Defense STILL Wins Championships

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What is the old saying, defense wins championships, and offense sells tickets?

In this day and age of gaudy offensive numbers, defense has taken a back seat especially in NCAA football. Gaudy numbers is what attracts voters to certain teams. Take Texas as an example.

Until last week, the Longhorns were third in the country jumped by Alabama a few weeks ago. Now that they have had a better showing against Missouri and Oklahoma State offensively, the Longhorns moved back ahead in all the major polls this past week over an idle Alabama team.

In the end, rankings don’t matter for either Florida, Alabama or Texas as long as they win out, but it just amazes me how Texas jumped Alabama just because they had a better offensive showing the last few weeks.

Since when did playing good defense become such a liability? Even Michael Strahan formally of the New York Giants, who is a defensive player himself, dogged the Crimson Tide offense on Fox Sunday. Does he remember how the Giants got to the Super Bowl against the Patriots a few years ago?

It wasn’t like Eli Manning was pulling a Peyton and throwing for 300 yards a game; it was the Giants defense too. Nowadays, if you don’t have a 300 yard passer, you aren’t considering a “good” offensive team.

This Alabama team reminds me a bit of the 1992 National Championship team of Gene Stallings which offense was a helluva a lot worse offensively then this current team. Stallings teams really were three yards and a cloud of dust.

Stallings relied on two things: David Palmer and the defense. At some point during the game, Palmer would make a big play, usually on a punt return or on offense that would turn a close game like Louisiana Tech, into a blow out (ok not exactly in that game but you get the picture).

I remember a local sports radio host in Birmingham said that the “worst” thing that could have happened to Alabama was winning a national championship by defense. Huh?

Can you recall ONE team that has won a championship without a good defense? Oklahoma had Sam Bradford last year and that high power offense that a lot of people said couldn’t be stopped, but the Florida Gator defense stopped them dead in their tracks.

Oklahoma might have gotten to the national championship game because of their offense, but they didn’t win the championship because of their offense too, but I digress.

The 1992 Miami Hurricanes had a Heisman Trophy winner in Gino Torretta at quarterback, great wide receivers, a good offensive line and a high powered offense that again according to most experts couldn’t be stopped.

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