09-03-2022, 10:06 AM
(09-03-2022, 03:06 AM)Essex Johnson Wrote: I would disagree on playoff assessment, yards per game was about same but points they gave up less than 20 a game vs over 22 in regular seasonand turnovers as you pointed out were better with 2 per game vs 1.2 in season.
I think what we forget how ineffective our offense was in playoffs vs regular season. We only scored 5 tds in our 3 playoff games and were below our avg yards per game in all 3 playoff games, if it was not for our defense we don't make super bowl.
You're not really disagreeing on anything, I just worded my sentence weird. On a play-by-play basis, Cincinnati was still a mediocre defense, allowing 4.5 yards per play in both the playoffs and regular season. For reference, that was good for 20th in the regular season and 9th out of 14 in the post-season. Where they improved was turnovers, which helped them allow slightly less points. In the end, they were a better defense than what we had been seeing.
I agree. The defense was a huge part of our Super Bowl run. My only concern is that what we saw from our defense is likely an outlier. Turnovers tend to be volatile and inconsistent, so it is why I usually make the distinction that I do; the defense was still mediocre from a play-by-play perspective but they capitalized on their turnover opportunities.
