OK. THis was interesting.
Thanks for voting chums.
You guys were basically split between the Titans and Bucs. Saints lagging in 3rd.
I dont really know how to answer it myself https://twitter.com/TomKislingbury/status/1278260447767117824

Let's go through a few ways of looking at it.
Firstly - points allowed.
Which is sort of the point of defense.
The Titans allowed 331.
The Saints 341.
The Bucs 449 [21st worst of the last decade].

Yards allowed:
Bucs 5,503
Titans 5,752
Saints 5,329
So straight away we see the Bucs allowed fewer yards than the Titans.
But over 100 points more.
Interesting...

Volume is part of it. The teams faced this many offensive snaps:
Bucs 1,073
Titans 1,056
Saints 999
So the Saints played the equivalent of a whole game less than the other two over the season.
Partially that's because the Bucs and Titans couldn't stop drives - but it's a factor

So let's look at yards per play:
Bucs 5.1
Titans 5.4
Saints 5.3
That seems like small differences. But obviously over 1,000 snaps it adds up.
The Bucs allowed over 100 points more than the others - but fewer yards on a per-play basis

Turnovers:
Bucs 28
Titans 23
Saints 23
5 added takeaways over 1 16 game season is significant.
Lucky. But significant.

Pass attempts:
Bucs 664
Titans 598
Saints 603
The Bucs were one of the most passed-on teams of the last decade. Absolutely huge passing volume.
It's the equivalent of another game and a half of passes.

But let's look at net yards per passing play:
Bucs 6.1
Titans 6.4
Saints 5.9
Amazingly the Bucs surrendered fewer yards on average when the opposition QB passed the ball than the Titans.
Surprising eh?

Rush attempts:
Bucs 362
Titans 415
Saints 345
The Saints faced fully 70 fewer rushes than the Titans. That's about 3 games worth of rushing.
Wow!

And as you'd expect it comes through in rushing yards:
Bucs 1,181
Titans 1,672
Saints 1,461
The Bucs faced way fewer rushes. And allowed fewer rushing yards.
Obviously

But there's something a little od.
We know that good teams face more passing attempts. Because they're ahead and the opposition is passing to catch up.
But the Titans [playoff team, beat the Ravens] faced 415 rushes.
And the Bucs [7-9, not really playoff contenders] 362

Let's look at yards per rush:
Bucs 3.3
Titans 4.0
Saints 4.2
The Bucs were rarely rushed on. But they did a great job of stopping it when it did happen.
3.3 yards per rush is outstanding.

So the Bucs looked terrible in passing stats because they were passed against a huge amount. Maybe because they were good against the run. Probably the two are colinear.

The Titans allowed the fewest points - but the most yards of the 3.
They got lucky in their defensive red zone. As much as they also got lucky offensively in the red zone.

And the Saints led the NFL in pressures. And allowed the fewest offensive yards.
But the most yards per rush.
And they played 57 and 74 fewer def snaps than the others.

So I don't know who the best defense was.
I don't think it was the Titans. Although they allowed fewest points.
I can't say it's the Bucs because they allowed so many yards and TS in the passing game.
So I guess the Saints? maybe?

But interestingly the poll says you guys said the Titans.
Which is at least partially because of the team image.
Ex NFL defender as the HC.
Built around a solid defense and a power rushing offense.
That old cliche is still going strong.
He even had that moustache for a bit!

There's no conclusion really - just that understanding how good a defense is is so nuanced.
I think it's way more complicated than just looking at points and yards.
And looking at last year's ranking is also a bad way of doing it.
You need historic context.

Articles will be submitted soon on that. So check them out on DLF when they hit.
Hopefully they'll ask some interesting questions and share some good info.
Thanks
#End