I get tired of cliches especially from the talking heads on TV sports. But one that rings true most of the time is “defense wins championships”. It is absolutely the truth. It is fun to watch great offenses but they can can be stopped once they reach a championship game where they are likely up against a very good defense. Some team examples are in this earlier post.

One example I left out was Commerce in 1999. That semi finals team was better on paper than the 2000 State Champions. The offense was much more balanced since Michael Collins was at receiver with Daniel Carder throwing the ball. They were an impressive team. In reality (that is what counts) they were not better than the 2000 Champs because the champs did what was necessary to win. On that note the 2000 team beat a Buford team that had a better balanced offense.

Yesterday the truth was exposed again when a Calhoun team that was putting up 40 points per playoff game was held to 10 points by  Buford. And they were lucky to get 10 really.  Buford’s defense made Calhoun’s offense look boring and ineffective.

From this point forward I am no longer impressed with so called, great offenses. They will let you down. Find a good defensive team to cheer for. The best example I can show is the New England Patriots. They won 3 Super Bowls with good offense but Great defense. Once they built their offense up with super stars they have yet to win one.