Football fans want to see a lot of scoring. The NFL notoriously rejiggers the rules to favor the offense, well except for offensive linemen. Who needs them, anyway?
So I was mildly surprised to see that the teams with top-ranked offenses fared so poorly this postseason. Five of the top ten teams didn’t even make the playoffs. Four others were one and done. I noticed the phenomena while doing background work for a post that will be up in a few moments. I wanted to get this out now so that the real story would be at the top of today’s posts.
The rankings are from NFL.com and are based on regular season game stats. Check out this table:
| RANK | TEAM | COMMENT |
| 1. | San Diego | Missed the Playoffs. Also had the No. 1 defense but the wins didn’t follow. Blame the front office more than Norv Turner for the playoff miss. |
| 2. | Philadelphia | Eliminated in one game. Have weapons, but Michael Vick masked problems with the O-line and defense. Eagles fired DC Sean McDermott and D-line coach Rory Segrest. |
| 3. | Houston | Missed the playoffs. This isn’t video football. Can’t pair the third best offense with the 30th-best defense and expect to go anywhere. |
| 4. | Indianapolis | Eliminated in one game. Became a one-man team as the season progressed. That’s too much to ask, even for the good Manning. |
| 5. | NY Giants | Missed the playoffs. The G-men crushed the Bears with 10 sacks in Week 4. The Giants peaked at mid-season, then didn’t get better. The Bears peaked late. Injuries to receivers hurt. |
| 6. | New Orleans | Eliminated, but don’t hang the Wild Card loss on the offense. 36 points and 474 yards offense should equal win. Looking at you, Gregg Williams. |
| 7. | Dallas | Missed the Playoffs. And America is happy. If there’s any team that cannot handle success, it is this one. |
| 8. | New England | Eliminated in one game. What was said of Houston goes double for New England. |
| 9. | Green Bay | Only top 10 offense to survive. Outlasted the Eagles. Crushed the Falcons. Doesn’t like birds, apparently. How do they feel about Bears? |
| 10 | Oakland | Missed the playoffs. Sweep the division. Fire the coach anyway. Perhaps shock from being ranked so high. |
The New York Jets with the 11th ranked offense face the Steelers with the 14th ranked offense this Sunday. That game will have more to do with high powered defense than offense. These are two of the NFL’s best. The Steelers have the league’s No. 2 defense. The Jets are on their heels at No. 3. Thunder and lightning and old school football; Oh my.
The Kansas City Chiefs made the playoffs with the 12th best offense. but were eliminated by Baltimore who has the 22nd rated offense.
These stats don’t prove anything, except there is more to winning titles than high powered offenses..
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
