Star of the 2022 season.....

[Essex Johnson]

(09-03-2022, 10:06 AM)KillerGoose Wrote: 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.

Well im finding different  yards per play.. from pro football reference we were at 5.5 during the season ranking of 20th... if you say we were at 4.5 in playoffs that would have put us 1st in regular season.  here is my reference.. and that is one component, turnovers , points are another component in rating a defense..  which all three we improved upon in the playoffs.. 

I just like the defense finished strong in the playoffs and was the reason we moved on in the playoffs.. I think this team now knows they can win with the defense especially when offense is under performing like in playoffs

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2021/opp.htm