’all.

 

[Merlin]

Those YPG stats are not valid. You sorted them by TOTAL YARDS ALLOWED instead of YARDS PER GAME. Not all teams have played the same amount of games.

Well also yards in general aren't a good way to measure defenses in terms of correlating which will fare well in the playoffs. Points absolutely are. Third down is meaningful. I even like passing rate allowed, pressures, etc over the yards allowed metric.

Only yards metric I really look at for playoffs is yards per carry.

 

[LesBaker]

That said with this team I would be drafting D, D and D......and OL in this coming draft.

I said about that same thing a day or so ago.......all defense. But you're not wrong for suggesting OL too that's always a smart play.

Rule changes have been helping O’s for years and it’s resulted in increased scoring, no doubt

Go look at the link I posted..........scoring is up a little but not that much and it's not that big of a difference over the last nearly 3 decades.

But to ignore blatant holding in order to increase scoring doesn’t promote safety. I

My feeling, as you know, is that refs aren't seeing it because only 1 guy is back there looking for it. And there isn't enough accountability from the refs union.

Put an extra guy back there, call it a shit ton and watch how fast teams adjust and it stops.

The excuse that too many penalties slow up the game is crap, too.

Just so you know CBS (IIRC it was them) did a huge survey and diagnosis about why ratings were down and there were a variety of drivers, one of the top was that the games take too long because of the number of commercials and penalties.

Now the question can be asked..........are penalties actually on the rise? And it wouldn't matter overall because that's the perception of the fans.

 

[snackdaddy]

Good defense isn't as necessary when you have a dominant offense. In our case we haven't had any defense. We at least need some defense.

 

[Mojo Ram]

Still waiting for someone to point out where the elite defenses are.

 

[Diesel]

So you mean to tell me this defense can win a superbowl?

So there's a chance?

 

[Ellard80]

Still waiting for someone to point out where the elite defenses are.

I'ts certainly not ours...

There isn't any front running elite defense this year.

I'd say Chicago and Tenn are playing pretty well atm.