You taking Ravens over 02 Tampa or 85 Bears? I’m not necessarily disagreeing but I’m interested in your take between the 3.
Well I’m a Ravens fan so of course...
But here’s my reasoning:
- Only gave up 970yds rushing for the entire season; that’s the lowest ever in NFL history
- Only gave up 5 rushing TD’s the entire season; the lowest ever in NFL history
- Only allowed 2.7 yards per rush; the lowest ever in NFL history
- Only allowed 165 points the entire season; the lowest ever in NFL history
- Only allowed 9.4 points per game as a Defense; the lowest ever in NFL history
- Forced 49 turnovers (23INT’s & 26 Fumbles); the lowest ever in NFL history
- Only allowed 2,997yds passing the entire season; the 2nd lowest in NFL history
- Only allowed 11 passing TD’s the entire season; the lowest in NFL history
- Only allowed opponents to score double digits in just 7 games the entire season (playoffs included); the lowest ever in NFL history
The Ravens Defense had exactly TWO quarters of “bad” football the entire season, the rest was unrestrictedly DOMINANT in a way that literally suffocated teams & the biggest caveat was the fact they had no offensive help.
Both the 85 Bears & the 02 Buccs had significantly better Offenses than the 00 Ravens, meaning they were on the field a lot less & played with more cushion/comfortability because they could rely on their Offenses to score & help them win games. The 00 Ravens couldn’t rely on the Offense AT ALL; the Defense & the Special Teams had to win every game for them or else they were screwed & the craziest part is, all they needed was a TD & a FG, that’s it. Just give’em 10 points & it was game over...
The only category the other two Defenses were better in was Pass Defense, the 85 Bears & Buccs were better against the Pass than the Ravens Defense, but even the 00 Ravens finished 8th in Pass Defense. The Bears had a better Pass rush because of the 46 style Defense that they ran disallowed for OL’s to double team their DE’s, but our Defense wasn’t really designed to get high volume sacks from the DLine, our primary pass rushers were our LB’s.
All 3 Defenses were great, but the 00 Ravens were astronomically good in a way that really hasn’t been & probably never will be seen again. What made them so unique was the fact that they were actually a very average overall team at best, in terms of talent, all of the talent was on Defensive side of the ball & the offense had about 3, maybe 4 players at best were serviceable with Shannon Sharpe on the tail end of his career being the best among them all.
So what that means is, as a team they were pedestrian, so what was it that put them over the top? Exactly...