Where did all the points go?

Jan 06, 2009, 9:16:19 AM by Jonathan Rand - FAQ

No matter how often we’re told that defense wins championships, there was good reason to believe that message might become garbled this year — at least until we got deep into the playoffs.

Offense, after all, had a banner year in 2008. Teams combined for 837 points in week 12, the highest-scoring week in league history. Games averaged 52.3 points a game that week and helped the league average 44.1 points a game, most ever for a 16-game season.

So the first playoff weekend should’ve been dominated by barnburners, right? Instead, it turned into the NBA playoffs. Points that months earlier flowed like tap water came out in drips.

This explains why coaches such as the Chiefs’ Herm Edwards aim to build through defense. It’s not that offenses evaporate during the playoffs as much as that top defenses come to the fore.

Only once in the four first-round games – the Cardinals’ 30-24 victory over the Falcons – did both teams top 17. And, yards-wise, Arizona had the weekend’s stingiest defensive performance.

The Ravens conducted a defensive clinic by forcing five turnovers and scoring once in a 27-9 victory over the Dolphins. The Eagles’ defense scored, too, and shut out the Vikings in the second half of a 26-14 victory.

The Chargers, who had one the league’s lesser defenses in 2008, kept steady pressure on league MVP Peyton Manning in a 23-17 overtime victory against the Colts.

Considering this epidemic of defense, fans salivating for a rematch of the Giants’ 36-31 victory over the Eagles in week 10 might want to lower their offensive bar. They may have to settle, points-wise, for something like the Eagles’ 20-14 victory over the Giants four weeks later. The weekend’s other three games are rematches, too.

Though the Giants are the NFC’s top seed and defending Super Bowl champs while the Eagles are just a wild-card team, both are the best-balanced teams still playing. Among the final eight, they’re the only top-10 teams in both total offense and defense.

Arizona and Carolina have top 10 offenses but bottom-half defenses. The Steelers and Ravens, who rank first and second defensively, and the Titans, who rank seventh, have salty defenses but bottom-half offenses. The Chargers rank 11th on offense but 25th on defense, which, along with their 8-8 regular-season record, should make them the oddest duck of the playoffs.

Yet, the Chargers’ defense had its stingy moments in 2008, as in an 11-10 loss to the Steelers, who they’ll play again Sunday. But the lowest-scoring game this weekend should be a Saturday rematch of the Titans’ 13-10 victory over the Ravens.

If there’s a points festival, it should come from the Cardinals and Panthers. If both stay true to their profiles of high-scoring offenses and ordinary defenses, we’re likely to see even more fireworks than we saw in the Panthers’ 27-23 win over the Cardinals.

Those teams join the Chargers, Giants and Eagles among surviving playoff teams that topped 400 points in 2008. So if some of the offenses can hit big plays and some of the defenses keep getting in the end zone, there’s at least hope to see a game or two that reminds us of week 12.

If the Chiefs are looking for a role model, the Giants’ balance is obviously the best way to go. But if you can be great on only one side of the ball, consider that three of the four AFC teams still playing boast outstanding defenses.

The other AFC team, the Chargers, is peaking at the right time. But haven’t you noticed that the teams that stay nearest their peak all season usually are the ones that play the best defense?

The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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A former sportswriter and columnist in Kansas City and Miami, Rand has covered the NFL for three decades and seen 23 Super Bowl games. His column appears twice weekly in-season.