Bob Sutton’s Historic Chiefs Defense
By Miles Yi
The Houston Texans come to town this Sunday for an afternoon game at Arrowhead against the Kansas City Chiefs. I’m certain the Texans scouts scour AA for insider tips that can help their team, so here’s a tip to make their jobs easier: The Chiefs defense is really good.
But just how good are they? To answer this question, let’s first discuss what the best metric is to measure defensive prowess. I’m going to go with points given up by a defense per game. More so than interceptions, sacks or tackles-for-loss, points given up is perhaps the best defensive indicator of what really matters: will the Chiefs win or lose the game.
Through six games, defensive coordinator Bob Sutton’s defense has given up an average of 10.8 points per game (PPG), the stingiest in the NFL this year by that metric. I went back and looked at the entire history of the NFL as measured by the PPG metric, and here’s what I found — the top 15 defenses of all time:
Rank |
Year
Team
Record
Last Game
PPG
1
1977
Atlanta Falcons
7-7
Regular Season
9.2
2
1969
Minnesota Vikings
12-2
Super Bowl
9.5
3
1975
Los Angeles Rams
12-2
Conference Championship
9.6
4
1976
Pittsburgh Steelers
10-4
Conference Championship
9.9
5
1971
Minnesota Vikings
11-3
Conference Semifinals
9.9
6
1971
Baltimore Colts
10-4
Conference Championship
10.0
7
1970
Minnesota Vikings
12-2
Conference Semifinals
10.2
8
1968
Baltimore Colts
13-1
Super Bowl
10.3
9
2000
Baltimore Ravens
12-4
Super Bowl
10.3
10
1977
Los Angeles Rams
10-4
Conference Semifinals
10.4
11
1977
Denver Broncos
12-2
Super Bowl
10.6
12
1973
Miami Dolphins
12-2
Super Bowl
10.7
13
1975
Pittsburgh Steelers
12-2
Super Bowl
11.6
14
1966
Green Bay Packers
12-2
Super Bowl
11.6
15
1986
Chicago Bears
14-2
Conference Semifinals
11.7
At its current pace, this 2013 Kansas City Chiefs defense would rank as the 13th best defense of all time.
By way of comparison, here are the next best defenses this year in 2013, after the Chiefs:
Team |
Record
PPG
Carolina Panthers
2-3
13.6
Seattle Seahawks
5-1
15.7
Indianapolis Colts
4-1
15.8
New England Patriots
5-1
16.2
The Panthers would be tied for 49th historically, while the Seahawks, Colts and Patriots would fall far outside of the top 100.
You may notice that in the first table of the top 15 defenses, no teams are represented after 2000. Clearly, the NFL has become a more pass-centric, high-scoring game. That’s what makes this 2013 Chiefs defense even more remarkable. For fun, I also pulled together the top defenses in the NFL from 2001-2012. Here’s what we get:
PPG |
Team
Year
12.3
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2002
12.6
Chicago Bears
2005
12.6
Baltimore Ravens
2006
12.7
Chicago Bears
2001
13.9
Pittsburgh Steelers
2008
14.2
Pittsburgh Steelers
2011
14.5
Pittsburgh Steelers
2010
14.8
New York Jets
2009
14.9
New England Patriots
2003
15.3
Seattle Seahawks
2012
15.7
Pittsburgh Steelers
2004
16.4
Indianapolis Colts
2007
In addition to this 2013 Chiefs defense being the 13th best defense of all time, it would rank as the single best defense since 2001 and the modern era of high-scoring offenses.
Addicts, do the numbers back it up? Is this truly the best defense in the NFL since 2000?