Does defense truly win championships?
If so, the Denver Broncos have a much better chance at dancing under a Super Bowl 50 confetti shower than the Vegas oddsmakers and national analysts are currently giving them.
Most every Broncos Country denizen is aware that the Orange & Blue enter the playoffs with the league’s top-ranked defense in terms of allowing total yards (283.1 per game), passing yards (199.6) and yards per play (4.39). They also led the league in quarterback sacks (52) and sack percentage (8.3) and were a top-five-ranked unit in points allowed (18.5 per game) and rushing yards (83.6).
Even the advanced-stat folks rate Wade Phillips’ crew highly with Denver topping Football Outsiders’ defensive DVOA rankings (minus-25.8 percent) and the expected points contributed column (110.14) at Pro-Football-Reference.com.
Yet, all the national pundits want to talk about is Peyton Manning’s age and arm strength and the team’s deficiencies along the offensive line.
Fair points and topics all – but starting Sunday is when the Denver D not only has the opportunity to dominate the conversation – but, more importantly, the opposition – and start charting the course to the franchise’s third Lombardi Trophy.
It promises, though, to be anything but easy.
Up first is a Steelers’ squad which finished fourth in the league in scoring and third in total yards and was the only opposing offense to score more than 30 points against the Broncos (34) this season. Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger, with 380, also was the lone opposing quarterback to crack 300 yards against the No Fly Zone all season.
And, yeah, dinged-up shoulder or not, Big Ben will be starting Sunday afternoon.
But if the Orange & Blue ace that revenge test, Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and the league’s third-highest scoring offense could be waiting in the AFC title game.
And if the Broncos can get past the defending champs, one of three MVP-candidate quarterbacks (Cam Newton, Carson Palmer or Russell Wilson) and one of three top-five scoring offenses (the No. 1 Panthers, No. 2 Cardinals or No. 5 Seahawks) would be favored to meet them in Santa Clara for the Big Game itself.
It would make for quite the daunting stretch, yet Super Bowl history has shown it can – and more than likely will – be done on defense.
A full 25 of the last 30 Super Bowl champions finished the regular season with a top-10 scoring defense and 22 possessed a top-10 total D. Eighteen of those 30 had a top-five scoring defense and 15 finished in the top five in total D.
The Broncos’ back-to-back Super Bowl-winning teams of 1997 and ’98 featured only a total-five total defense in ’97 (fifth) among them, but those teams also played their best D when it mattered most.
In ’97, the Broncos allowed 18 points per outing and forced nine turnovers in winning four post-season games.
A year later, Greg Robinson’s D had an even more impressive playoff run, surrendering only 10.7 points and forcing 13 turnovers in three games. And deep Broncos’ devotees might recall that Denver allowed only two touchdowns that entire ’98 postseason with one coming on a 1-yard Jets’ drive after blocking a Tom Rouen punt and the other coming on a 94-yard kickoff return by the Falcons’ Tim Dwight in the Super Bowl.
That’s a near-perfect defensive performance that was overshadowed by John Elway’s final post-season run.
The current Broncos’ D will need to step up in similar fashion this postseason after allowing an average of 29.4 points and 381.7 yards while forcing only six total turnovers in their last seven playoff contests, dating back to the 2011 wild-card win over the Steelers.
Suffice it to say, better defense is expected – and needed – this time around. Any shot at a championship depends on it.
