In an era gone by the St Louis Cardinals were a football team that had little success in the 1960s and early 70s. For the most part the cupboard was bare when it came to talent on their roster. However amidst the mediocrity there were two standouts that played for them: Hall of Fame members TE Jackie Smith and FS Larry Wilson. Sometimes great champions don’t come from championship teams.
As a safety he played with reckless abandon although he was a ball hawk. When you think of hard-hitting defensive backs you rarely think of them making interceptions. Over his career he intercepted 52 passes which is still a Cardinal record and returned them for five touchdowns. He was a tough as nails player who in 1965, once played with two broken hands with each in a cast. Think about that for a second… His job is to come up and take on runners in the open field or defend the pass and he was playing with broken hands?? That is wanting to play football!!
Early on in his career, he was a pioneer when it came to the safety blitz. A tactic not seen before in the NFL. He registered many sacks although it wasn’t a recorded statistic until 1982. Wilson was everywhere…deep one play, shadowing a TE the next, blitzing the quarterback, or coming up to take on enemy runners. He did not shy away from contact and earned the ultimate respect of his peers. He was voted to (at the time) a record 8 Pro Bowls, made All Pro 8 times, and was the only player selected to the All Decade Team for the 1960s and 1970s. The Cardinals retired his #8 and he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As for his hitting we present to you exhibit A
When we look back at NFL history, we know one of the greatest teams was the Green Bay Packers of the 1960’s. Lombardi’s teams were tough teams that played simple football on offense. Defensively they ran the traditional 4-3 and may have had the best set of cornerbacks in Bob Jeter and Herb Adderley. The Packers were always ahead in games and pressure was on the secondary to shut down an opponents passing attack and along with Hall of Fame safety Willie Wood, they performed that task perfectly.
Adderley was one of the best athletes of his era and could blanket receivers and was an aggressive tackler. At 6’0 205 lbs he could run in the open field with the tallest and fastest receivers and compete for the ball. He was the Deion Sanders, the Hanford Dixon, or the Lester Hayes of his day. Or we could call him the Charles Haley of his day. Do you realize he played on 6 NFL championship teams?? Had Jim O’Brien missed a late game field goal in Super Bowl V, it could have been 7!!
In the 1960s, cornerbacks played a more physical game than they do now. Not only were they able to hit or chuck a receiver all over the field before the ball was thrown, they had to be better tacklers in a run oriented NFL. As you’ll see in the video, Adderley was a hitter. Yet when Packers opponents took to the air Adderley was ready. In his second season (1962) he exploded onto the scene with 7 interceptions in which he returned 132 yards and 1TD. It was the first of his four All Pro selections in Green Bay. Was All Pro 5 times for his career. However he had an even better season in 1965. He picked off 6 passes returning them for 175 yards and 3 touchdowns as the Packers dethroned the Cleveland Browns to become NFL Champions…again. His 3 touchdowns on interception returns was a league record that stood until 1972.
After the Packers championship years the team had aged and Adderley was traded to the Dallas Cowboys and helped that team get over the hump. They lost Super Bowl V yet came back the following year and won it all. For his career he intercepted 48 passes and returned 7 for touchdowns, the most famous, being a 60 yard interception return in Super Bowl II against the Oakland Raiders. He played in 4 of the first 6 Super Bowls. He was a member of the 60’s All Decade team and made the Pro Bowl 5 times. If ever there was a Hall of Fame resume for a career, it was Adderley’s. For all his championships even in his last season in Dallas, they made it to the 1972 NFC Championship Game.
With his speed, instincts, and physicality, Adderley is the one corner that could have played in any era in NFL history.
Herb Adderley was a 6 time world champion. Hall of Fame cornerback who could have played in any era. What would he have looked like in the modern NFL with today’s training methods and equipment??
Prologue: One spoil of war that sits in the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame inside Lambeau Field is this football.
During the first 4 Super Bowls each team used footballs from their league when on offense. Wilson NFL footballs for Green Bay and Spalding AFL footballs for the Chiefs and Raiders in I & II. When Adderley returned a pass intended for Fred Biletnikoff 60 yards for the 1st defensive touchdown in Super Bowl history, he carried an AFL football with him. It made it to Green Bay where it is on display forever.
