how many years has that been true

How about last year?.

On offense, the final 4 ;last year were

Denver 16th on offense, 1st on defense
New England 6th on offense, 9th on defense

Carolina 11th on offense, 6th on defense
Arizona 1st on offense, 5th on defense

What about 2014.

New England 11th on offense, 13th on defense
Indianapolis 3rd on offense, 11th on defense

Seattle 9th on offense, 1st on defense
Green Bay 6th on offense, 15th on defense

What is the full picture for 2016?

New England 4th on offense, 8th on defense
Pittsburgh 7th on offense, 12th on defense

Green Bay 8th on offense, 22nd on defense
Atlanta 2nd on offense, 25th on defense

Okay so counting each year as separate teams---so it's not New England 3 times, it's 3 different New England teams---how does that break down?

Out of 12 teams (counting "teams" the way I just said), how many were

BOTH top 10 on defense and on offense? 4

How many were top 10 on defense but not on offense? 2

How many were top 10 on offense but not on defense? 5 ...and 3 of those are in the 2016 season playoffs

How many were not top 10 on either offense or defense? 1

What then is the trend?

Well it does look like the 2016 playoffs are unique. In 2015 it was 4 teams that were top 10 on defense and not offense. In 2016 it is ALMOST the other way around. ("Almost" because in 2016 one team is top 10 in both.)

So what kind of generalization can we draw from that? Probably this and it's conjecture. Defenses pull ahead, offenses catch up, defenses will then pull ahead again, and offenses will then catch up again, etc. etc. for infinity.

I doubt any other generalization has much merit.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2017 06:16AM by zn.