View topic - #1 Defense

[ballhair Profile]

Does anyone know what the worst record a team had that also had the Number one defense that year. Say going back to the 60's. For instance we were 8-8 this year with the number one defense. Has any team had a worse record than this? Thank you for your Time!

[LenSherwood Profile]

You raised a question for an internet search and came up with this:

The 1977 season featured the stingiest defense in the Super Bowl Era – the Falcons – a team which surrendered just 9.21 PPG but won just half its games (7-7) because of its inability to score in a season dominated by defense (the 1977 Falcons offense averaged just 12.79 PPG).

Most teams with high ranked defense did better than the Steelers this year.

[ballhair Profile]

You raised a question for an internet search and came up with this:

The 1977 season featured the stingiest defense in the Super Bowl Era – the Falcons – a team which surrendered just 9.21 PPG but won just half its games (7-7) because of its inability to score in a season dominated by defense (the 1977 Falcons offense averaged just 12.79 PPG).

Most teams with high ranked defense did better than the Steelers this year.

Len, thanks for the info.

[PGHeaven Profile]

I still think that our defense lacked sorely in several areas that stats dont show

1. Inability to come up big when we needed them to - late game winning drives by opponents taking advantage of our softee defense

2. TURNOVERS - WE SUCKED ASS

[Ohio Profile]

To even think that we have a #1 defense is silly. You have to think the following :

- Our offense was meant for time of possession ( not scoring. T.o.p. was key. Which meant other team didn't have the ball, and our aging defense was resting )

- Our special team sucked ( which meant shorter field for opposing defenses ).

- Overall you have to consider how overrated it is to name somebody #1 defense or offense in the league. Playing against different opponents. It is one thing to play against New England, Denver, Green Bay. It's another if you are playing Cleveland, Oakland, Tenesee. You should also consider the changes in the same teams. Seattle in the last month was on fire. In september not so much...

I Believe what I see.And from that I can tell that we have had some very good games ( against Cincy as well ). But overall our defense was not up to standard.

[trenches Profile]

I Believe what I see.And from that I can tell that we have had some very good games ( against Cincy as well ). But overall our defense was not up to standard.

Agreed, Ohio. The eyes and the record don't lie. The offense was a bigger let down to me, but as PGHeaven has said multiple times, the defense was not opportunistic. They didn't make the big play when needed and were an embarrassment in the takeaway department. Put it in this perspective:
1) against Cleveland, the Steelers turnovers represented 40% of the total number of takeaways for the team over 16 games in 2012. 40%!
2) the team generated over 1/3 of its takeaways (7) in the final two games and 20% of the year's takeaways were in the meaningful Browns win. (meaningful wasn't a mistaken word choice -- that friggin' win cost the team draft status and don't get me started on Tomlin et al smiling over that costly, BS win)
3) Ignoring the last two games of the season, the team averaged 0.92 takeaways/game. Against MANY bad teams. Top notch defense? Hell no. Did you stop Oakland, Tennessee, San Diego or Dallas? All losses yielding 26-34 points. Top notch defenses would have won AT LEAST two of those games given the offensive production (23+ points by the Steelers offense in all 4 games).

[Ohio Profile]

Agreed, Ohio. The eyes and the record don't lie. The offense was a bigger let down to me, but as PGHeaven has said multiple times, the defense was not opportunistic. They didn't make the big play when needed and were an embarrassment in the takeaway department. Put it in this perspective:
1) against Cleveland, the Steelers turnovers represented 40% of the total number of takeaways for the team over 16 games in 2012. 40%!
2) the team generated over 1/3 of its takeaways (7) in the final two games and 20% of the year's takeaways were in the meaningful Browns win. (meaningful wasn't a mistaken word choice -- that friggin' win cost the team draft status and don't get me started on Tomlin et al smiling over that costly, BS win)
3) Ignoring the last two games of the season, the team averaged 0.92 takeaways/game. Against MANY bad teams. Top notch defense? Hell no. Did you stop Oakland, Tennessee, San Diego or Dallas? All losses yielding 26-34 points. Top notch defenses would have won AT LEAST two of those games given the offensive production (23+ points by the Steelers offense in all 4 games).

Well I think the reason of the post is because it is irritating all this bla bla bla of the media regarding a subpar department. I mean nobody talks of the offense as elite. So nobody bothers. It would bother if the Pitt media was always talking of Ben as elite. Then we would see a lot more threads talking against ben.

Trenches overall I love your approach with the numbers and I thinkg you are one of the "pleasures " of this site. Mine is more of a passionate approach ( and afterwards I see very bad mistakes... )

[trenches Profile]

Trenches overall I love your approach with the numbers and I thinkg you are one of the "pleasures " of this site. Mine is more of a passionate approach ( and afterwards I see very bad mistakes... )

Lol and thanks, Ohio. If you sat in my living room during a game you'd see how unreasonable I can be. I try to temper myself when I post (try being the key) haha!

I do enjoy using numbers to support arguments but recognize, at the same time, that numbers are just one aspect to the analysis. They don't show what your eyes see and your intuition knows. It's just something that come more naturally to me when making arguments so I frequently use them.