Offense Can Win Games, but Defense Still Wins Rings

There was an old expression that rang true in the NFL for years: Defense wins championships.

Though it’s kind of fallen out of favor with the high-flying offensive game that football has become, there’s still a lot of meat on that bone. You’re not having a ring ceremony without a defense that can make plays.

This isn’t solely based on opinion. Let’s take a look at recent champions.

The Eagles and Seahawks won the last two Super Bowls with solid quarterbacks in Jalen Hurts and Sam Darnold, respectively. The truth be told, while both signal callers were certainly significant factors in their teams’ overall success, both offenses were objectively led by their running attacks — Saquon Barkley had one of the finest seasons any running back has ever had two seasons ago, and Kenneth Walker was MVP of last year’s title game.

The simple argument to make here is that it is actually being able to run the ball successfully that leads a team to championship glory, and that the running game can open things up for a passing game that might otherwise be somewhat mediocre, and your formula is officially finished to win championships.

But, in the immortal words of Lee Corso: not so fast, my friend.

Because we all know that running the ball well does not mean you win championships, right? The Ravens have been as good or better than anybody in that particular part of the game for years now, and they haven’t sniffed a Super Bowl win since Barack Obama was being sworn in for his second term and Warm Bodies was topping the box office.

And for all the talk of The Big 4 quarterbacks — Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow — only Mahomes has a Super Bowl title to his name. And, spoiler alert, he had some pretty good help on the other side of the ball when he won his titles. He’s also lost Super Bowls when facing dominant defenses.

This isn’t to say a dominant defense is a guarantee to a championship, either. The Texans and Broncos both fielded those last year, and neither made it to the big game. Granted, Denver lost their quarterback to an injury in the Divisional Round that could have cost it a trip to the Super Bowl, and Houston got submarined by, well, whatever that was C.J. Stroud did in that Kyle Boller-esque performance.

But both of those teams did have a shot to get there because of what was on the other side of the ball, and that’s important to note here, too. Defense doesn’t guarantee championships by any metric, but it does keep you in games, and can flip a tight game your way in a heartbeat.

That matters.

The Quarterbacks

At its heart, the modern NFL is indeed a passing game. Rule changes have allowed receivers mostly free releases, little-to-no contact running downfield, and no real threat of losing parts of their face when pulling in contested catches in the middle of the field. Quarterbacks no longer get pounded after every throw and can feel comfortable stepping up into the pocket to let it fly downfield.

For the most part, these quarterbacks are much more athletic than before, as well. Of those Big 4 quarterbacks, Burrow is probably the least athletic, and he is incredibly nifty with his feet in the pocket, and shows impressive strength shaking off defenders. In short, they are much, much harder to defend than they used to be.

These superstar quarterbacks can “lift the boat,” so to speak. They can help offset weaknesses on the line with their ability to diagnose both pre- and post-snap and move around with their athleticism, compensate for poor receivers with pinpoint passing and an understanding of leverage in the heat of the moment, and can each just “go bonkers” and drop 500 yards of offense and five touchdowns on your head any given week.

They allow an organization to make more mistakes than other organizations because of their ability to play Superman and lift the team on their shoulders. However, Superman had his kryptonite, and even the greatest quarterbacks have their own — elite defenses.

Numbers Don’t Lie

Last year’s champion Seahawks gave up the fewest points in the league. There are other stats people look at, like yards per game or DVOA or what have you, but let’s just look at raw points allowed here. That’s a pretty big one.

The Seahawks were followed by the aforementioned Texans and Broncos, respectively, and then the fourth-best scoring defense belonged to the Patriots, their opponent in the Super Bowl. The year before that, the mighty Mahomes and his Chiefs were destroyed by the Eagles, the second-best scoring defense in the league that year. Of course, the Chiefs won each of the previous two Super Bowls, finishing second and 16^th, respectively, in points allowed those years. And, the year before that, Burrow and his high-flying offense were ultimately derailed by Aaron Donald and company.

Offense can win a ton of games for you. And having a poor offense is a good way to ensure you never get close to a Super Bowl (for reference, the 2000 Ravens, often criticized as having an awful offense, finished 14^th in the league in scoring).

But it can be slowed by an elite defense. Playmakers force turnovers. And creative coaches can drum up big third-down stops. A good, physical, smart defense can derail even the most explosive of offenses.

Ask the 2001 Rams or 2007 Patriots. Or the 2020 Chiefs. Or the 2021 Bengals. Or the…

You get the point.

Why Does This Matter to the 2026 Ravens?

Look, there were issues with last year’s Ravens offense, and they were pretty obvious. Jackson being slowed by injury for a good portion of the year, mediocre receiving performances outside of Zay Flowers, costly fumbles, poor red-zone performance, and whatever you want to call what they were doing at guard each week all contributed. But with two new guards, a different staff, a couple fresh, tall faces at receiver and the supposed healthy return of Jackson, we can probably expect a pretty good offense, right?

The defense last year was an outright disaster. What were the highlights? A shutout of the Bengals. The Kyle Van Noy to Alohi Gilman pick-6. Some good stuff from Travis Jones in the back half of the year. It was rough. And forget Tyler Loop’s “Ray Finkle” moment, the defense was what mostly held this team back last year.

And it appears the Ravens know that, judging by this offseason.

Questions at defensive coordinator? Well, let’s upgrade with one of the league’s best the last two years at head coach, and name a new coordinator who we probably should have hired a few years ago. Pass-rush completely useless for huge parts of the season? Sign Trey Hendrickson (I’m remembering something about Maxx Crosby, but the details are fuzzy), draft Zion Young in the second round and hope a change in scheme and coaching help the young guys. Have problems right up the middle? Sign Calais Campbell, and, possibly, luck into the return of Nnamdi Madubuike. Want to shore up that third safety spot? Bring in Jaylinn Hawkins from the AFC champion Patriots.

There’s no way to know if this will all work. In fact, it won’t. There will be injuries. A player will regress. A young guy won’t develop as hoped. There will be miscommunications in the back end, especially at the start of the season.

But they took it seriously this offseason. And they now hope to have the kind of defense that can actually compete for championships.

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