When it comes to
football and playoff time, we all know the following saying “Defense Wins
championships.” Of the remaining top 8 teams, there are at least 3 teams that
have top 5 defenses in Minnesota, Jacksonville, and Philadelphia. Atlanta and
New Orleans defense has been on fire. What do Minnesota, Jacksonville and
Philadelphia (for the current moment) all in common? They do not have a
quarterback. This is a similar situation when Denver won the Super Bowl a few
years ago. This is why Jacksonville has the best surprise shot of winning the
Super Bowl.
You may be wondering, how am I comparing
Jacksonville to the Denver team that had Peyton Manning on it! What I have to
say about this comparison is that Peyton Manning was a shell of himself that
season. He was not a good quarterback. He relied heavily on his run game and
his top notch defense. Jacksonville is in the same boat. Let me be clear on one
thing before I begin, Blake Bortles is NO Peyton Manning. What I am trying to
say is that Jacksonville, like Denver, did not get good play from their
quarterback the year the won it all.
Denver had the
best defense in the league that year. Not only was it the best ranked defense
of the season, but it is an all time great defense. Jacksonville(or dare I say
“Saxonsville) also had a historically great defensive year. Their defense
carried their team this year. For the first time in ten years, they had a
winning record and made the playoffs. They also had a great offensive line and
running game to help carry poor quarterback
play.
When the Broncos won the Super Bowl, they beat
3 top of the line quaterbacks including MVP Cam Newton. Peyton Manning did not outplay
any of those quaterbacks. The Broncos defense beat every single one of them. If
you remember, Manning was benched late in the regular season for Brook Oswiler.
It shows how much confidence Gary Kubiak had in Manning at that point. Jacksonville
has all the same qualities that the Broncos had that season. They had 5 interceptions
and a victory against Big Ben earlier in the season. Don’t be shocked if you
see Jacksonville beat Pittsburgh to play New England.
