Defense is the best weapon in the battle for the Super Bowl

This has been a wacky season. The best team in the AFC was led by a rookie quarterback, another great AFC team had three 1,000-yard, 10-touchdown receivers and the NFC had trouble finding six worthy teams to fill its playoff spots. How do you project the playoffs following a season like that?

I examine recent history. The one constant among Super Bowl champions the past few years has been defense, starting with Baltimore after the 2000 season and continuing with New England (twice) and Tampa Bay. It's fun to talk about Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb, Tom Brady and Michael Vick, but the teams best equipped to go the distance are those that can tackle, defend the ball in the air, protect their goal lines and get off the field on third down.

That's why Pittsburgh must be considered the favorite to win the Super Bowl. The Steelers have won 15 games as much because of their defense as Roethlisberger. Linebacker James Farrior and the rest of that unit have been outstanding. Bill Cowher will get plenty of support in the various coach of the year votes, and deservedly so, but Dick LeBeau, his defensive coordinator, is just as worthy of recognition for the job he has done during his first year back with the team.

Equally worthy are the coordinators for the league's other top defenses: New England's Romeo Crennel and Philadelphia's Jim Johnson. The Patriots have played great defense even with a banged-up secondary, largely because Crennel and Bill Belichick have developed brilliant schemes to counter each opponent. And the Eagles were leading the league in scoring defense before they went into exhibition-game mode in the last two weeks of the regular season.

Even if officials continue to clamp down on illegal contact by defenders, these three teams have blitz schemes that can overcome that. They don't even have to blitz; if they just show pressure before the snap, they can make the quarterback think he's under pressure and force him to get rid of the ball quicker than he'd like to. And if the officials sit on their flags, that plays to the defense's advantage even more.

These games will be fun, and I fully expect Vick, McNabb and these other guys to put on a show. But the team that wins it all will be the one with the best defense.

Brian Baldinger, an offensive lineman for 12 NFL seasons, can be heard on Sporting News Radio and seen on FOX Sports. Listen online at radio.sportingnews.com

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