For those who argue the GB D was overrated last year due to

[SudsMcBucky]

big leads by opponents in the 2nd half..............here is some more ammo.

Quote from http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/060829&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab4pos1

"The Packers finished first in pass defense in 2005, so there's a temptation to say that at least McCarthy has some defensive talent to work with. But the Jets finished second in pass defense, the Saints third, the Browns fourth -- losing teams tend to have good pass-defense stats because opponents are ahead in the second half and attempt few passes. The Bears, at fifth overall, were the sole winning team of 2005 with a top-rated pass defense. The four championship-round teams finished ninth in pass defense (Carolina), 16th (Pittsburgh), 25th (Seattle) and 29th (Denver). The championship-round teams were usually ahead in the second half, and so got thrown on more often."

[packrulz]

Wow, interesting! Thanks Suds! It does make sense.

[Chester Marcol]

Hmmm, sounds familiar. Like I've said in other posts. Look at last years defensive stats. Only one of the playoff teams were in the top half in Pass Defense. However, all were in the top half in run defense.

[ahaha]

We played close games last year in every one, except for the Raven debacle. Was it the offense that kept us in those games? Fuck No! They had to make up for a lot of mistakes by the offense, and still kept us in games. They didn't get many turnovers, and they typically wore down in the second half, but they were a pretty decent defense last year.

[Terry]

We played close games last year in every one, except for the Raven debacle. Was it the offense that kept us in those games? Fuck No! They had to make up for a lot of mistakes by the offense, and still kept us in games. They didn't get many turnovers, and they typically wore down in the second half, but they were a pretty decent defense last year.

Defense? Last year we passed for almost 4,000 yards and 20 TD's. In terms of total TD's, our opponents only had one more TD than we did. We passed for far more yards than our opponents, yet they had more passing TD's than we did. So, although we had a high pass defense rating, I don't know exactly how anyone can figure our defense kept us in it more than our offense. Our run defense sucked and our opponents ran far more yards against us than we did against them. Generally they got ahead and just ate up the clock. But our ability to come back as often as we did and make it a close game illustrates that our offense can be credited with keeping us in it as much as our defense. Our FG kicker cost us some games as well.

Really, the main reason our defense was noteworthy last year was because they overreached their abilities.

[pbmax]

Not only was Pass D misleading, its also just a partial picture.

How many times did the D stop a possession when it needed to? The job of a defense is to stop a possession before a score. Our 3rd down percentage was awful.

Some blame can be laid at the offense and its propensity to end their own drives with turnovers. But the Bear D didn't care. And if ours was truly top-shelf, our D wouldn't care either.

[run pMc]

Mostly agree.
I wonder how they are ranking pass defenses -- by total yards allowed, or TD's? I think comp% and yd/comp are important for pass def. Pass def is only one aspect of defense.

When you're up by 2TD's halfway thru the 4th qtr, it makes sense to start calling more runs than passes, so that *might* skew the defense rankings. Aside from the two stats mentioned above, here are a few others which I think separate the good Def's from the bad.

% of 3rd downs converted
avg time of possession
yd/rush attempt
# of big plays allowed (20yds or more)
+/- turnover

These aren't the only important defensive stats, but I think they're more important to defensive rankings than yards or TDs allowed.

(Where's patler when you need him?)

[run pMc]

The reason I don't put a lot of stock in # of TD's allowed is that an offense or special teams squad can give up a TD. Also, GB killed NO, which made the overall stats look better...implying playing out a weak schedule or whooping a bad team can make a defense look better than it is.

Obviously, you win by scoring more TD than the opponent. But winning one game by 40 and losing 8 games by less than 5 proves my point.