If your one of those fans who likes to throw out, “Defense wins Championships” to explain away your teams poor offense you’re in luck. Superbowl XLVIIII just gave you all the ammunition you need to back that up for years to come. In a rare meeting with the number one offense the number one defense took home the trophy and left no doubt that it deserved it. Congratulation to the Seattle Seahawks for showing us the way it’s done.
Now comes the hard part for the AFC East teams. We have two teams that allowed 100 points more than the Champions and two that gave up 150 more. Clearly the teams of the AFC East have lots to do in order to get to the Superbowl. The 2007 Patriots taught us 18-1 is nothing , you either win it all or you might as well not have shown up. So ranked by points allowed this chart provides some detail where the AFC East stands compared to a Champion.
| TEAM DEFENSE | 2013 RECORD | TOTAL POINTS | NFL RANK |
TOTAL YDS | PASS YARDS | PASS TD’S |
RUSH YARDS | RUSH TD’s |
| SEAHAWKS | 13-3 | 231 | 1st | 4378 | 2752 | 16 | 1626 | 4 |
| DOLPHINS | 8-8 | 335 | 8th | 5750 | 3752 | 17 | 1998 | 14 |
| PATRIOTS | 12-4 | 338 | 10th | 5969 | 3824 | 25 | 2145 | 11 |
| JETS | 8-8 | 387 | 19th | 5359 | 3967 | 26 | 1412 | 9 |
| BILLS | 6-10 | 388 | 20th | 5334 | 3271 | 28 | 2063 | 10 |
Looking at the results would seem to make it impossible for the Division to field a Champion in 2015 but there is hope. The Seahawks only averaged 8 points a game more than the Jets on offense and Geno Smith can catch up there, all the Jets need to do is go all in for the defense in free agency and the draft. With Rex and 40 million dollars still in the mix this can happen. There is also the chance the Bills can jump in here. They scored 4.9 points per game less than the Seahawks and they could really ramp up the defense with a few more Mario sized contracts in free agency. The Patriots and Dolphins are already too committed to the outdated “balanced roster” theory too pull off a quick turnaround.
Offensively the Division looks like this compared to the number one offense.
| TEAM OFFENSE | 2013 RECORD | TOTAL POINTS | NFL RANK |
TOTAL YARDS | PASS YARDS | PASS TD’s | RUSH YARDS | RUSH TD’s |
| BRONCOS | 13-3 | 606 | 1st | 7445 | 5572 | 55 | 1873 | 16 |
| PATRIOTS | 12-4 | 444 | 3rd | 6152 | 4087 | 25 | 2065 | 19 |
| BILLS | 6-10 | 339 | 22nd | 5410 | 3103 | 16 | 2307 | 15 |
| DOLPHINS | 8-8 | 317 | 26th | 5007 | 3567 | 24 | 1440 | 8 |
| JETS | 8-8 | 290 | 29th | 5090 | 2932 | 13 | 2158 | 12 |
Clearly none of the Divisions teams are going to score 55 passing touchdowns and 600 points so in a way it’s a good thing we learned the offense doesn’t matter. The Patriots with their Krafty ownership know this but also know offense wins regular season games. With another 12-4 season the good people of Boston will continue to shell out the bucks for the most expensive tickets in the league filling both the stands and Krafts pockets. The Miami Dolphins will try to copy this plan and lure people to the stadium with the illusion of building a championship team by talking the playoffs all year. Good if it works, if not the new GM can fire the HC and start rebuilding again the next year.
Now it’s time for all good fans of the AFC East to concentrate on signing free agents, building through the draft, and talking up the team improvements over last year. They all know they are not going to see either the number one offense or defense but it’s the off season and reality has no place here. After all if they can just get into the playoffs anything can happen. Unfortunately sometimes bad things happen there also.
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