NFL Playoffs 2012: Why Defense Will Win A Championship This Year

For all the scoring and passing offense that has taken place this season, the defenses in the NFL will reign supreme come playoff time.

If you look at the current stats of the NFL on both offense and defense, you see a great disparity. The top-ranked offenses have the best passers in the game, led by Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. Throw in Matthew Stafford as well because he had one heck of a season.

But of those teams, their defenses are in the lower quarter of the NFL hierarchy, which means they have been outscoring their opponents to beat them, not hold them to lower totals, while being a completely dominant team.

Each team in this year's playoffs has an Achilles heel. But the more of the better teams in the "party" seem to have forgotten to play defense.

The top-five defenses in the NFL rank as follows: Pittsburgh, Houston, Baltimore, San Francisco and the New York Jets.

Even from day one, we saw the Packers and the Saints forget about playing defense and gave us a 42-34 thriller and then on the final day of the regular season, Detroit and Green Bay combined for 1,000 passing yards and 11 touchdowns.

Teams like Pittsburgh, Baltimore and the New York Giants have a good track record of grinding the clock out while playing a better defense come playoff time. The Steelers' Mike Tomlin and the Giants' Tom Coughlin have used this approach to claim a Super Bowl Titles since 2006.

While Houston rode its strong running game on offense in the stretch run, its defense, led by defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, was a major reason the team reached the postseason for the first time in team history.

San Francisco surprised everyone in the NFC with a good running game, led by Frank Gore, and a run defense that was stellar and made it difficult for the NFL elite to run on them all season.

Part of the problem may be that with a high-scoring offense like Detroit, New England or New Orleans, the offense isn't on the field for long periods of time; the defense is out there more often and fatigue may wear on the unit.

The other reason is that they may face teams with the same ability to air it out at will.

Whatever the reason, defense still wins championships. You have to stop another team in order to truly beat them. The playoffs become a different brand of football. And in the NFL, those who can lead with a defense has a good shot to make it to Indianapolis. Offenses may score points. But in this league, defenses score championships.