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Greetings!
Da Bears! had the Greatest Defense of All
time...right? welll, maybe....
With all the recent events
in the NFL, (Emmit Smith breaking Walter Payton's All time rushing mark this past
Sunday)...it has me thinking and debating as too who is the greatest running back
in the NFL. <click here to read more> but it also has me thinking and debating
about who had the greatest defense in the NFL as well... with the Bears being on
the news every other second showing Walter breaking Jim Brown's rushing
title...it reminds me of the 1985 Chicago Bears that helped d'em same Bears go
18-1 to win Super Bowl XX.
 The 1985 Bears had something that most Great defenses never
have. The ability to actually scare their opponent. Intimidation seemed to be
1/3 of the game they played. The other 2/3 being a combination of speed and
talent. I can remember the Bears lining up 8 in the box and them saying, hey..
if you have 7 blocking and 8 are coming...1 man gets an open shot at the
quarterback...and in most cases he Would get to the QB... The 46 defense
has to go down as one, if not the most feared defenses in NFL history.
 The
Steel Curtain might disagree with those above statements... although
they would agree that great defenses do intimidate and great defenses do use
that to their advantage. Take the Steel Curtain of the 1970's. From 1970 -
75..the Steelers defense was formidable... but not show stopping. Enter Jack
Lambert along with Dwight White and Donnie Shell and all of sudden, the Steelers
have something cookin! Shell and White were great add on to the Curtain... but
the draft pick that made a huge impact instantly was one Jack Lambert! To some
up how QB's felt about Lambert standing directly in front of them...staring them
down... Sure fire Hall of Famer John Elway, in his first NFL game played against
the Steelers... came up under center, looked at a snarling Jack Lambert and said
to himself... he wanted to go home! Jack Lambert was intimidating. Yet, only
210lbs and coming out of college as a QB...you'd never know it on paper. But
games are never played on paper... and Jack Lambert was a nasty as they came.
Voted to many Pro Bowls and starting in 4 Super Bowl wins... Lambert spear
headed a dominating Pittsburgh Steelers defense that is considered that Greatest
Defense of All time.
Hall of Famers include: Jack Lambert, Mean Joe Greene, Mel Blount and Jack Ham.
Not to pass judgment on the players from the 1985 Bears,... but Super Bowl rings
and Hall of Fame rings define how great a defense truly was... and with 4
players already in the Hall from that great Steelers defense and maybe a couple
more to come...it's easy to see how the Steelers Steel Curtain Defense is ranked
the Greatest Defense of All time.
The 2000 Baltimore Ravens ? hmmm, Once known as the Bird
Cage, this team breaks the laws
in terms of gauging whether the defensive numbers can be the only source of
record to judge who should be crowned the Greatest ever.
Point in fact... the Ravens broke many of the defensive team records that help
decide whether a defensive unit should be considered the greatest... and they
finished it off with a Super Bowl victory. Pretty impressive! However, when the
Super Bowl rings were distributed... the Ravens defense didn't look like it's
Super Bowl winning unit. Some were let go due to salary cap reasons, others left
for the expansion draft for the newly arrived Texas Houston's... or Houston
Texans....or what ever.... anyway...point is, the Ravens run was 1 season. 1
season of bone crushing, record breaking performances. 1 chance to show how good
they actually were.. and they did show that... beating the NYG into the ground
on Super Sunday by what seemed a mile Ray Lewis, who is their leader on defense
was MVP of game and rightfully so with the way he worked the Giants into the
ground!
The long and short of it is this... if grading the greatest were done like the
BCS is done in college football for the # 1 team...The Ravens get 10+ across the
board; however, when you factor in the longevity of a defenses run...1 is a
lonely number in that regard. B-more falls to 3rd, with the 1985 Bears being
2nd... and the Steel Curtain is a Strong #1.
Hey!, what about the purple people eaters and the fearsome foursome of
LA. Toss in the No-namers from Miami well your at it... I can only
say this much for these well known defenses: Steady and Formidable. Although I
would say that these defenses have a place on the Greatest list... but not in
the Top 3 list. These teams lacked the intimidation factor.. they lacked that
"crushing" dominating element that the 3 teams above had. Not to suggest they
were whims or anything like that... they were just ... steadily good performing
defenses that helped produce winning seasons.
Here's my Top Defenses in order:
# 1 The Steel Curtain
# 2 The 1985 Chicago Bears
# 3 The 2002 Baltimore Ravens
# 4 Miami's No-Name Defense
# 5 Dallas's Doomsday Defense [which is NOT to associate them with Dallas's
Prevent Defense of the 80's]
# 6 tie The Purple People Eaters / The Fearsome Foursome.
honorable mentions: The Oakland Raiders had a nasty defensive unit during the
70's... they didn't have a name.. but we like to call them the Nasty Boys of the
1970's. The Green Bay Packers defense of the 60's... I can name at least 4 Hall
of Famer's.... and the mid 1980's NY Giants. Yep! This squad, although over
shadowed by the Bears of 85... had a Nasty side to them and it was called
Lawrence Taylor! The NYG's of the 80's won with a sound offensive game and a
bone crushing, go get'em LT led defense.
Who is your Top 5?
Would the NY Giants of the 80's make your honor role?
Are the Ravens overrated?
What other team could be mentioned or even placed in the Top 6..?
check out our Steel Curtain vs 1985 Bears link
JohnL
10-28-2002
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