On Tuesday, I looked at the passing offenses, as measured by ANY/A, of each of the Super Bowl champions. Today, let’s do the same for passing defense. Just over half (26) have ranked in the top 4 in ANY/A, although as we saw with passing offenses, there isn’t a trend towards pass defense mattering more than it used to. If there’s a conclusion to be drawn, it may just be that worse teams are winning it all now than ever before.
In the last seven years, we saw the team with the best pass defense win twice, and a third win with a historic defensive performance and the second best pass defense in the NFL. The other four years, though, we saw two Patriots teams and two surprise teams win it all with more average pass defenses.
Here’s something interesting: are more Super Bowl champions better on pass defense or pass offense? That depends how you measure things. Of the 51 champs, 25 were better on pass offense, compared to 23 on pass defense (with three ties), but the more extreme teams were better on pass defense. Here are the ranks in both ANY/A and ANY/A allowed for each Super Bowl champion.
| Team | Year | Pass O Rk | Pass D Rk | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GNB | 1966 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| GNB | 1967 | 8 | 1 | -7 |
| NYJ | 1968 | 3 | 2 | -1 |
| KAN | 1969 | 4 | 1 | -3 |
| BAL | 1970 | 7 | 4 | -3 |
| DAL | 1971 | 1 | 6 | 5 |
| MIA | 1972 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| MIA | 1973 | 7 | 2 | -5 |
| PIT | 1974 | 17 | 1 | -16 |
| PIT | 1975 | 5 | 3 | -2 |
| OAK | 1976 | 2 | 18 | 16 |
| DAL | 1977 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| PIT | 1978 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| PIT | 1979 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| OAK | 1980 | 18 | 5 | -13 |
| SFO | 1981 | 5 | 3 | -2 |
| WAS | 1982 | 5 | 11 | 6 |
| RAI | 1983 | 11 | 9 | -2 |
| SFO | 1984 | 2 | 9 | 7 |
| CHI | 1985 | 6 | 1 | -5 |
| NYG | 1986 | 12 | 7 | -5 |
| WAS | 1987 | 3 | 9 | 6 |
| SFO | 1988 | 6 | 8 | 2 |
| SFO | 1989 | 1 | 6 | 5 |
| NYG | 1990 | 5 | 3 | -2 |
| WAS | 1991 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| DAL | 1992 | 3 | 10 | 7 |
| DAL | 1993 | 2 | 10 | 8 |
| SFO | 1994 | 1 | 5 | 4 |
| DAL | 1995 | 4 | 9 | 5 |
| GNB | 1996 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| DEN | 1997 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| DEN | 1998 | 3 | 14 | 11 |
| STL | 1999 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| BAL | 2000 | 23 | 4 | -19 |
| NWE | 2001 | 11 | 13 | 2 |
| TAM | 2002 | 15 | 1 | -14 |
| NWE | 2003 | 10 | 1 | -9 |
| NWE | 2004 | 7 | 8 | 1 |
| PIT | 2005 | 7 | 5 | -2 |
| IND | 2006 | 1 | 9 | 8 |
| NYG | 2007 | 22 | 12 | -10 |
| PIT | 2008 | 19 | 1 | -18 |
| NOR | 2009 | 2 | 8 | 6 |
| GNB | 2010 | 3 | 1 | -2 |
| NYG | 2011 | 4 | 17 | 13 |
| BAL | 2012 | 14 | 13 | -1 |
| SEA | 2013 | 5 | 1 | -4 |
| NWE | 2014 | 6 | 12 | 6 |
| DEN | 2015 | 30 | 2 | -28 |
| NWE | 2016 | 2 | 9 | 7 |
| Avg | 6.6 | 5.8 | -0.8 |
As always, please leave your thoughts in the comments.