[TEX]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

total defense ranking by YDS and PTS
Bills '95 finished 13 and 12, then '96 finished 9 and 6.
improved in both in Y2
ATL '02 finished 19 and 8, then '03 finished 32 and 30. Ouch
total decline
SDG '04 finished 18 and 11, then '05 finished 13 and 13
improved by 7 and slipped 2
DAL '07 finished 9 and 13, then '08 finished 8 and 20 - meh, but points killed
improved by 1 and fell in the other
HOU '11 finished 2 and 4, then '12 finished 7 and 9
slipped 5 in both, still remained top 9
DEN '15 finished 1 and 4, then TBD

Again, I just don't see this catastrophic trend... big collapse in ATL overall. If you want to use HOU as a harbinger for bad things to come, I guess that's ok, but I'll take a top 9 finish every year, despite what they were the prior year. And, it's hard to account in the rearview mirror for the injury impact, if there were any.

Never said "catastrophic" - my point was that they tend to slip. And even a little slip on defense could be bad news - because IMO, Denver's offense will likely slip even further due to poor OL and QB play, if the defense does also, it's not going to be good for you guys.