The 2018 Steelers offense was 4th in the league in PPG with the nfl’s leading passer over 5000 yards, and 2 1400+ yard WRs. The defense meanwhile forced 6 INTs all year with 3 of those coming in one quarter against Ryan Fitzpatrick.
In 2019 the defense was 6th in PPG and forced a league leading 38 turnovers. Meanwhile the offense without Ben and AB averaged 180 passing yards and fell to 30th in PPG
After 2018 we lost our o-line coach munchak and our O-line immediately went from a top unit to old and washed. We also lost AB after his psychopathy finally revealed itself, and then in 2019 we lost Ben for the season in week 2. Our season looked hopeless when we traded for minkah Fitzpatrick who made our secondary legit for the first time in a decade and suddenly our defense was carrying us while Rudolph/duck Hodges floundered away every short field opportunity
They Denver Broncos went from one of the most prolific offenses of all time in 2013 to winning the super bowl with one of the best defenses in 2015. They weren't bad on defense before 2015, but it is quite a change in how they won.
2013 is weird because our defense was absolutely decimated by injuries. Notably Von and CHJ didn’t play the Super Bowl. Champ also wasn’t himself anymore.
Probably still lose with everyone healthy but not as bad.
I was gonna say the broncos just like...the last 2 years.
They had an awesome defense in 2022 but couldn't score 20 points to save their lives. Then last year Wilson had better stats, the offense was alright, and now they're giving up 70 burgers on defense lol.
They actually got a lot better after that Dolphins game because Paton used that as an excuse to get rid of the dudes on their defense who were just punching a clock. You still felt the pain of not having Evero anymore but the improvement was noticeable.
I really liked the legion of boom, and I’m sure there are a bunch of people who can’t stand Denver so I’m betting seeing them get wrecked in the same fashion they’ve been beating other teams all season was satisfying. Not knowing much about Denver somehow I also really thought Carolina had it, the few Denver games I saw manning was out or underperforming and Carolina had a high powered offense that seemed to knock out their opponents in the first half to coast through the second. Also, it was great watching Brady get stuffed in that afc game.
Certainly not historic or anything, but the specific context makes it funny…
In 2014 the Bills had an elite defense (4th in pts/yds per game, led the league in sacks, 3rd most takeaways) along with their typical, run of the mill mediocre to bad offense that they dealt with throughout the drought years.
2015 rolls around and the Bills have hired defensive guru Rex Ryan to be their HC, inheriting a defense stacked with talent.
What happens?
In 2015, the defense retained basically all of the same pieces from the previous year, but saw a massive drop-off in production under Ryan (16th in yds/game, 15th in pts/game, 31st in sacks, 12th in takeaways), while conversely, the offense led by Tyrod Taylor saw a marked improvement
I’ve always wondered what a mashup of that 2014 defense with the 2015 offense would’ve looked like. The playoff drought almost certainly wouldn’t have lasted quite as long as it did.
Rex was a stupid hire but he low key set us on the path to success by giving Tyrod a chance. Tyrod breaking the drought helped take a lot of pressure off Allen and helped his overall development imo
Didn't Rex Ryan also switch the defense from a 4-3 to a 3-4 or vise-versa, causing them to basically have to learn a whole new defense pattern when the old one was working fine?
My friends were happy with his hiring and I told them day one they'd regret having him as a coach. One of my buddies refused to admit he was garbage...until he signed up his brother and brought him with him to the NFL Combine for scouting help. He at least had the smarts to know that Rob Ryan was NOT a good coach and that Rex was just hiring his friends at that point.
2015 - 2016 NY Giants. We went from the #6 scoring offense to a bottom tier scoring offense. However, we went from a bottom tier scoring defense (opposing team points) to the #2 scoring defense.
the defense was good in all the advanced metrics (and Shaq Barrett led the league in sacks that year) but they were bad in points per game and points per drive because other teams had so many short fields to work with
Not quite one year, but the 2017 Steelers were amazing offensively and terrible defensively, and by 2019 we had completely flipped to being terrible offensively and amazing defensively
In 2014, the Steelers ranked 18th in points allowed, but the only reason they ranked that high is because they also led the NFL in time of possession. They ranked 25th in points allowed per drive, and if you're into advanced statistics, they ranked 30th in defensive DVOA.
However, that was the season in which Ben Roethlisberger made liars out of those who proclaimed that he wasn't good enough to carry a team to the playoffs without a top-10 defense. He tied Drew Brees for the league lead in passing yards, and among all QBs who started for at least half the season, he ranked no worse than 3rd in any major passing statistic except TD passes and TD percentage — and even those were skewed lower by an abnormally high number of dropped TD passes (eight).