Earlier this week there were musings from both Jerry Jones and his son Stephen as to the window closing on the Dallas Cowboys. I thought “window to reach the Super Bowl?” What planet have these two been living on?? Don’t they know that more than half of Cowboy fans everywhere want to string up Tony Romo?? We’ll deal with Romo being the scapegoat in a minute but this team isn’t good enough to heap this type of pressure on it. Now of course every NFL owner has aspirations of his team hoisting the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the year but why add pressure to an already combustible mix??
First off your head coach is an unproven commodity. Jason Garrett comes from a long line of coaches yet has shown he’ll mismanage ball games from time to time. Last year he inexplicably iced his own kicker in a mind numbing loss at mid-season. This would be more forgivable had it been the first game of the season, but systems should be well oiled at that point. Well it’s true that the NFL is more of a passing league now yet when you look at Garrett’s offense, all of his running plays are based on trickery. Draws and screens for the most part from pass formation looks. This emphasizes not only what they practice most, it shows the type of RBs they have acquired in the last 4 years. Tashard Choice, DeMarco Murray, and Felix Jones are all 3rd down type backs. Not one of these guys can break a tackle and go down at first contact.
Think back to the loss to the Detroit Lions last year. This team had a 17 point lead in the second half when the Lions began to roar back. Once the Lions closed to 30-24 with 9 minutes to go in the game, they punted and pinned the Cowboys to their own 3 yard line. It was at this exact same point in the 1995 NFC Championship Game that Emmitt Smith burst through a hole and arm tackle from George Koonce, and ran 35 yards to get the team breathing room. This finished with a game clinching 7 minute scoring drive. Yet in this game, with Romo having thrown 2 interceptions for touchdowns in the 3rd quarter, couldn’t turn to his running game to bail him out. All that could be mustered??http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201110020dal.htm Two anemic runs for 2 yards, one each by Jones and Choice, then an incomplete pass and the rest is history. In both attempts these two went down at first contact.
The Dallas Cowboys can’t run the football and it stems from not getting their pad level low on the offensive line and making holes. They don’t practice it and they can’t push their way out of a bad smelling bathroom evidenced by only rushing for 5 touchdowns all season. Are you serious?? What Super Bowl quality rushing attack are the Jones’ talking about?? I know….some Cowboy zealot will bring up DeMarco Murray’s season and let’s take a look at it shall we?? He rushed 164 times for 897 yards and 2 touchdowns and a 5.5 yard average. Not bad until you take a closer look at the numbers. Take out his 25 carries for 253 yards and a 91 yard touchdown performance against the 31st ranked against the run St. Louis Rams and what do you have?? A modest 644 yards on 139 carries and only 1 touchdown. Not only does this team not have a running back to close ball games, Garrett’s play calling and practice habits lend to this team not being able to run for vital first downs or goal line touchdowns. Hence Romo is forced to throw in obvious running situations down near the goal line which leads to many field goals.
What is also left out of the equation is you fielded a defense that ranked 14th overall and a paltry 23rd against the pass. This was with All World LB DeMarcus Ware who had 19.5 sacks, which ranked second in the NFL. What would have happened had Ware not been this productive?? Did you also know that along with last year’s Minnesota Vikings, this is the only time in NFL history that a defense fielding a defender with 19 or more sacks played on a team ranked 20th or below in pass defense for that year?? In other words where are your other defenders?? Your safety position is still in disarray and 1st round draft pick CB Morris Claiborne had better hit the ground running. Especially with Terrence Newman having departed via free agency.
For most teams that did field expert pass rushers they had other defensive stalwarts to offset him. Whether it was Keith Millard 19 sacks to Chris Doleman’s 21 sacks in 1989 for the Vikings, Lamar Lathon’s 13.5 sacks to Kevin Greene’s 14 in 1996 in Carolina, Leonard Marshall’s 15.5 sacks to Lawrence Taylor’s 20.5 for New York in 1986, to Otis Wilson’s 10.5 sacks to Richard Dent’s 17 for the ’85 Bears, Ware needs help. Only one of those teams didn’t make it to the conference championship with two of them winning Super Bowls. Now Anthony Spencer played well in the second half of the season and came up with 6 sacks but aside from Ware there are no playmakers on defense. Sean Lee is showing flashes but not yet has he put it together for an entire season. I’m definitely not seeing a Super Bowl caliber defense here…not until a true superstar emerges to help Ware.
Which leads us to Tony Romo. Now it’s been noted that I have said he is a good quarterback and statistics bear that out. However something is amiss with his fight or flight mechanism. In critical late game scenarios his decision making has cost the Cowboys several games. It’s been a systemic issue since the team can’t run out the clock which forces him to pass at times he shouldn’t be. Yet it’s a reciprocating issue. Last year, Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson blasted Romo for throwing a late game interception to Darrelle Revis in the loss to the Jets on opening night. The argument went on for days on Facebook, yet I tried to point out the blocked punt for a touchdown the special teams gave up and the collapsing of the defense on a long drive. Both also came in the fourth quarter.
“Hollywood” was right he shouldn’t have thrown that pass but who get’s the blame?? The defense that gave up 335 yards passing to Mark Sanchez?? Head Coach Garrett who when leading just 24-23 on the road with 1:10 to go in the game, calls for a passing play in the first place which was the Romo interception?? Did Garrett make that decision based on the fact the Cowboys could only run for 64 yards in the first place?? This in microcosm epitomizes the Cowboys as a Super Bowl team. Add these up and you’ll come up with the conclusion that I have as The Chancellor of Football… The Cowboys are nowhere close to a Super Bowl window in terms of talent nor coaching and especially not in temprament. Jerry Jones is like many rich men with total control in their lives… often are delusional and think they can buy their way to what they want. Yet when it comes to football, that approach is just misappropriated spending. Just ask Daniel Snyder in Washington.
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Everyone is giving an opinion on the quarterback controversy between Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow in New York, now it’s time for The Chancellor to weigh in. The latest comments coming from New York Jets quarterback coach Matt Cavanaugh. First he expressed that Sanchez made ‘poor decisions’ last year and now the next day raving about the upside of Tebow’s throwing prowess. It’s been interesting to watch. From the second New York signed Tebow the controversy started and as usual the Jets have been vocal in the media yet none seem to support their starting quarterback of the last three years.
Ironically now Tebow comes to work and the first item praised is how he’s working on his throwing ability. Are you kidding me?? His stat-line for the 2011 season was 126 of 271 for 1,729 yards 12 TDs and 6 interceptions. He completed just 46% of his passes….46%?? In an NFL that has changed the rules and officiating to the point that every major passing record fell last year and that was the best Tebow could do?? So he’s to unseat Mark Sanchez who competed 56% in going 308 passes out of 543 attempts for 3,474 yards, 26TDs and 18 interceptions?? That can’t be a sentiment expressed with a straight face… not if you know football.
By the way, Sanchez’s 26TDs were the most by a New York Jet since Vinny Testaverde threw for 29 in 1998. In that year Testaverde led the Jets to the AFC Championship Game.
No doubt Sanchez has to improve on his interceptions but too much has been thrown on his shoulders. Let’s talk about the complete and utter collapse of the New York rushing attack and defense to start the 2011 campaign. First off going into week 5, the Jets defense had given up 34 points in back to back outings against the Raiders and Ravens. Where was that stout defense you were known for?? It was at that point we here at Taylor Blitz started to criticize the anemic rushing attack of Shonn Greene and LaDanian Tomlinson who were averaging 3.1 and 3 yards respectively. https://taylorblitztimes.com/2011/10/09/nfl-week-4-afc-east-see-you-at-the-crossroads/ Greene only had 157 yards rushing in the first four games. This before the Patriots throttled them 30-21. Although the team fought back and had a chance for the playoffs this really derailed your season. The blueprint was the Patriots game.
The Jets as an organization and a coaching staff are more to blame than the quarterback. It was you who let Sanchez confidante and productive route running receiver Braylon Edwards go. How close were they?? When Braylon landed in New York the teammate he met was Sanchez who was studying film at the house of then Jets safety Kerry Rhodes. He was his go to guy. You signed Santonio Holmes to a $50 million contract who runs very lazy routes yet was supposed to be the deep threat. Isn’t it ironic that Edwards had better statistics in 2010 when you made this bonehead decision (Edwards 53 rec. 904 yds /7TDs to Holmes 52 rec. 746 yds /6TDs). http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nyj/2010.htm Edwards reception yardage record was nealy 3 yards better than Holmes. To top it off you lost WR Brad Smith in free agency then to add further insult to injury you signed another terrible route runner in the slow Plaxico Burress, who had been incarcerated for more than a year and was not in football playing shape. All of this before you also lost dependable 3rd down WR Jerricho Cotchery. Fittingly the first grumbling heard about Sanchez was from Holmes, the receiver the Steelers gave up on after he was a Super Bowl MVP for them. Great for chemistry.
As for Tebow, the circus comes to town with him. He has a tremendous following that has more to do with his religious convictions than pure football skills. He did have many a fourth quarter rally and you have to give him credit for that. What needed to be pointed out that wasn’t, was the Bronco defense keeping him in all those games. Tebow fans say how much of a leader he is…well so are most quarterbacks. Yet time and time again we kept saying that the Broncos have to minimize his passing to make him more effective. https://taylorblitztimes.com/?s=Tebow+Quotient Coming out of college, our CEO had Tebow as an H-Back or Tight End because of his questionable throwing and his statistics bore that out. We said we would grade him fairly and we have. Tebow fans point to his 6 fourth quarter comebacks yet seem to go blank on the 40-14 loss to Buffalo, 45-10 trouncing they took at home from the Detroit Lions, the 41-23 pounding they took from the Patriots before being routed 45-10 in the playoffs.
The last time I checked, Mark Sanchez won in the playoffs IN New England the year before and held the NFL record for road playoff wins with four until Eli Manning broke it last year. Tebow has one home wildcard win to Sanchez’ four road playoff wins and 2 trips to the AFC Championship Game. So let me get this straight… You want to replace a quarterback who’s beaten Belichick and New England on several occasions including playoffs for one that has been routed each time he’s played them with an ineffective running game?? Good luck. If you wanted to light a fire under your present quarterback, draft one. These non votes of confidence for your incumbent could derail this entire season if things don’t get off to a good clean start. Don’t take blame front office it’s all the quarterbacks fault and now you’ve whipped your fans into a frenzy with all the talk coming out of New York. First with Super Bowl promises and now with nonsensical desperate moves. Did you know the Broncos scored 309 points while allowing 390?? That’s a negative 81 point differential… and if Tebow was so effective, why did he get ousted and Peyton Manning signed in the blink of an eye??
By the way…if Tebow starts, Rex Ryan will be the first coach fired this year because it will be an abject failure…and you heard it here first.
When we last saw the New York Giants, they were hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in Indianapolis. Lingering questions remained about the impending personnel decisions on RB Brandon Jacobs and DE Osi Yumeniora. Which obscured the real reality: Eli Manning is on his way to becoming a Hall of Fame quarterback. One who will win more championships than his celebrated brother Peyton when it’s all said and done. He is also surrounded by several playmaking receivers in Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks.
The Giants rely on a stout pass rush, and tactically sound defense and with the emergence of DE Pierre Paul on a relatively young team, it would appear that they’re not done competing for championships. Tom Coughlin’s group won it all with the worst record ever at 9-7, yet proved an axiom that is becoming the NFL’s most prevalent theme: Just get hot going into the playoffs. It worked for the Giants last year just as it had with Green Bay the season before. Will the Giants repeat as champions or further frustrate their fans with spotty inconsistent play??
Quarterback: After another mind numbing last second drive to upend the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl setting, Eli Manning’s legend is growing and he has half of his career to build upon it. However Giant fans have to realize that Manning may never turn in a Joe Montana-like season where he just completes pass after pass for a 70% completion rating. Get used to it Giant fans, Manning is like a great “B” student. He will stumble on some assignments but he’s a great test taker and comes through in the end. Do you realize Manning is now 7-1 in postseason games away from the Meadowlands? He now has postseason wins over an 18-0 Patriot team in Super Bowl XLII, and an upset over a 15-1 Packers team in last year’s playoff. He is the only quarterback in NFL history to defeat 5 postseason foes with records of 13-3 or better. No one even comes close to that.
We here at the Taylor Blitz Times tried to prepare you of his ascendant potential before the NFC Championship last year. https://taylorblitztimes.com/2012/01/18/2011-nfc-championship-preview-eli-manning-the-silent-killer/ He just missed becoming the fifth quarterback in NFL history to throw for 5,000 yards in a season with 4,933. That is the highest for a Super Bowl champion quarterback by the way. For the season, he was 359 of 589 while throwing for 29 touchdowns to just 16 interceptions. You look at 61% completion rating and think “that’s not that high”, yet a closer look reveals he lowered his interception total from 25 the year before. Credit that to a more mature Manning throwing the ball away more.
His maturation as a quarterback was evident in last year’s playoffs. He was in total command in both the NFC Championship Game as well as the Super Bowl. When the season was on the line, he led his team to a 17-14 4th quarter lead gunning a 17 yard touchdown to Mario Manningham. Then the winning drive in overtime. If that weren’t enough.. in the fading minutes of Super Bowl XLVI, Manning got his team out of the shadow of their goal line with a 38 yard strike to Manningham. Eli looked down the middle to hold the Patriot safety, subtly took two steps to his left (shortened the trajectory of the throw) and fired the best pass seen in a Super Bowl. Complete command in that situation and again he was flawless in the 4th quarter. Remember last year before the season Manning was asked; “Are you an elite quarterback??” Everyone scoffed when he responded “yes” well he shut up a lot of critics. Even though he’s a great “B” student the Giants at quarterback get an A and is Super Bowl quality.
Offensive Backfield: Although they weren’t necessarily thunder and lightning, Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw were an effective tandem running the football. Yet this partnership has ended with Jacobs signing with the 49ers and let’s face it, at times he just didn’t run with the thunder a 264 lb running back should. Part of that was the fault of the coaches trying to run him wide. Other times he “beat his feet” before hitting a hole and could be stood up by a scraping linebacker. Bradshaw had a good year and was the most versatile RB the Giants had. He ran for 659 yards and 9 touchdowns in spot duty, and also caught 34 passes out of the backfield for another 2 TDs. He’s a good space runner out of 3 and 4 receivers sets yet may have to handle pushing the pile at the goal line this year. Not sure he’s suited for that. In the Super Bowl he scored from a multiple receiver set in the final seconds. Who is going to be this team’s goal line runner??
The Giants brought in a potential playmaker in draft pick David Wilson out of Virginia Tech who was ACC Player of the Year. When you look at how he plays…he’s a quicker, shiftier version of Bradshaw with more of a burst. If he can pick up the blitzes he may be the starter by the time we get to September. During the draft just about every play showcasing his ability came from spread and multiple receiver sets. Think of him as a quicker, thicker Dave Meggett who can also return kicks. Running back is average in New York and we have to find out who will be the 3rd & 1, 4th & 1 guy.
Receivers: This is one of the quiet strengths of this team. Last year’s emergence of Victor Cruz illustrates how well this position is taught in New York. Everyone forgets offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride used to coach the run and shoot in Houston. Along with Tom Coughlin being a former wide receiver coach we now understand how Hakeem Nicks caught 76 for 1,192 yards and 7 touchdowns in a supporting role. The star was Cruz who gathered in 82 asses for a whopping 1,536 yards and 9 scores. His average was over 3 yards greater than Nicks last season who was thought of as the team’s deep threat. At 23 and 25 years respectively, these two should terrorize NFC East foes for several years. No wonder Dallas drafted a CB #1.
Definitely this team is Super Bowl quality at receiver and that is before we get to draft pick Reuben Randle out of LSU. He will have to learn the routes just as an undrafted Cruz picked them up. You can clearly see Gilbride’s teachings when the Giants face zone. You will see their receivers hook in open spaces and then slide behind adjusting linebackers on intermediate routes. A complete run and shoot principle. These guys may go for over 1,300 yards each this season.
Offensive Line: This is an area of concern for this team. What came first the chicken or the egg?? What we mean by that is has this team become a passing team out of necessity or can they run the football?? According to NFL accounting it was out of necessity. The Giants were last in rushing with 1,427 yards and last in average with 3.5 yards per carry. That’s terrible and the worst ever for a Super Bowl champion. These guys just aren’t driving anyone off the ball…period. Otherwise the Giants wouldn’t have gone after two OT in this year’s draft.
Passing the football they fared pretty well ranking 7th with 28 sacks yet were middle of the pack getting Eli hit with 72 hits. This could be attributed to Manning’s quick decision making more than the line’s total performance because he took a lot of hits. We have to see what type of camp draftees Brandon Mosely (Auburn) and Matt McCants (UAB) have to see if one goes after Kareem McKenzie’s job. This line is in a state of flux and may need to meld the early part of the season. Right now the line is well below average.
Pierre Paul emerging from a sack of Alex Smith in the NFC Championship Game
Defensive Line: Clearly a strength and possibly the heart and soul of this team. The story of the 2011 campaign was the emergence of 2010 1st round pick Jason Pierre Paul, who impersonated Michael Strahan to the tune of 16.5 sacks. Incredibly he was third on the team in tackles with 93 total. That is a high tackle number for a DE. His combination of size and athleticism could be the finest ever seen in a defensive end. Remember the footage of him doing back flips before the Super Bowl?? Yikes! He’s just tapping into his potential and could have won NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors last year.
However it’s the total rotation package with fellow DE’s Justin Tuck and Osi Yumeniora that has opponents struggling with whom to focus the most attention on. Tuck has to bounce back from a season where his sack total fell from 11.5 in 2010 to 5 last year. Of course he missed four games with injury but going into this year he should see far fewer double teams with Pierre Paul on the other side. It’s still unclear if Yumeniora will return yet the Giants also signed 350 lbs Shaun Rogers to help plug the middle. Last year this team was 3rd in the NFL with 48 sacks. This year if they can return healthy they could hit 60. Defensive line is Super Bowl quality in Gotham.
Linebackers: Surprisingly this team didn’t go after a linebacker in free agency or the draft. Michael Boley seems to be the only complete linebacker of the bunch. He made plays all over the field and was 2nd on the team in solo tackles with 74. Mathias Kiwanuka did have a solid year but gets lost out there at times if his hand isn’t on the ground rushing the passer. Super Bowl hero Chase Blackburn was re-signed after a short trip through free agency. Aside from Boley, Kiwanuka, Blackburn, Greg Jones, and company are pedestrian linebackers each with clear shortcomings. Kiwanuka struggles in space where Jones, Blackburn can’t disengage if linemen get their hands on them. Hence the Giants can be run on…hence their 19th ranking against the run. They don’t have a true middle linebacker and until they do this is the only weakness of this defense. Linebacker is below average.
Corey Webster should become a Pro Bowl at corner in 2012
Secondary: The most versatile secondary in the NFL yet the loss of CB Aaron Ross would have been a greater impact had the Giants not drafted CB Jayron Hosely out of Virginia Tech. Truth be told the Giants run a lot of zone behind that pass rush. So this team should be good with current corners Corey Webster and Hosely if he can get into camp and develop quickly. One of the personnel packages that worked out well was when the Giants could use S Antrel Rolle, a converted corner, to drop down and cover a TE or 3rd WR as well as most corners. If Hosely isn’t ready and the G-men have to go with a veteran on corner opposite Webster. Speaking of Webster, he’s coming off his best season as a pro where he picked off 6 passes, returning them for 71 yards. Webster should make his first Pro Bowl this year. With a 3rd safety in Deon Grant seeing playing time the Giants were able to play with 3 safeties and gave extreme flexibility to their exotic coverages.
Defensive Coordinator Perry Fewell utilized his backfield in a varitey of ways. They played a cat and mouse game in obvious passing situations as in Super Bowl XLVI. In the second half they lined up safeties Kenny Phillips and Rolle just 15 yards off the ball in what looked like a cover two. At the snap Brady read cover two yet the safeties DIDNT go deep, they stayed in the 15-20 yard zone right off the line of scrimmage and dared the slow Patriots to throw deep. Which they couldn’t and the Giants shut them down in the last two drives. They need rookie CB Hosely to develop or they’ll have to go more vanilla with personnel and play call manipulation. Early on there will be some defensive breakdowns and it’s imperative the pass rush shows up as the 2012 season begins to cover these shortcomings. The last line of defense is a “B” right now but can improve to Super Bowl quality if they can get the corner situation handled.
Overall: Again Giants fans will be frustrated by the Giants inability to roll up their fists and hit their opponent with a haymaker and win the game big. They will always play close to the vest affairs and should finish this season with a 10-6 record. Manning will have a great season and is unquestionably a leader on this team. In defensing their title, we believe they’ll make the playoffs yet lose in the divisional round after a typical late season push to gain the playoffs.
Now how could we have a category on the best defenses and defenders in NFL history and not include the Pittsburgh Steelers?? As we moved into the 1970’s following the merger, we saw the hashmarks narrowed in 1974 and the goal posts moved to the end line to provide offenses more room to operate. Scoring had been down for much of the first half of the decade and it was thought this additional field to cover would hamper defenses. Especially those with burly MLB types that had limited range tracking sideline to sideline, or defending the pass.
