Chiefs: How championship defenses fail

I’m surprised no one has seen it before. “Seen what” you ask? How championship defenses fail. The year after a team wins a championship, presumably because of their defense, that defense usually fails to reach the heights they achieved the previous year. That’s not in reference to not winning another Super Bowl, that’s reference to their overall play the year following their championship season.

We’ve heard to before, “It’s hard to repeat” and that looks like it may be just what is happening to the Denver Broncos. It appears now that the perfect storm that was the 2015 season is now a 2016 “light rain” that will not carry them to another trophy.

Take the 1985 Chicago Bears who won the Super Bowl and many consider the best defense of all time. That season, they shut out other teams four times, including twice in the playoffs. In 10 other games that year, they held the opposition to 10 points or less nine times… and that doesn’t include the four teams they shut out.

The next season they were still good but they had no shut outs, lost in the first round of the playoffs and 4 teams scored 20 points or more including the 27 that Washington scored on them to knock them from the playoffs.

The 2000 Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens, had three shutouts that year and allowed 10 points or less 11 times. They also only allowed 13 points or less throughout the playoffs. In 2001… they were still very good but only had one shutout and gave up 21 points or more, nine times. The Ravens also gave up 27 points during a playoff game that ended their season.

The last time we had back-to-back Super Bowl Champions was the 2003-2004 New England Patriots who were mostly well known for… quarterback Tom Brady. Yes, they had a good defense those years but it was Tom Brady who was the centerpiece of those teams. However, their defense finished 2nd in points per game allowed in 2003 and they were first in the same category in 2004.

So, while it doesn’t appear that those teams fit the mold of championship defenses failing to repeat the next season… let’s take a look at the team who won back-to-back championships prior to the Pats: the 1997-1998 Denver Broncos.

In 1997, the Broncos defense was tied for 6th in the league for points allowed per game at 17.9. By the way, the K.C. Chiefs were first in the league that year in points allowed at 14.5. The next season, although they won the Super Bowl again, their defense dropped to 8th in the league allowing 19.3 points per game. It was the John Elway/Terrell Davis combination that helped the team rank second in the league in points per game at 31.3.

We probably shouldn’t say, “Defense wins championships” anymore. What would likely be more accurate is, “Defense wins one championship at a time.”

How does this apply to the Chiefs? First of all, the Broncos are fighting history when it comes to relying on their defense to win two in a row. If they were making “voluntary changes” this offseason to make their defense better, it could be possible. However, since what has been happening with their whole team this offseason, including their defense, could be termed “negative involuntary change”… then it seems logical my dear Watson, to deduce a step backwards for them.

Next: Was Denver's 2015 Defense one of the best ever?