Look at what Detroit's D Line did against ours. Their secondary didn't matter since we couldn't block the D Line. Chi's Secondary is also far inferior to 1996 GB and they did very well against the 2010 team.
A team we didn't spread against. Which was one of the reasons I was calling for MM's head. Go and watch the game. Oh, and that game, Rodgers only played one half.
I could do the same if I took the Cowboys' game of 96, a game where the Packers could only score on the 4th quarter, and only put up 6 points. BTW, was that a 3-4 D? Yes, yes it was.
You also are overrrating the Offense this year.
3 Games vs Chicago-17, 10, and 14 Points for the Offense
-13 Points vs Washington
-9 Points vs Jets
-3 Points vs Lions
I think that 1 of the Best Defense's in NFL History could at least slow down an Offense that was 6 different times held to 17 or less and 5 times held to 14 or less.
Regular season, without any running game, this offense was mediocre.
Playoffs? Well... 30.2 ppg. Against elite Ds.
**You do not need a complex Defensive Scheme to Defend against a Spread Offense, you just need players to win the individual matchups. There is nothing that Chicago did against GB schematically that 96 GB couldn't duplicate (yes they don't have an Urlacher at LB in the middle but that is made up for by far better Safeties with superior range)
We played at Soldier field in atrocious conditions, in a cold game. If those were the conditions against the 96' team, I could give you that.
But you are right that you need players that can win the matchup. And, as I said earlier, the 96' D didn't have those. And I liked our LBs back then, but they were not equipped to cover WRs. And I'm not even mentioning putting Finley in there, because when we played Chicago with Finley, even without a running game, they couldn't cover Finley.
Your receiver ratings are not correct. It is more like this:
Brooks>Freeman/Jennings>>>> (Big Gap) Nelson> Rison>Jones>Beebe/Driver
You are absolutely crazy. What gave you that opinion? Brooks had only 2 seasons with over 1000 yards, and only 1 season with double digit TDs. Jennings already has 3 straight 1000 yard seasons and 2 seasons with double digit TDs, not to mention that Jennings' average YPR is 16.2, while Brooks' is 13.8
Brooks in his whole career had 38 TDs. Jennings already has 40. Brooks had 4276 yards. Jennings already has 5222.
And, again, if we're talking simply 96' vs 10', and not hypotetical the whole team, Brooks was injuried, so he doesn't play. But even if he did, his best postseason was 95', 17 receptions for 281 yards and 3 TDs. Jennings had one game more, but taking his last 3 games, which would be the equivalent to not playing the wildcard, Jennings has 20 receptions for 295 yards and 2 tds.
Regarding the other receivers, you need to put into context. Again, 96' was a base offense, there was a #1 and a #2 receiver. There was no such thing with Nelson, Jones and Driver.
But looking at the postseason, Freeman had 9 receptions for 174 yards and 2 tds.
Excluding the first game for Jones and Nelson, Jones had 10 catches for 135 yards and 1 TD, while Nelson had 21 caches for 286 yards and 2 TDs. Oh, and again, this is while sharing targets, and Freeman was the #1, because Brooks didn't play.
Finley is better than either Chmura or Jackson but the Jackson/Chmura combo is better than the Finley/Quarless combo
So what? 2010 wouldn't use Quarless, they would spread the field with only Finley. Again, it's about matchups.
How could you really rate Jones and Nelson ahead of Freeman?
In 2010, Nelson and Jones COMBINED for 1,252 yards and 7 TDS.
In 1996, in 11 Games Freeman had 933 yards 9 TDs
-Nelson/Jones COMBINED averaged 78 yards and .4375 tds/game
-Freeman averaged 84 yards and .82 tds/game
Not only was Freeman better than either bit he was better than both Combined
First off, read what I wrote earlied.
Now, don't go with averages and projections. Go by with what he really did. But even so your projections are wrong. He played 12 games. That would put him to 77,75 yards and .75 Tds a game.
Doug Evans was a 2nd Team All Pro in 1997 based upon his play in 1996. 2010 has a very good 1-3 but beyond that is very questionable with your Bush/Underwood/Lee combination. Yes 2010 has better CBs but it is not much more lopsided than the Safety comparison.
Butler in 1996 was a 1st Team All Pro and Robinson had 6 Ints.
The cornerback position was more than lopsided. We're talking about a Hall of Famer that was not the best cornerback on the 2010 team. Tramon Williams was the best corner on the team, only surrendering 1 TD all year, to Brandon Marshall.
And regarding safeties, they don't matter when you spread the field. Ask the Steelers and Troy Polamalu.
2010 D proved they could play against any kind of team. Philadelphia, the #2 passing O in the regular season, spreaded the D with great receivers to no sucess.
GB was able to survive some special team's blunders since they were superior to all the teams that they played against but against a great opponent that is a huge liability. Even in the playoffs our special teams stunk:
-Fumbled Punt vs Philly
-Kickoff Return and Missed FG vs ATL
-Fumbled Punt vs Pitt (Fortunately they recovered)
I never said it didn't stink. I said it didn't matter that much in the end. ST isn't a sure thing. Could it alter the end result with a TD? Yes. But let's not pretend it's a sure thing that the 96' team would have the field advantage all game long, because it wouldn't. We played a better ST unit in Chicago last year and they didn't have the field advantage, because our ST rose to the ocasion.
**I don't think that 1996 GB would win 10/10 but would take the majority considering you are pitting 1 of the Greatest teams in NFL Histry against what is considered maybe an average or slightly above average Super Bowl winning Team.
Regular season-wise.
Because playoff-wise, no team was as dominant as the 2010 team.
In the end, as I said, it would be about conditions and matchups. And we're talking about teams that actually played, not an all-healthy roster. Which would actually give 2010 the advantage, it would probably put Al Harris as our 4th CB, Burnett as our SS, Finley and Grant on the offense, Driver fully healthy...
The 96' team was much more consistant week in and week out. The worst of the 2010 team wouldn't be able to handle it, but the best would. And the best was the playoff team, that trounced the #1 #2 #3 seed and the 2008 champions, with the best D in the league.
