The NFL Week 14: Who Says Defense Wins Championships?

   Hope you had a good weekend all Diary of a Republican readers! My weekend was made perfect by the Giants victory over Dallas, 37-34.

   http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2011/12/nfl-week-14-giants-beat-dallas-37-34.html

    I also heard a great line over at Applebees-where I spend every Sunday during football season as you can watch all the games and get all the wings you want for $.25 each. With free refills on soda it's a great deal. For those of you with more sophisticated palates there are also two for one on mixed drinks.

    This guy was being served by a-very attractive waitress-and he asked her, "Have you ever broken any one's heart?" She answered something-probably a terse "no" and he came back with, "Because you just broke mine."

   I gotta use that sometime just gotta find the ritght opportunity.

   Anyway, what's interesting is that when you look at the top teams in the NFL this year it's interesting how many of them don't have very good team defensive stats. Consider that the Packers, Saints, and Patriots all give up over 20 points a game and are all close to the bottom of the league in things like passing yards allowed and total yards allowed. In this sense the Giants are very much like these others who are supposed to be on a higher level.

   Actually the list of good teams with not so impressive defensive numbers-many like the Giants and Packers with poor rushing numbers as well; the saying that defense wins championships also applies to run defense, the textbook says you want a team that is strong on defense but especially on running game and that you want a strong running game yourself, this is the Bill Parcells playbook-is very long. Besides the Packers, Saints, Patriots, and Giants, you have the Jets, Lions, Broncos, Raiders, Cowboys, and Falcons-a of these are teams with winning records that remain at least serious playoff contenders and all of them are giving up more than 20 points a game.

    There are a few teams that are strong defensively. Interestingly, we don't see the old phenomenon where you expect to see most of the great offensive teams in the AFC and defensive in the NFC-that paradigm has been broken for a number of years with the rise of the Steelers and Ravens both who are again winning it with defense both giving up way less than 20 a game. Joining these old division rivals who are tied for first in the AFC North at 10-3 are the AFCSouth leading Houston Texans who are also giving up way less than 20 a game.

   There is one top NFC team with impressive defensive numbers-the SF 49ers, which is kind of ironic for the team of Walsh and Montana. The Niners currently lead the league having given up only 182 points.