To the shock of absolutely nobody, ESPN seems to delight in finding ways to poke at Chicago whenever they have a chance. How else can they explain their rankings of the 30 best defenses in the past 30 years? Just one Bears defense made the list. That in itself was an eye opener considering they’ve had several great ones since the late 1980s.
In collaboration with Football Outsiders, it was determined that the 2012 defense was the ninth-best group in the past three decades. That was the group headlined by the veteran core of Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, Julius Peppers, and Charles Tillman. The explanation for their inclusion wasn’t an issue. In fact it was acceptable.
“For nearly a decade, Lovie Smith’s Bears had excellent defenses built around linebackers Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs along with cornerback Charles Tillman. This was the last gasp of that multiyear run — and surprisingly, according to DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average), the best. The Bears led the league with 44 takeaways and were tied for fourth at 4.95 yards allowed per play, despite playing one of the 10 toughest defensive schedules in the league.
The next year, Urlacher retired and Briggs and Tillman combined to play just 17 games, and the Bears’ defense plummeted from first to 25th in DVOA.”
1988 and 2005 Bears defense incarnations robbed
While the numbers junkies have their way of explaining why each of the defenses are great, the fact of the matter is it’s flawed. There is just no way they can justify putting the 2012 defense on that list without including either the 1988 or 2005 versions on there. One could make a very convincing argument that they were better.
The 1988 defense allowed just 4.46 yards per play for starter, considerably better than 2012. They also allowed 62 fewer points that season (215 to 277). On top of that they helped produce 26 interceptions (24 in 2012) and had a 12-4 record despite their offense scoring fewer points overall that year (315 to 375). So tell us again how the hell that works.
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Then there’s the 2005 unit. The actual best Lovie Smith defense of his Bears tenure. They gave up even fewer points (202) than the 1988 version with an offense that scored just 260. Yet they somehow had an 11-5 record, besting the 2012 version by one game. They allowed just 4.36 yards per game and had the same number of interceptions at 24.
With respect to the fancied up stat machine, it’s hard to find any justification for the 2012 defense, fun as it was to watch, was better than those groups.
