Offense wins Championships

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CGI_Ram

CGI_Ram

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Defense wins championships, right?

Just like the pocket passer.... is that still today’s NFL?

I’d argue... “no”.

The game has a certain explosiveness to it today. You see this most with time expiring in games... Teams score all the time with under 60 seconds for the offense. You used to rarely see that... Now it happens regularly. “No game feels safe until the clock hits 0:00“ sort of feel.

We also see... Teams go for it on 4th down, all the time. It used to be more rare.

So... You need to be able to do that. Move with confidence. Score fast. That means... a top offense.

Our 2021 offseason; get more offense because... Offense wins Championships!

REMAINING PLAYOFF TEAMS - OFFENSE YPG RANKING

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REMAINING PLAYOFF TEAMS - DEFENSE YPG RANKING

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With 8 of the top 10 defenses making the playoffs....and 6 of the top 10 offenses....you can win plenty of games with a top performance on either side of the ball.

IMO you can toss regular season rankings out the door once you get to the postseason...it's about coming up with a successful game plan and who can execute better and make more plays over 60 minutes. Buffalo and KC have top offense but neither have generated a ton of points and yards in the postseason so far.

I like being well-rounded. The more ways you can win a game, the better...the 2017-18 Rams had playmakers and Pro Bowlers on all three units, offense, defense and special teams...the 2020 Rams had a great defense but offense and special teams were not up to previous standards...meant they were limited.
 
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This year, yes. Making the case based on one year, is a bit of a thin argument.

Also, I could say, for instance, that the top 4 defenses made the playoffs, but the top 4 offenses this year didn't.
 
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tklongball said:
This year, yes. Making the case based on one year, is a bit of a thin argument.

Also, I could say, for instance, that the top 4 defenses made the playoffs, but the top 4 offenses this year didn't.
Click to expand...
??
Top 3 offenses in 2020
1) Green Bay Packers- 31.8 ppg
2) Buffalo Bills- 31.3 ppg
3) Tampa Bay Bucs- 30.8 ppg

And all the way down at #6
Kansas City Chiefs- 29.6 ppg
 
I remember with Chuck Knox’s first stint with the Rams in SoCal, that he would NEVER go for it on 4th down and it would drive me insane. Oh, it was a custom in the defense oriented NFL to not go for it on 4th down, so Knox wasn’t the only HC that did it that way. I think the biggest reason that this isn’t a “defense win championships” league anymore, however, is the protection of the QB rules. Handing the ball off to RB’s was the best way to ”matriculate down the field, boys!” It was also the safest way when Deacon Jones, Lawrence Taylor, etc were coming after QB’s doing a 7 step drop or working the shotgun.
 
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I like the “offense wins Championships” argument as a
Nice counter to those hardheaded defensive minded folks that love to rely on their handy little “Defenses win Championship cliche.

Of course we can all think of both defensive and offensive lead teams that have won Championships.

Here in Cowboy land they are very aware that a top offense doesn’t actually mean anything without a defense.

I believe the best TEAM wins Championships. That’s a hard argument to refute in my book.

Otherwise wouldn’t we see the top offense win every year?
 
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dieterbrock said:
??
Top 3 offenses in 2020
1) Green Bay Packers- 31.8 ppg
2) Buffalo Bills- 31.3 ppg
3) Tampa Bay Bucs- 30.8 ppg

And all the way down at #6
Kansas City Chiefs- 29.6 ppg
Click to expand...

CGI was using Yards per Game for his initial argument, so I was using the same
 
Interestingly, the Chiefs OL has fielded 2nd and 3rd stringers for a chunk of the year, we obliterated the Bucs OL, and the Bills can't run.

Rodgers, Brady, Mahomes, Allen - all close to 40 total TDs

Adams, Evans, Hill, Diggs - enough said

If we were to copy this blueprint, we would need to trade Ramsey and some other defensive guys, Goff and Kupp for an elite QB and elite WR.
 
In the last 20 seasons, (will be 21 after this) only 4 teams won the Superbowl with an offense that was outside the top 10 in scoring.
Even still, I find a couple of them suspect.
2015 Denver- finished 19th, after being 1st and 2nd the previous 2 years. Sure they went thru their little funk with Manning/Oz when they scored a mere 60 points in 4 games, but just the threat of Peyton Manning returning to form makes that suspect
2008 Pittsburgh- finished 20th. Despite Pitt trying to stay on the ground, everyone feared that offense, shown by their almost 29 ppg run in the playoffs.

Then there's everyone's favorite outliers- 2003 Tampa Bay Bucs (Brad Johnson) and 2001 Baltimore Ravens (Trent Dilfer) and as much as they were heavily influenced by their defenses, Baltimore was actually 14th in scoring, and Tampa finished 18th but scored 3 ppg more with Brad Johnson
 
I believe the defensive numbers of these top teams are skewed since you're using yards/game, or pts/game. They usually have big leads so are in modern version of prevent.

But I agree, offense is king. Especially with how the game is officiated these days...
 
Well, you certainly saw evidence of it in last year's Superbowl.... At least in the final stanza.
 
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I think you need balance to win 3x games in a row in the playoffs on offense. Very unlikely you can accomplish that if you're dependent on either the run (Ravens) or the pass (Seahawks).

And when talking offense/defense you have to have balance there too. Because each game is different, you have to be able to get through tough periods of games where you're punting as you work adjustments on offense, or answering with a TD when your defense has a derp moment.

Also when you look at defenses there's some historical examples of them not being good in the regular season but they were a better roster than people realized and they started playing at their talent level down the stretch like the Giants for example during their Manning Super Bowl win.
 
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