This is funny looking back at it now. Several years ago on a website that should not be named, RaiderPride was ranting about how Defense wins Championships. I told him he was full of it and how sick I am of stupid worn out clichs, then in my attempt to prove him wrong, I ended up proving him right.
Whoops.
So for you sports history fans, a little bit on the Green Bay Packers and how we won our Championships not because of a high profile running game or a sexy Quarterback, it was because of Defense.
The Green Bay Packers since 1921 have won 12 Championships, which is more than any other team. I'm not going to go back all the way to 1921 because a) I'm lazy, and b) I'll put you to sleep. Instead, we'll start from the Lombardi years.
Vince Lombardi, the greatest coach ever, took over a pathetic 1-10-1 team in 1959 and in his very first year, coached the team to a winning record at 7-5-0. The very next year, we were in the Playoffs. We won 5 Championships under Lombardi including the first 2 SBs and 1 Championship (Super Bowl) since. These are the Green Bay Packers Championships since our first Lombardi one in 1961, the regular season record, and the Offense and Defense rankings.
Year Record Off Def
1961 11-3 1 2
1962 13-1 1 1
1965 10-3-1 8 1
1966 12-2 4 1
1967 9-4-1 9 3
1996 13-3 1 1
Now yes, you can see we had a potent O in half those years, but during each Championship, we had a top 3 D including 4 times with the #1 D. And actually in 1965, there were only 14 teams and in 1967, we had the 9th top O out of 16 teams. That puts us in the lower half when it comes to O both years. Thank God for a potent D to bail us.
The Los Angeles Rams had the NFL's best O in '67. A lot of use it did them as they only scored 7 points in the Playoff game against us. We sacked Pro Bowler Roman Gabriel five times and picked him off once while limiting their rushers to only 75 yards.
In 1965, the Niners had the best O led by Pro Bowler John Brodie. They didn't even make the Playoffs.
A little tidbit, since the Lombardi years, every single time we had the #1 D, we won the Championship.
Why do I bring this up now? Well, kind of makes you feel better about this 2010 team, don't ya think? (In case you don't know, we currently have the NFL's #1 D).
"zombieslayer" wrote: