Three years ago, I wrote about how the Broncos/Seahawks Super Bowl was going to be the best matchup between offensive and defensive teams in Super Bowl history. This year doesn’t quite match that hype — particularly given that the Patriots defense isn’t as good as you might think, and that New England is actually more of an offensive team than a defensive team. If anything, this Super Bowl should be remembered as a matchup of two great passing attacks, rather than an offensive/defensive showdown.

But if we want to just look at points scored and points allowed, then yeah, this still stands out as a pretty good matchup of the number one scoring team in the NFL (Atlanta) against the number on team in points allowed (New England). The Falcons scored 33.8 points per game this year, while the Patriots allowed just 15.6; that produces a differential of 18.1 (difference due to rounding), which would make this the 5th best “offense/defense showdown” in Super Bowl history:

In general, the top defenses have had the upper hand, although there are some notable exceptions.

In 1968, the Jets had a fantastic passing attack with Joe Namath, Don Maynard, and George Sauer, and a great ground game with Emerson Boozer and Matt Snell. New York faced what was a historically great Baltimore Colts defense — the team allowed just 10.3 points per game that year! — and won, 16-7.

The next year, the Vikings had a defense that was even better than Baltimore’s the prior year, and Minnesota’s defense in 1969 could lay legitimate claim to being the best in NFL history. But the Chiefs controlled the line of scrimmage and overpowered Minnesota in the Super Bowl. Len Dawson, Mike Garrett, Robert Holmes, and Otis Taylor formed a strong Kansas City attack, although the Chiefs defense may have been the real stars of the show.

Two years later, on the back of a historically great season by Roger Staubach, the Cowboys faced a Miami defense that ranked in the top 5 in both yards and points allowed. The Dolphins pitched a shutout (and recorded a pick six) in the AFC Championship Game, but Staubach threw two touchdowns to uh, Cowboys legends Lance Alworth and Mike Ditka to get the win.

And while it doesn’t rank quite a high, it’s probably worth pointing out that in 1989, the 49ers and their number one-ranked scoring offense blew out the Broncos and their number one-ranked scoring defense.

Of course, on balance, the top defenses have been a bit more successful. But even with a Patriots win, I’m not sure that’s what the appropriate narrative should be after the Super Bowl. After all, this is really a matchup of the top two passing attacks in football.