I would have them as one of the top 10 defenses in NFL history, in any given year.


I would put them lower on the list because their biggest weakness was the secondary and they never had to play a lot of great quarterbacks that year with the easiest SOS of any team in the AFC.


They faced off against Scott Mitchell and Akili Smith against the Bengals.


They played Jacksonville twice, and in those contests they played Mark Brunell in one game and Jamie Martin in the other game.

They faced the Cleveland Browns twice that season, who were in only their second season back in the NFL. In the first game, a 12-0 win, the defense faced off against Tim Couch, who is much better then a bust to me as he never played with a single pro bowler, on offense, in his Cleveland Browns career, but still not great.

During the second game, a 44-7 Baltimore victory, they played a mixture of Doug Pederson and Spergon Wynn.

They played Pittsburgh twice in 2000 and the teams split the series.

In the season opener, they played against Kent Graham and he was the team's quarterback in the Steelers' loss and the game against Kordell Stewart they loss.

The Ravens' biggest loss of the season turned out to be their 19-6 defeat by the Miami Dolphins. It was their first year without Dan Marino. The quarterback was Jay Fiedler.

Luckily, the defense experienced the joy of going against Ryan Leaf against the Chargers.

Against the Jets they played Vinny Testaverde who managed to complete 36 passes for 481 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.

They faced off against Tennessee twice, meaning the defense squared off with Steve McNair each time. He was probably the best quarterback they played that year.

In the NFC, they played against Brad Johnson, Troy Aikman, his last and arguably his worst year, and Jake Plummer.

It's not to discredit what they did, but if I'm judging against all time greats then it has to at least be brought up.

My question would be do you think our defense would play better in the next 7 games if we had 2 games against the 2000 Akili Smith led Bengals, a game against the Ryan Leaf led Chargers, 2 games against Cleveland, one against Tim Couch and one against Doug Pederson and Spergon Wynn?

A game against a Brad Johnson led Buccaneers and a game against a Kent Graham led Steelers?

Of course it would improve. That's why I would put them lower on the list, but you can only play the opponents they give you.

I'd still put them in the top 10.

(11-14-2018, 01:38 PM)TheBengalsMind Wrote: I would have them as one of the top 10 defenses in NFL history, in any given year.


I would put them lower on the list because their biggest weakness was the secondary and they never had to play a lot of great quarterbacks that year with the easiest SOS of any team in the AFC.


They faced off against Scott Mitchell and Akili Smith against the Bengals.


They played Jacksonville twice, and in those contests they played Mark Brunell in one game and Jamie Martin in the other game.

They faced the Cleveland Browns twice that season, who were in only their second season back in the NFL. In the first game, a 12-0 win, the defense faced off against Tim Couch, who is much better then a bust to me as he never played with a single pro bowler, on offense, in his Cleveland Browns career, but still not great.

During the second game, a 44-7 Baltimore victory, they played a mixture of Doug Pederson and Spergon Wynn.

They played Pittsburgh twice in 2000 and the teams split the series.

In the season opener, they played against Kent Graham and he was the team's quarterback in the Steelers' loss and the game against Kordell Stewart they loss.

The Ravens' biggest loss of the season turned out to be their 19-6 defeat by the Miami Dolphins. It was their first year without Dan Marino. The quarterback was Jay Fiedler.

Luckily, the defense experienced the joy of going against Ryan Leaf against the Chargers.

Against the Jets they played Vinny Testaverde who managed to complete 36 passes for 481 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.

They faced off against Tennessee twice, meaning the defense squared off with Steve McNair each time. He was probably the best quarterback they played that year.

In the NFC, they played against Brad Johnson, Troy Aikman, his last and arguably his worst year, and Jake Plummer.

It's not to discredit what they did, but if I'm judging against all time greats then it has to at least be brought up.

My question would be do you think our defense would play better in the next 7 games if we had 2 games against the 2000 Akili Smith led Bengals, a game against the Ryan Leaf led Chargers, 2 games against Cleveland, one against Tim Couch and one against Doug Pederson and Spergon Wynn?

A game against a Brad Johnson led Buccaneers and a game against a Kent Graham led Steelers?

Of course it would improve. That's why I would put them lower on the list, but you can only play the opponents they give you.

I'd still put them in the top 10.

Excellent points.

Except the bolded; their secondary was beyond insane, easily the best ever (for one season).

Here is one of the most amazing stats regarding a Super Bowl winning team in NFL history.

In the 4th game of the 2000 season Ravens RB Obafemi Ayanbadejo scored a 1 yard rushing td in the fourth quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Ravens did not score another td until 6 weeks later in the 2nd quarter of a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

They won 2 of those 5 straight games they went without a td.

Agree with most....MArvin’s D was “Attack....attack...attack”. Did he have the players to do that? Or, did he know how to get those guys to play that way to make them that good?

Probably a little bit of both.

Not sure he would have enough time to make this Bengals squad anything near to what he did in Baltimore. But, my bet is you’re going to see a much different Bengals defense than you’ve seen since Zim left.

No one can argue that in his day, Marvin was a great DC. He was, that is a fact. But today is 16 years later so he is unproven

(11-15-2018, 03:18 PM)I_C_DeadPeople Wrote: No one can argue that in his day, Marvin was a great DC. He was, that is a fact. But today is 16 years later so he is unproven

Right. He has not had any exposure to NFL offensive schemes in years.

(11-14-2018, 12:42 AM)XsandOs Wrote: Their aces in the hole were Adams, Siragusa, Lewis and Woodson. Their base defense could shut down the run or pass. It's really that simple.

They made a mockery of Denver's offense.

The only analogy I can make is the Bearcats defense against New Mexico State in the first half of their elite 8 run in '93.

Just suffocating.

Talk about bringing back memories, the 1993 game against New Mexico State.  I remember their guards just flinging balls everywhere, including into the stands, to get away from that pressure.

Sorry, off topic for the Board but that was incredible.

(11-14-2018, 06:20 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Here is one of the most amazing stats regarding a Super Bowl winning team in NFL history.

In the 4th game of the 2000 season Ravens RB Obafemi Ayanbadejo scored a 1 yard rushing td in the fourth quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals.  The Ravens did not score another td until 6 weeks later in the 2nd quarter of a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

They won 2 of those 5 straight games they went without a td.

That is an amazing stat, yet still surprised they lost 3 games during that span with that defense.  I remember it being so dominating it's hard to believe they lost at all that year.  That just tells you how poor their offense was with Dilfer at the helm.

Wasn't it John Madden that used a funny quote to describe one of his defense dominating teams ("just hold em' boys" he told his Raider offense as they took the field)?  Must have been post the Snake (Stabler)

love that marvins first game calling the defensive plays in forever will be against the team he used to do it for and very well

(11-16-2018, 10:07 AM)Daddy-O Wrote:  That just tells you how poor their offense was with Dilfer at the helm.

Dilfer was lame, but I believe Tony Banks was their QB for that stretch where they could not score a single td.

The 2000 Ravens defense wouldn't be allowed to play the same way now as they did back then. Flags galore.