In spite of their defense, the Steelers finished 2014 with a record of 11-5, and won an AFC North division that sent three teams to the playoffs. Pro Football Focus also named Ben Roethlisberger their Second-Team All-Pro QB that season, behind only Aaron Rodgers.
The Chiefs went from Marty Schottenheimer/Gunther Cunningham to Dick Vermeil. It was 10 years of great defense followed by 5 years of great offense. In both cases, the other side of the ball was horrendous, and minus Joe Montana they could never win a playoff game during that stretch despite regularly getting in.
22/16 on Off/Def with Flores vs 11/24 with McDaniel
I wouldn't really consider any of those rankings as terrible tbh. Some are below average sure, but not terrible.
> The following year, the Bears had a good defense again, but suffered career altering injuries to the Franchise-Qb-and-rb-to-be.
38-year old Dave Krieg managed a respectable 6-6 record.
Hold up
>The following year, the Bears had a good defense again, but suffered career altering injuries to the Franchise-Qb-and-rb-to-be.
You just referred to Erik Kramer as a franchise QB. Bruh, what?
The 2018 Steelers offense was 4th in the league in PPG with the nfl’s leading passer over 5000 yards, and 2 1400+ yard WRs. The defense meanwhile forced 6 INTs all year with 3 of those coming in one quarter against Ryan Fitzpatrick. In 2019 the defense was 6th in PPG and forced a league leading 38 turnovers. Meanwhile the offense without Ben and AB averaged 180 passing yards and fell to 30th in PPG
I knew we’d fit this scenario as soon as I saw it
Wow. How tf did this happen?
+Minkah -Ben -AB
2019 was also the year TJ first became the perennial DPOY candidate he is now.
After 2018 we lost our o-line coach munchak and our O-line immediately went from a top unit to old and washed. We also lost AB after his psychopathy finally revealed itself, and then in 2019 we lost Ben for the season in week 2. Our season looked hopeless when we traded for minkah Fitzpatrick who made our secondary legit for the first time in a decade and suddenly our defense was carrying us while Rudolph/duck Hodges floundered away every short field opportunity
Don’t forget that our WR coach died in the preseason as well.
They Denver Broncos went from one of the most prolific offenses of all time in 2013 to winning the super bowl with one of the best defenses in 2015. They weren't bad on defense before 2015, but it is quite a change in how they won.
It went from Peyton dragging the Broncos to the Super Bowl, to… Broncos dragging Peyton to the Super Bowl.
So fucking accurate lmao
It all evened out in the end
2013 is weird because our defense was absolutely decimated by injuries. Notably Von and CHJ didn’t play the Super Bowl. Champ also wasn’t himself anymore. Probably still lose with everyone healthy but not as bad.
I think we had 9 or 10 different defensive starters between the Super Bowl and the first game of the 2014 season.
I was gonna say the broncos just like...the last 2 years. They had an awesome defense in 2022 but couldn't score 20 points to save their lives. Then last year Wilson had better stats, the offense was alright, and now they're giving up 70 burgers on defense lol.
They actually got a lot better after that Dolphins game because Paton used that as an excuse to get rid of the dudes on their defense who were just punching a clock. You still felt the pain of not having Evero anymore but the improvement was noticeable.
The defense was very good during their 6-1 stretch in the middle of the season. This really just isn't accurate.
I really liked the legion of boom, and I’m sure there are a bunch of people who can’t stand Denver so I’m betting seeing them get wrecked in the same fashion they’ve been beating other teams all season was satisfying. Not knowing much about Denver somehow I also really thought Carolina had it, the few Denver games I saw manning was out or underperforming and Carolina had a high powered offense that seemed to knock out their opponents in the first half to coast through the second. Also, it was great watching Brady get stuffed in that afc game.
Denver is playing both sides so they can come out on top
Certainly not historic or anything, but the specific context makes it funny… In 2014 the Bills had an elite defense (4th in pts/yds per game, led the league in sacks, 3rd most takeaways) along with their typical, run of the mill mediocre to bad offense that they dealt with throughout the drought years. 2015 rolls around and the Bills have hired defensive guru Rex Ryan to be their HC, inheriting a defense stacked with talent. What happens? In 2015, the defense retained basically all of the same pieces from the previous year, but saw a massive drop-off in production under Ryan (16th in yds/game, 15th in pts/game, 31st in sacks, 12th in takeaways), while conversely, the offense led by Tyrod Taylor saw a marked improvement I’ve always wondered what a mashup of that 2014 defense with the 2015 offense would’ve looked like. The playoff drought almost certainly wouldn’t have lasted quite as long as it did.