Enter Jack Lambert.
A converted outside linebacker who stood 6’4 and stayed at a playing weight of 220 lbs. the majority of his career. What he brought to the table was the speed to get further back than the Willie Lanier’s and the Dick Butkus’, a prior generation’s middle linebackers who were mainly there to stuff the run. His ability to get past twenty yards in pass defense was the impetus for the Steelers to run what is NOW misnamed the “Tampa 2”.
It started in Pittsburgh because against the run and rushing the passer, Ernie Holmes, Joe Greene, Dwight White, and LC Greenwood were the finest front four of their era….possibly football history. Lambert, along with outside linebackers Andy Russell, and Jack Ham, only needed to clean up against the run and were already a step back ready to clog the middle and flat areas against the slower tight ends of that era. The result??
A defense put together from astute drafting grew into one of menace that powered the Steelers to victories in both Super Bowls IX and X. In Super Bowl IX the Steelers held the Vikings to just 17 yards rushing for the game. A record that stood until Super Bowl XX. They stood tall and defended against a frantic last second effort in Super Bowl X. So strong was the Steeler defense, Coach Chuck Noll ran the ball on 4th and 9 and let the Cowboys have the ball at their own 40 yard line leaving it up to the defense to win the game. While winning a second straight world title they set the Super Bowl record for sacks with 7.
A young team with an unprecedented chance to win a third straight Super Bowl went into the 1976 season with their front four in their prime.With Terry Bradshaw growing up as a quarterback and growing receivers John Stallworth and Lynn Swann with one of history’s finest defense….What would they do for an encore?? Could they threepeat??
Well the Steelers didn’t win that Super Bowl and after falling to the Denver Broncos in 1977, they returned to win Super Bowl’s XIII and XIV. It was the impetus to stop this defense along with the Denver Broncos 1977 performance (18 TDs and 148 points allowed) that made the rules makers make changes for the upcoming 1978 season.
In fact the biggest of these rule changes was to nullify Steeler cornerback Mel Blount. Standing 6’3 and weighing in upwards of 200 lbs. he would manhandle receivers as they tried to run their patterns downfield. This new rule only allowed cornerbacks to only chuck a receiver under 5 yards. From there the receiver could run free untouched where in prior years a receiver could get hit by linebackers or safeties as well if the ball hadn’t been thrown. It’s actually referred to as the “Mel Blount Rule”. Another allowed offensive linemen to extend their arms while pass blocking to nullify Pittsburgh’s pass rush.
The Steelers dominance ended after their 1979 championship. The team had aged yet sent linebackers Lambert and Ham to the Hall of Fame along with two time NFL defensive player of the year Joe Greene. Was this the greatest ever defense?? Were they better than the 1985 Chicago Bears?? The 2000 Baltimore Ravens?? The 1969 Minnesota Vikings?? The 1968 Baltimore Colts?? Lets hear from you…
…and by the way, just to stick it to the rules makers who changed the game on them. The Steelers set the record for a 16 game season with only 195 points given up.
When we look back at NFL history, we know one of the greatest teams was the Green Bay Packers of the 1960’s. Lombardi’s teams were tough teams that played simple football on offense. Defensively they ran the traditional 4-3 and may have had the best set of cornerbacks in Bob Jeter and Herb Adderley. The Packers were always ahead in games and pressure was on the secondary to shut down an opponents passing attack and along with Hall of Fame safety Willie Wood, they performed that task perfectly.
In the 1960s, cornerbacks played a more physical game than they do now. Not only were they able to hit or chuck a receiver all over the field before the ball was thrown, they had to be better tacklers in a run oriented NFL. As you’ll see in the video, Adderley was a hitter. Yet when Packers opponents took to the air Adderley was ready. In his second season (1962) he exploded onto the scene with 7 interceptions in which he returned 132 yards and 1TD. It was the first of his four All Pro selections in Green Bay. Was All Pro 5 times for his career. However he had an even better season in 1965. He picked off 6 passes returning them for 175 yards and 3 touchdowns as the Packers dethroned the Cleveland Browns to become NFL Champions…again. His 3 touchdowns on interception returns was a league record that stood until 1972.
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