[C-Gold]

#1 Patriots - had a 1st round bye in AFC
#2 Broncos - had a 1st round bye in AFC
#3 Saints - Off year
#4 Redskins - Won division
#5 Packers - Won division
#6 Giants - Barley missed playoffs
#7 Atlanta - had a 1st round bye in NFC
#8 Houston - Won division
#9 Seattle - 2nd round of playoffs
#10 Baltimore - Won Super Bowl
#11 San Fran - Super Bowl appearance


Look at the bottom teams
#32 KC - 1st pick in the draft, worst team in the NFL
#31 Arizona -awful last place team
#30 Jacksonville - awful last place team
#29 Philly - awful last place team
#28 Jets

All of this talk about defense wins championships. The best teams in the NFL have the best quarterbacks and they score points.

[d2bets]

Couldn't you also make the same case for defense? Top defenses last season:

Pitt, SF, Sea, Den, Atl, Cinci, Chi, Hou -- all made playoffs except Chi at 10-6.

Those bottom teams you listed were also at or near bottom in defense, along with N.O. Saints were bad because their defense was terrible. Saints were 2nd in pts and 3rd in yards per game. Their defense wasn't up to snuff.

But yeah, obviously your QB needs to play and you need to score. It's both.

[pologq]

what about point differential - i think that would be a more telling stat. however, i do agree that you do need to score something even with the best defense in the league. i dont think the 2000 ravens win the superbowl in this pass happy nfl. even a good team will still score 17-21 pts against a solid defense nowadays.

[slacker00]

BAL and SF being in the SB should prove you don't need the #1 offense, #10 or #11 is good enough.