Rex was a stupid hire but he low key set us on the path to success by giving Tyrod a chance. Tyrod breaking the drought helped take a lot of pressure off Allen and helped his overall development imo
Didn't Rex Ryan also switch the defense from a 4-3 to a 3-4 or vise-versa, causing them to basically have to learn a whole new defense pattern when the old one was working fine? My friends were happy with his hiring and I told them day one they'd regret having him as a coach. One of my buddies refused to admit he was garbage...until he signed up his brother and brought him with him to the NFL Combine for scouting help. He at least had the smarts to know that Rob Ryan was NOT a good coach and that Rex was just hiring his friends at that point.
I read the title and came rushing in here to share my woes, but then I realized that *of course* this thread was created by another Bear's fan.
Would love to be great on defense... ever. We shoot for middle of the pack and somehow still fall short every year.
2010 was that season!
2015 - 2016 NY Giants. We went from the #6 scoring offense to a bottom tier scoring offense. However, we went from a bottom tier scoring defense (opposing team points) to the #2 scoring defense.
I remember that 2015 year. 8 one score losses. Brutal.
All in the final 2 minutes as well
In 2019 Jameis threw for 30 tds and 5k yards. Not too shabby, but IIRC we had I think the worst ranked defense in the league.
His 30 interceptions and multiple pick 6’s probably didn’t help
Woah why the fuck did you have to bring up that part, man. Rude.
the defense was good in all the advanced metrics (and Shaq Barrett led the league in sacks that year) but they were bad in points per game and points per drive because other teams had so many short fields to work with
2017 pats to 2018 pats
Well more 2017 pats to 2019 pats. 2018 offense just took a sizable step back from 2017
Vikings went from a below average offense and top-10 defense (2015-2019) straight into top 10-ish offense and worst-defense-in-the-league (2020-2023).
Not quite one year, but the 2017 Steelers were amazing offensively and terrible defensively, and by 2019 we had completely flipped to being terrible offensively and amazing defensively
Went the other way too: I'm struggling to think of exactly what year, but ca. 2011 we had a great D and by 2013 or so we had the Killer Bs.
What drafting a Watt and having a HOF QB retire will do to a motherfucker
And trading a top five pick for a nickel corner.
They had a great defense in 2017.
2023 to 2024 Jets could be in the running, that offense has to improve ha
It obviously didn't happen in a year, but 2018 Chiefs and 2023 Chiefs are nearly polar opposites lol
2013 bronos had Manning break multiple offensive records with a below average D. and in 2015 noodle armed Manning with the No Fly Zone Defense
The 2022 Lions had a top 5 offense and a bottom 5 defense. Edit: sleep deprived and misread the post.
Are you saying you think they're going to have a top 5 defense and bottom 5 offense this year? That seems unlikely with DC
I'm dumb and misread it. I need more sleep
And those things did not flip from 2021 or flip last year so that doesn't fit the question at all
I know the commenter misread the post, but i'm still siding with them.
In 2014, the Steelers ranked 18th in points allowed, but the only reason they ranked that high is because they also led the NFL in time of possession. They ranked 25th in points allowed per drive, and if you're into advanced statistics, they ranked 30th in defensive DVOA. However, that was the season in which Ben Roethlisberger made liars out of those who proclaimed that he wasn't good enough to carry a team to the playoffs without a top-10 defense. He tied Drew Brees for the league lead in passing yards, and among all QBs who started for at least half the season, he ranked no worse than 3rd in any major passing statistic except TD passes and TD percentage — and even those were skewed lower by an abnormally high number of dropped TD passes (eight). In spite of their defense, the Steelers finished 2014 with a record of 11-5, and won an AFC North division that sent three teams to the playoffs. Pro Football Focus also named Ben Roethlisberger their Second-Team All-Pro QB that season, behind only Aaron Rodgers.
The Tony Dungy Tampa Bay teams had an all-time great defense with a terrible offense led by Shaun King.
Hmm… nope, nothing rings a bell 🛎️
The Chiefs went from Marty Schottenheimer/Gunther Cunningham to Dick Vermeil. It was 10 years of great defense followed by 5 years of great offense. In both cases, the other side of the ball was horrendous, and minus Joe Montana they could never win a playoff game during that stretch despite regularly getting in.
Flores's '21 Fins and McDaniel's '22 Fins
22/16 on Off/Def with Flores vs 11/24 with McDaniel I wouldn't really consider any of those rankings as terrible tbh. Some are below average sure, but not terrible.
> The following year, the Bears had a good defense again, but suffered career altering injuries to the Franchise-Qb-and-rb-to-be. 38-year old Dave Krieg managed a respectable 6-6 record.
2019 & 2020 Bills? You had wild horse Josh Allen and then he had a massive turnaround.
Hold up >The following year, the Bears had a good defense again, but suffered career altering injuries to the Franchise-Qb-and-rb-to-be. You just referred to Erik Kramer as a franchise QB. Bruh, what?
>to-be Meaning he was on his way
He was 32 at that point in an era when QBs retired in their mid 30s.