Originally posted by dtg_9er:
Pretty sure most winning QBs had good defenses, if not elite. Pittsburgh for Roethlisberger is the best example. NE has had some dominant Ds along with Brady. The old dominant teams all had good defenses, including the 80 niners. Teams that were great offensively but not defensively had a tendency to lose the big game.
So many really good QBs suffered with bad D's. A Manning and Dan Fouts were two of my favorites.
That's why I made sure to add the part about "in the salary cap era."
Roehtlisberger and Pittsburgh is the best example of what I'm asking for, and probably the only example really. Brady has always been very good but it's interesting to note that as soon as he became "bigger than the team" so-to-speak--2007--they haven't won a Super Bowl since.
Generally, teams that have great quarterbacks and that are competitive have good but not dominant defenses. Example would be the New York Giants this last year, they had a very good defense but it wasn't dominant the way ours was. Pittsburgh really does seem to be the closest the being an exception, and I wonder why that is--although it's still subjective enough that one has some wiggle room as to whether Roethlisberger is "elite" or what threshold must be met for a defense to be "dominant."
