Man those Eagle's defenses were stacked. I think one year they led the league in scoring defense, rushing defense, and passing defense. Crazy good.
They sucked something awful on offense...Shannon Sharpe was their only offense in the first 3 playoff games and they still won.
Trent Dilfer
Jamal Lewis
Qadry Ismail
Brandon Stokely (lol Sehorn getting burned)
Shannon Sharpe
Jermaine Lewis
How an offense like that ever won games is a miracle. 2000 Raven D was flat-out disgusting.
85 bears vs 2000 Ravens, the Bears win in a blowout.
the 2000 Ravens took advantage of a really weak few years in the NFL. One group of great teams were on their way out (Cowboys, Niners, etc) and the new crop were either really young or not yet formed (Colts, Patriots, etc). Franchises still hadn't figured out how to stay compe ive year after year in the era of free agency and parity. You had 50 year old John Elway winning les, and of course Brett Favre actually won something, which we know never would have happened unless he had that weak era and got to play a Patriots team that honestly had no business being in a Super Bowl.
From 96 to 2002 was the weakest time the NFL has seen since the 70's tbh.
Ravens are a dark horse to win it all and probably the team that can actually beat New England. But only time will tell.
DD, who you follow?
I'm a Bills fan but since they'll never see the playoffs again I'm pulling for Baltimore in the playoffs this year. That, and the fact they were my preseason pick to win the SB.
Holy , this must be the bizarro universe. If you watch any video about that team, he only had what everyone on the team considers the biggest or most memorable play of the season:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKkRBBShzaI#t=8m1s
He was an all-pro and pro bowler for two of the greatest teams of all time; the 1985 Bears and 1991 Redskins.
Well yeah, they most likely do beat the Ravens because they were simply a better team. Their offense >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the Ravens offense. But I'd say the defenses were pretty damn close, not nearly as far apart as you suggest, again because the 85 Bears relied on what is basically a gimmick defense, that worked against 80s offensive schemes, but would have no chance in the league today. If it was such a truly great scheme, it would be still used in the NFL today, as opposed to maybe once a game by one of the Ryan brothers. Of course they were very capable of playing a 4-3, but the 46 is what made them so deadly and such a unique defense. Without the 46, they wouldn't have been nearly as successful as they were.
True, however, I think they are a bit overrated though because they played against teams that year that were rather weak on offense.
The toughest QBs they faced were probably Gannon and McNair and neither of them had more than 3500 yards or 28 TDs on the year.
If you look at the following year, they gave up 31 points to Favre's offense and 27 to Peyton's offense.
yeah nobody cares. go back to DB.com
The db burn is cute, but ineffective since I've still never been there.
Seriously though, you should care since this kind of proves you know about football from the 80s. When he left for Washington they gave the Bears two first round picks for him and signed him to an unprecedented fully guaranteed contract making him the highest paid defensive player in the league. Then he made the All-NFL team numerous times and started in several pro bowls for Washington.
Yeah the Ravens definitely faced some weaker opponents and offenses, but at the same time, like I've said, the Ravens offense was absolute crap too. You could easily argue that if they had an offense like the 85 Bears, they would have been CONSIDERABLY more dominant, because they wouldnt have to rely as much on their defense to win games for them the way they did.
Wilber Marshall was a pretty big deal in the 80s and early 90s. Not a star but a really, really good elite level player. I read somewhere he's crippled now like so many other retired players.
Good for him. Not a Hall of Famer LOL
Quick tip: You might want to edit "name another LB" to "name other HOF LB" in your op itt at this point. Otherwise the HOF stuff is irrelevant. Lol ticketfan
^nice work. Consistent with the effort level you've maintained throughout this "discussion".
^nice work.
The Ravens offense ranked 14th in points scored and 16th in yards gained. They were right at average.
The passing game was mediocre, but the running game with Jamal Lewis and Priest Holmes was #5 in attempts #5 in yards and #8 in YPA. They were also #1 in fewest fumbles lost (#1 in def fumble takeaways).
It wasn't great like what Billick obviously had in Minny, but it was a decent enough conservative ball control offense that got the job done.
Obviously it got it done, because they won a superbowl. But they didn't have anywhere close to a top 10 offense like the 85 Bears had, or arguably the best RB of all time in Walter Payton. If I recall, someone earlier posted that there was like a 5 game stretch in which the offense of the Ravens didn't score a single touchdown, and they won 3 of them or something like that. That's complete defensive domination.
getting job done = absolute crap.
k.
Back on topic... best ever defensive player is obviously pushing it, but I don't think it's a stretch at all to claim he's the greatest playmaking safety ever. He's had an unbelievable career. How old is he? Didn't he talk about retiring a few years ago because of back problems? Or is that someone else I'm thinking about? The guy is still a beast at his age.
I'd probably argue that it helps Reed that he has guys like Ray Lewis playing in front of him.
I'd take Ronnie Lott over him any day of the week.
I wonder how many of those points were scored on a short field, given this data.
After all, the main reason Pats have scored 30+ 8 games in a row or so are due to the sick turnover differentials they've had.
Last edited by LnGrrrR; 01-05-2011 at 04:54 PM.
getting the job done often due to the defense constantly getting them more opportunities to be on the field and shorter fields to work with.
its much easier for an offense to flow when they have 40-60 yard fields to work with every posession, as opposed to 70-90 yard fields. i strongly doubt that if they consistently had bad field position and didn't have the ball as often as they did, their offense would be far less productive than it was. granted, that obviously played a factor in the 85 Bears offense as well, but at the same time, they were still CLEARLY superior to the 2000 Ravens offense.
I think Brian Dawkins definitely deserves some consideration as one of the best safeties ever. Constantly overlooked, but the dude has been a monster his whole career. Consistent. Great in coverage. Can play both safety positions. Feared hitter, great tackler, fantastic athlete.
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