Can Defense Still Win in College Football and the NFL

Verse for today...

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. 1 Peter 3:15a

We've all heard the saying that defense wins championships. But, is that still true?

We still have some teams who try to win with defense. In college you have Notre Dame, Michigan, Clemson and Georgia to name a few. In the NFL you have Pittsburgh, and, uh, Pittsburgh and... Pittsburgh!

The best players in high school are usually moved to the offensive side of the ball. That's been happening for several years now. The other thing that's happened is the high number of geniuses in college and in the NFL who design plays as offensive coordinators. Players who know where they are going and sometimes use trickery to get there have a big advantage over defenses.

Michigan, Clemson and Georgia all had awesome defenses when they won championships. Pittsburgh has a nice defense, and they always seem to be in games to the end, but they have not had a good offense since Big Ben Roethlisberger retired. They make the playoffs almost every year, but they fail to win playoff games. Cincinnati tries to win without defense. Joe Burrow played out of his mind last year, but the Bengals failed to make the playoffs.

The rules currently favor offensives. Defenses can hardly touch receivers without drawing penalties. You can't hit the quarterback in the head or the knees.

It's my opinion that there's only one way defense still wins championships, and that's if the defense is a completely kick-butt defense. If you bring back the 1985 Chicago Bears defense, they'll win a title. Bring back the 2000 Oklahoma Sooners defense, and they'll win a title. Shoot, they won the championship by the score of 13-2. Pittsburgh had the Steel Curtain in the 1970's. They won a Super Bowl by the score of 16-6, and the six points were from a blocked punt, LOL! The 2000 Baltimore Ravens won a Super Bowl by the score of 34-7. They had Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and company. It's hard to win games when you score a touchdown or less. The 1985 Bears would smother the best offenses. The 2021 Georgia defense played 10 games where the opponent scored 11 or fewer points.

So, if you have a totally dominant defense, you can win a championship, but those are few and far between. Without a defense like that, I think you are better off putting more resources and better players on offense. If you don't, you'll just get outscored when it matters most.

May God always be your number 1 draft pick!

Draftman Rick