BayRaider Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 (edited) From Football Outsiders (DVOA): Quote 1. Pittsburgh Steelers 2. Washington Football Team 3. New Orleans Saints 4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 5. Los Angeles Rams 6. San Francisco 49ers 7. Chicago Bears 8. Indianapolis Colts 9. Baltimore Ravens 10. Arizona Cardinals Congrats to all these teams with solid defenses! My Opinion on the Top 10: 1. New Orleans Saints 2. Pittsburgh Steelers 3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 4. Washington Football Team 5. Baltimore Ravens 6. Chicago Bears 7. San Francisco 49ers 8. Los Angeles Rams 9. Indianapolis Colts 10. Miami Dolphins Edited January 4, 2021 by BayRaider Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forge Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 Missing Nick bosa, dee ford the entire season. Ronald Blair all year. Kwon missed time, then was traded. Tartt only played 7 games, K.waun williams only 8, Jamar Taylor 8, Richard sherman five, Moseley 11, verrett 13 asking with several others missing at least 2 games. 6th in dvoa. Well done, Robert Saleh, well done 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAF-N72EX Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 Keep in mind, these are all premature rankings before revisions. But to keep on subject, as a Bears fan I gotta be honest....I didn't feel like I was ever watching a top tier defense. It seems like it was a down year for all defenses in general and I'm sure the lack of offseason programs, preseason, and refs refusing to call plays in the trenches had alot to do with that. So I kind of feel like the Bears being a "top" defense this year was like being the smartest kid in a class of dummies. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearerofnews Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 Tampa is top 4 offense and defense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jlowe22 Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 Hard to believe Saints that high, although the run we had in the middle of the season was pretty incredible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyler735 Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 Still feels so weird to see a Saints Defense ranked so high. That said, this is probably the best Saints defense I've seen in about 20 years of watching them. Sucks Kwon got injured, but I suppose that's unfortunately that's kind of par for the course with him. Our DL (Trey Hendrickson has to be our surprise performer of the season) and Secondary have tons of talent, but we are a bit thin at LB besides Demario Davis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BayRaider Posted January 4, 2021 Author Share Posted January 4, 2021 3 hours ago, Bearerofnews said: Tampa is top 4 offense and defense? Not surprised. I been telling everyone Tampa is super legit most of the year. Tough schedule and new QB learning the system with no pre season/limited off season. They are built for the playoffs on both sides of the ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugashane Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 19 hours ago, JAF-N72EX said: Keep in mind, these are all premature rankings before revisions. But to keep on subject, as a Bears fan I gotta be honest....I didn't feel like I was ever watching a top tier defense. It seems like it was a down year for all defenses in general and I'm sure the lack of offseason programs, preseason, and refs refusing to call plays in the trenches had alot to do with that. So I kind of feel like the Bears being a "top" defense this year was like being the smartest kid in a class of dummies. Agreed. Just to add though - missing Goldman all season hurt a lot. Smith struggles to get off blocks as is, so taking one of the best run-stuffing NTs in front of him hurt him. Nichols came along nicely but it would have been significantly more of a stout run defense if Goldman was at NT and Nichols at DE then have Urban as a reserve. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAF-N72EX Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 7 minutes ago, Sugashane said: Agreed. Just to add though - missing Goldman all season hurt a lot. Smith struggles to get off blocks as is, so taking one of the best run-stuffing NTs in front of him hurt him. Nichols came along nicely but it would have been significantly more of a stout run defense if Goldman was at NT and Nichols at DE then have Urban as a reserve. Yeah, there are alot of valid reasons to point at. I would also add the Bears defense has played the hardest offensive schedule in the league for 2 years in a row now. Last year, the schedule DVOA was 3.7% and this year it was 6.5%. That's tough. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakuvious Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 10 hours ago, BayRaider said: Not surprised. I been telling everyone Tampa is super legit most of the year. Tough schedule and new QB learning the system with no pre season/limited off season. They are built for the playoffs on both sides of the ball. I just don't trust them to not **** the bed at some point in a 4 game run. Peak Tampa might be the best team in the league, but for every 2 - 3 games they play very well, they have a half or a game where they do absolutely nothing right. Week 1 was bad, then they turned it on week 2 and 3. Then they got destroyed in the first half against the Chargers, before coming back because it was the Chargers. Then they lost to the Bears. Destroyed the Packers and Raiders, just to barely squeak by the Giants and get destroyed by the Saints. Demolished Carolina then lost to the Rams. Got humiliated by KC in the first half, kind of crawled back and then beat Minnesota. Got embarrassed by the Falcons for ~35 minutes, to then win and win blowouts their last two games. There was never a point in there where they were on point for more than like 2 1/2 games. And it isn't like KC kind of snoozing through some wins, where they stay unimpressively in control all day. Tampa on their off days had halves of getting beat down and blown out on the scoreboard by teams like the Chargers and Falcons and Giants. They got away with it much of the year because it was the Chargers and Falcons and Giants, and then didn't get away with it when it happened against playoff teams. That, to me, is concerning. I just can't trust them to play well for 4 straight games. Because if they have a half like they did against the Chargers, Falcons, Chiefs, Giants, or Saints (multiple times), a proper playoff team will make them pay. They only beat one playoff team all year for a reason. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyDez Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 Arizona played Joe Flacco, Daniel Jones, Andy Dalton, CJ Beatherd, Cam Newton, Tua Tagovailoa, Dwayne Haskins and John Walford... Jimmy G, Goff, and Bridgewater aren’t exactly great either. I can’t take anything from these numbers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacReady Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 4 hours ago, DirtyDez said: Arizona played Joe Flacco, Daniel Jones, Andy Dalton, CJ Beatherd, Cam Newton, Tua Tagovailoa, Dwayne Haskins and John Walford... Jimmy G, Goff, and Bridgewater aren’t exactly great either. I can’t take anything from these numbers. DVOA is dumb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-ALL-DAY Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 On 1/3/2021 at 10:37 PM, BayRaider said: From Football Outsiders (DVOA): Congrats to all these teams with solid defenses! My Opinion on the Top 10: 1. New Orleans Saints 2. Pittsburgh Steelers 3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 4. Washington Football Team 5. Baltimore Ravens 6. Chicago Bears 7. San Francisco 49ers 8. Los Angeles Rams 9. Indianapolis Colts 10. Miami Dolphins You have the Rams WAY too low. No way are the only the 8th best defensive team in the league. That's a top 3-5 unit for sure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BayRaider Posted January 5, 2021 Author Share Posted January 5, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, J-ALL-DAY said: You have the Rams WAY too low. No way are the only the 8th best defensive team in the league. That's a top 3-5 unit for sure. Disagree. Their defensive metrics are vastly inflated from playing the NFCE in the first 4 out of 5 games, when all four were bottom dwellers of the NFL. DVOA doesn’t take into account at what point they played them. They also had one of the easiest schedules in the NFL. Edited January 5, 2021 by BayRaider Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-ALL-DAY Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 23 minutes ago, BayRaider said: Disagree. Their defensive metrics are vastly inflated from playing the NFCE in the first 4 out of 5 games, when all four were bottom dwellers of the NFL. DVOA doesn’t take into account at what point they played them. They also had one of the easiest schedules in the NFL. You have the Niners ranked ahead of them when the Rams played damn near the same schedule. Their defense held up very well against two top 6 units in Seattle and TB. You can point to the weak schedule all you want, but their defense did not get lit up once after the Bills game...and that was really off the first half. They also create a lot of turnovers and TDs. I just don't see any way you can have them ranked #8. They have an argument as being the best or second best defense in the league. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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