Pro Football Weekly polled its readers in a tournament-style feature to determine the league’s top defense, and according to them, the Seattle Seahawks take home the honors.
No information is present to confirm the mental condition of the readers, but their voices were made loud and clear, the league’s seventh-ranked scoring defense was actually the best.
Needless to say, their writers selected the Steelers by an overwhelming margin, and statistics certainly back that up.
But the fans are in the driver’s seat in this one (a poll on the side of the PFW web page has the Seahawks up 1,066 to 195, and their Facebook page, which seems to be the official vote, has Seattle ahead 369 to 19), and nowhere is this more evident than the Seahawks gigantic semifinal upset over San Francisco. The Seahawks took 69 percent of the vote over a team that allowed 14.3 points per game.
Apparently they’re forgetting the 24-0 beat down the Steelers put on the Seahawks in Week 2, a game in which Steelers WR Mike Wallace put a season’s worth of hurting on CB Brandon Browner (who, somehow, made the Pro Bowl in 2011). Add in the fact the Seahawks offense (to be fair, no one’s confusing them with the 98 Vikings) didn’t reach midfield until the third quarter, and the fact the Steelers allowed five less points per game, it’s tough to make an argument a reasonably-minded person wouldn’t see the Steelers as the better defensive team.
The Steelers defeated Baltimore in the semifinals, which seems about right.
To give Seattle some credit, they do have a young defense on the rise, and with the selection of the Scourge of Jimmy John’s, Bruce Irvin, and the free agent acquisition of DL Jason Jones, they’re a team on the rise.
They’re just nowhere near the Steelers’ level right now.
Source: Behind the Steel Curtain
