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Defenses pushed around in opening round
By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com

So what does the NFL, after a weekend which produced the second highest-scoring first round in recent league history, do for an encore? How does the league follow up a wild card round that featured two instant classic contests and four games that, even including a shutout, averaged 55.3 points? Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Plaxico Burress, whose team needed a frenetic fourth-quarter rally to eliminate the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, figures he has the formula. "Three words," said Burress, following the Steelers' emotional comeback and 36-33 victory, a win club president Dan Rooney rated only behind the famed "Immaculate Reception" in terms of the franchise playoff history. "Points. Points. More points."
Chad Pennington
Chad Pennington and other offensive players had several reasons to celebrate.
OK, so that was four words, Plaxico. But the veteran wide receiver can be excused for his faulty math, given the difficulty last weekend in keeping up with the scoreboard. In fact, defenses were surrendering points at such an alarming rate, NFL officials should have mounted some of those telethon-style toteboards in the end zones of every stadium. Even the world's fastest computers would have had problems documenting the dizzying scoring spree. The adage that defense wins championships in the NFL wasn't quite destroyed -- although the axiom has been under attack attack and scrutiny for a few postseasons now -- but it certainly took another dent. The eight teams that played in the wild card round totaled 221 points. Under the 12-team playoff format, established in 1990, that is the most prolific first round since 1995, when teams posted an astonishing 266 points. Only twice since 1990 had wild-card games produced more scoring than the 69 points rung up in the Pittsburgh-Cleveland game on Sunday afternoon, or the 77 points aggregated in the San Francisco-New York Giants epic only a few hours later. From 1990-2001, there were only two games in which both teams scored more than 30 points in a wild-card contest. On Sunday alone, there were two, and five of the eight teams in the first round tallied 30 points or more. Just twice previously, with the Houston Oilers in their historic collapse at Buffalo in 1992 and in a 1995 shootout in which Detroit lost to the Eagles, had teams scored 30 or more points in the first round. The Browns and the Giants combined for 71 points on Sunday and both teams were eliminated. Never, in any round of the playoffs since 1990, have teams scored so much and accomplished so little. "Yeah, it definitely was a bad day for defenses, huh?" said Foge Fazio, who retired Tuesday from his post as the Cleveland defensive coordinator. "But what are you going to do?" This is, in fact, the operative question as teams enter the divisional round of the playoffs: What will the defenses for the eight franchises still alive in the Super Bowl tournament do to stop the bleeding? Based on the performances of those teams in the regular season, there is a tourniquet at hand, but that may not matter of the hemorrhaging reaches the critical stage. And part of the problem, players and defensive coordinators conceded, is that you can't predict anymore when that full-scale meltdown will occur. Even the best defenses in the playoffs, at least those whose statistical rank hints at excellence, suffered collapses at some juncture of the season.
“ I think that we're playing about as well as we can. But to go in and just assume you are bullet-proof, that you can't have a bad day and blow it all with one terrible performance, you'd be naïve. ”
— Bucs LB Derrick Brooks
"I think that we're playing about as well as we can," said Tampa Bay Bucs weak-side linebacker Derrick Brooks of a defense that permitted just three opponents to score 20 points or more. "But to go in and just assume you are bullet-proof, that you can't have a bad day and blow it all with one terrible performance, you'd be naïve. That's asking for trouble. No one is immune to a bad game." Six of the top 10 defenses in the NFL qualified for the postseason, including the No. 1-rated unit of the Bucs, and four of them remain. In contrast, three of the surviving defenses statistically rated at No. 15 or lower -- and the New York Jets unit checked in at No. 24 -- reflecting its poor start to the season. The Jets surrendered 71 points in their first two outings of the year and a unit that featured six new starters didn't galvanize until about midseason. For all their improvement under new coordinator Wade Phillips, the Atlanta Falcons allowed 30 or more points on five occasions. The Steelers gave up 30-plus points six times. San Francisco had one of the poorest third-down defenses in recent history and never seemed capable of knocking an enemy offense off the field when it desperately needed to. Even the Tennessee Titans defense, which ranked No. 10 in the league, allowed the Oakland Raiders to score 52 points. "It's part of the unpredictability of the playoffs," said Philadelphia Eagles Pro Bowl free safety Brian Dawkins, who stars on a defense that held six opponents to 10 points or fewer. "If this season has taught us anything, it should be that you can't take anything for granted, right? In the playoffs, sometimes you see teams you haven't played in a while, or maybe some guys you haven't ever played against. It's got to be kind of a very quick learning experience." Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, for instance, indicated early this week that Philadelphia knows the least about its weekend foe, Atlanta, than any of the other NFC playoff survivors. The lack of familiarity, combined with the unparalleled playmaking skills of Falcons quarterback Mike Vick, could make for dire consequences. The biggest problem for most defenses, however, seems to be the obvious reliance on the passing game by offenses. As noted last week, only one of the top 10 individual rushers during the regular season made it through to the playoffs and now that one, Tiki Barber of the Giants, is gone. One would think that, with such a preponderance of one-dimensional offenses, the defensive units would benefit. But that logic has been skewed by the results of the wild-card round, where the pass-happy approach of the regular season carried over. Certainly the Wild Card Weekend created plenty of doubt in the minds of even the best defenses. Outside of Tampa Bay and Philadelphia, there are really no dominant defensive units remaining. The Steelers, who shut down the run last weekend but could not stop Browns quarterback Kelly Holcomb until late in the fourth quarter, learned first-hand that all the preparation in the world can't eliminate every breakdown or busted coverage. "We took a beating," said Pro Bowl linebacker Joey Porter. "I mean, they absolutely torched us with the pass, man. But you've just got to exercise some (selective) amnesia and put it behind you. You've got to come back for another day." Problem is, at this point, a poor defensive performance could mean there are no more days left to play this season.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.


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