The Bears Have the Best Defense, Period.
(As Fornelli pointed out, I forgot to address the Bears' injuries; even without Mike Brown, the Bears have been the best defense this season. It's tough to say what the Tommie Harris situation will end up looking like; so, I'm saying on the whole this season, the Bears have been the best defense.)
I'm sick and tired of people saying team X has a better defense than the Bears. It's an exercise in futility. The latest wannabe ascendors to the Bears' throne are the Boys from Dallas, whom were championed by Sean Salisbury.
Salisbury said on SportsCenter Tuesday night that the Cowboys are, right now, the best team in the NFC. The 'Boys are playing a more complete game of football recently. But Salisbury went on to say that the Dallas defense is better than the Bears'.
Ok, it's one thing to say currently the Cowboys are the best team in the NFC; I don't think they are, but I'm not going to find fault with that, because it was defensible. Of course, Salisbury had to go ahead and stick his foot up his ass by saying that the Dallas D is better than the Bears'.
I waited 5 long days for Sunday to come, just so I could see the Cowboys exposed and Salisbury made to look like an even bigger idiot. So let's take a quick peak at the Dallas vs. New Orleans tilt, with regards to the defense.
The first thing a defense needs to do is prevent points, obviously. Let's look at the scoreboard, oh yes, 42 points for the Saints. Now, there sometimes can be extenuating circumstances. If your offense continually turns the ball over, giving your opponent a short field, even the best defense can be left helpless. Let's see, pick number 1 by Romo was returned to the Dallas 39, and pick number 2 was in the endzone, so you can't cut the defense any slack there. All those points were on the D.
Just taking a cursory glance at their past games, the Cowboys have had games where they've given up 24, 38, and 36 points. Hardly stellar performances.
One of the other criteria for a great defense, is a defense that forces a ton of turnovers. In this game Dallas had only one TO, and that was Terrell Owens. The defense had nary a pick nor a fumble recovery. On the season, the D has forced 26 turnovers. The Bears by comparison have 21 picks alone, to go with 18 FR, for 39 total Turnovers.
Also, on the game, Brees threw for 384 yards with 5 TD; Reggie Bush had 125 yards receiving; and Deuce had 111 yards rushing. This defense has certainly put the D in Dallas.
Some past poseurs...
The Denver Broncos - Early in the season, they were being compared to the '85 Bears (as all defenses, great and not so great) are. In their last game, they gave up 48 points to the Chargers, and have given 34 and 35 points in earlier games. '85 Bears, you better watch out, someone may knock you off your perch as best D ever...NOT (God bless Borat)
The Jacksonville Jaguars - They've had games of 36 and 3 games of 27. NEXT
The Chargers? Not so much - Games of 30, 41, and 27 with a 21, 24 and 25 mixed in.
The Baltimore Ravens - Not bad. Their high games have been 26, 20 and 22. I'd put them as second behind the Bears. They do lead the league in TO margin, but it's misleading because their offense masks the fact they only forced 28 TOs, again compared to the Bears 39.
DA Bears - They have a high game of 31, which as we all know, is not the D's fault. When your offense gives up a pick 6, a fumble on the 6, and a pick to inside the 20, you can't fault the D; that's 21 points right there. Besides that, the highest game was 23 (thanks to 6 TO's by the O against the Cards), 2o points, and 17.
I don't want to hear any more teams touted as the best D in the league, unless their name starts with a B-, and ends with an -ears. If you asked a coach or a player from any team, which D would you least like to face, they would respond Da Bears. The only way they could get anymore intimidating would be if they started doing the haka.
Some background on the Haka - The Haka originally was a dance done by the Maoris, the native people of New Zealand, to psyche themselves up before battle. About a hundred years ago, the New Zealand national sports teams (I think the All Blacks may have been the first) started doing the Haka before all sproting events. Other polynesian countries have their own war dances, the Tongans have their own, as do the Fijians, for examples. I bet Palomalu knows his native war dance.
The clip above shows a new version of the Haka that the rugby team made themselves a few years ago. The clip below as the traditional version that was actually done by the Maoris. I've seen the Haka in person, and can honestly say it is the most intimidating thing I have ever seen. Each time I've seen it, it has given me the chills.
In the second clip, France looks just about ready to surrender the game and their country.
Imagine Urlacher leading the Bears in the Haka, the other teams would shit themselves with fear.
UPDATE - As I'm watching the game, I'm gearing myself up to eat some nice crow.
UPDATE - I'm not disappointed with this performance. They Bears made adjustments in the second half, and only gave up more points once the game was in hand. At the end of the game they were in the prevent defense, and we all know my thoughts on that.
I'm sick and tired of people saying team X has a better defense than the Bears. It's an exercise in futility. The latest wannabe ascendors to the Bears' throne are the Boys from Dallas, whom were championed by Sean Salisbury.
