NFL Defensive Stats - Who Makes the Grade This Season?

NFL Defensive Stats

Best Defense NFL - These Are the Top Two Defensive NFL Teams

Now, these are my humble opinions - please leave a comment if you want to share your opinion!!

Houston Texans Defense: When in one off season the glaring weakness of your team becomes a strength, you should be recognized and awarded for your effort. They haven’t added many pieces, and yet they became one of the stiffest defenses in the league. It is especially impressive that they are stingy on giving up both yards and points to their opponents. That speaks to a complete defensive effort, and not just hard play and mixed fortunes working together.

San Francisco 49ers Defense: seriously, they have been great all year. The coaching staff, one year removed from a disappointing season, has the best scoring defense in the entire league put together. Justin Smith has gone from unknown to All-Pro, and every player seems to be better than they ever have been. I would imagine there will be a slight regression next year, but they have been so good they would still be elite.

Defense Rankings: Worst Defensive NFL Teams


NY Giants Defense: I was listening to Antonio Pierce on ESPN the other day, and he said he would fire the defensive coordinator of the Giants.  At first, I thought this was crazy as the Giants tend to win the games their defense makes multiple big plays, and lose games where the defense doesn’t make those same plays. While this might be an accurate description of many of their games this season, it doesn’t really tell the story. There are only four teams that have given up more points than the Giants. The Giants have been outscored by their opponents this season by 23 points. They have had much of their success this year because of their offense and not their defense. This is disappointing as they are very talented on that side of the ball.

Minnesota Vikings Defense: When you have Jared Allen close to twenty sacks in a season, it is unacceptable that you are also close to the league’s worst in scoring defense. They give up over 28 points a game. That’s more than lack of talent, that’s lack of effort. This also speaks to poor personnel management as they have ignored the fact that they are getting old and washed up as quickly as they have.

Buffalo Bills Defense: I know they lost Kyle Williams early in the season, but one guy going down should not end your defense’s season. They can’t stop anyone! This is especially disappointing as this is the side of the ball that they have been ahead on for several years. Their offense has been putrid but at least their defense was putting up fights. Except now, the defense stopped fighting. Rally around the next man up and give your team a chance to win a game.