Originally posted by crake49:
I think this year's Seahawk defense is one of the best ever, but Montana actually did face defenses with comparable size and speed. He faced corners like Darryl Green and Deion Sanders who are faster than anyone in the current Seahawk secondary. He faced defenses like the Giants and Bears who had tremendous size and speed - remember, Lawrence Taylor played for those Giants defenses - he could play today and be just as good. And, that Niners offensive line was always facing defensive fronts that outweighed them even back then. So, I'm not as sure as you that this is a slam-dunk on the current Seahawk D vs some of those Niner offenses. And, look at the 89 Niners defense - there is no way the Seahawks would have been able to run on that defense. Nobody could.
I'd say that Montana faced individual defenders with the type of speed and athleticism that you see today in the NFL but not entire defensive units with that type of speed and athleticism. That isn't to disparage Montana or the '80s 49ers teams because they were among the dominant teams of their era and deserve to be in any discussion of great teams. But it was a different era and just as the '67 Packers would not have been a physical match for the '89 49ers, the '89 49ers would have difficulty matching up with the overall speed and size of the 2013 Seahawks. That's why when talking about great teams from the past it has to be based on how dominant they were vs. other teams of their era rather than trying to claim that, for example, the '70s Steelers teams would also be a dominant team in today's NFL because they wouldn't be. Superstars like Brown, Butkus, Unitas, Montana, Rice, Lott, LT, Sanders, Green, etc. could play in any era but many of the rank-and-file players from the '60s, '70s and '80s would not even get a look today.
[ Edited by TXHawk on Feb 18, 2014 at 11:24 AM ]