Salisbury said on SportsCenter Tuesday night that the Cowboys are, right now, the best team in the NFC. The 'Boys are playing a more complete game of football recently. But Salisbury went on to say that the Dallas defense is better than the Bears'.
Ok, it's one thing to say currently the Cowboys are the best team in the NFC; I don't think they are, but I'm not going to find fault with that, because it was defensible. Of course, Salisbury had to go ahead and stick his foot up his ass by saying that the Dallas D is better than the Bears'.
I waited 5 long days for Sunday to come, just so I could see the Cowboys exposed and Salisbury made to look like an even bigger idiot. So let's take a quick peak at the Dallas vs. New Orleans tilt, with regards to the defense.
The first thing a defense needs to do is prevent points, obviously. Let's look at the scoreboard, oh yes, 42 points for the Saints. Now, there sometimes can be extenuating circumstances. If your offense continually turns the ball over, giving your opponent a short field, even the best defense can be left helpless. Let's see, pick number 1 by Romo was returned to the Dallas 39, and pick number 2 was in the endzone, so you can't cut the defense any slack there. All those points were on the D.
Just taking a cursory glance at their past games, the Cowboys have had games where they've given up 24, 38, and 36 points. Hardly stellar performances.
One of the other criteria for a great defense, is a defense that forces a ton of turnovers. In this game Dallas had only one TO, and that was Terrell Owens. The defense had nary a pick nor a fumble recovery. On the season, the D has forced 26 turnovers. The Bears by comparison have 21 picks alone, to go with 18 FR, for 39 total Turnovers.
Also, on the game, Brees threw for 384 yards with 5 TD; Reggie Bush had 125 yards receiving; and Deuce had 111 yards rushing. This defense has certainly put the D in Dallas.
Some past poseurs...
The Denver Broncos - Early in the season, they were being compared to the '85 Bears (as all defenses, great and not so great) are. In their last game, they gave up 48 points to the Chargers, and have given 34 and 35 points in earlier games. '85 Bears, you better watch out, someone may knock you off your perch as best D ever...NOT (God bless Borat)
The Jacksonville Jaguars - They've had games of 36 and 3 games of 27. NEXT
The Chargers? Not so much - Games of 30, 41, and 27 with a 21, 24 and 25 mixed in.
The Baltimore Ravens - Not bad. Their high games have been 26, 20 and 22. I'd put them as second behind the Bears. They do lead the league in TO margin, but it's misleading because their offense masks the fact they only forced 28 TOs, again compared to the Bears 39.
DA Bears - They have a high game of 31, which as we all know, is not the D's fault. When your offense gives up a pick 6, a fumble on the 6, and a pick to inside the 20, you can't fault the D; that's 21 points right there. Besides that, the highest game was 23 (thanks to 6 TO's by the O against the Cards), 2o points, and 17.
I don't want to hear any more teams touted as the best D in the league, unless their name starts with a B-, and ends with an -ears. If you asked a coach or a player from any team, which D would you least like to face, they would respond Da Bears. The only way they could get anymore intimidating would be if they started doing the haka.
Some background on the Haka - The Haka originally was a dance done by the Maoris, the native people of New Zealand, to psyche themselves up before battle. About a hundred years ago, the New Zealand national sports teams (I think the All Blacks may have been the first) started doing the Haka before all sproting events. Other polynesian countries have their own war dances, the Tongans have their own, as do the Fijians, for examples. I bet Palomalu knows his native war dance.
The clip above shows a new version of the Haka that the rugby team made themselves a few years ago. The clip below as the traditional version that was actually done by the Maoris. I've seen the Haka in person, and can honestly say it is the most intimidating thing I have ever seen. Each time I've seen it, it has given me the chills.
In the second clip, France looks just about ready to surrender the game and their country.
Imagine Urlacher leading the Bears in the Haka, the other teams would shit themselves with fear.
UPDATE - As I'm watching the game, I'm gearing myself up to eat some nice crow.
UPDATE - I'm not disappointed with this performance. They Bears made adjustments in the second half, and only gave up more points once the game was in hand. At the end of the game they were in the prevent defense, and we all know my thoughts on that.
posted by Jeeves at 12:44 AM
7 Comments:
The Bears have the best defense in the league when they have a healthy Tommie Harris and Mike Brown.
Without those two guys, I have to give the nod to Baltimore right now. Teams just don't move the ball on that D, and they move it quite frequently on the Bears, it's just the Bears cause a turnover at some point.
Big points to Fornelli for that, because that's something I overlooked. I think even with Mike Brown out, the Bears were better, but it's yet to be seen how the Bears fare without Tommie Boy.
and now the bears have the best special teams
Hey dickie...I don't know if CSox is your normal e-mail, but take a look at it.
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The Haka is awesome. The Bears need to draft a polynesian and then convince him to lead it.
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