Did you happen to catch any of the games since 2011? Just curious.
Giants? No, they didn't have a defense...
Baltimore? Same.
Seattle? Nope.
New England? Hell no.
Denver? Nada
New England? Again, hell no.
Philly? Nope.
New England? Couldn't have. No.
See here's your problem, I never said none of those teams had no defense, you're just putting those words in my mouth because you're anti offense and a shootout Superbowl denier. Most of those Superbowls either
I'll go back a little further and say go back to the 1990s, most of those Superbowls were dominated by elite QBs like Joe Montana, Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Brett Favre (even though Des Howard was MVP), John Elway, and Kurt Warner.
Then throw in offenses that tore through defenses with big time players like Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice, Michael Irvin, Ricky Watters, Antonio Freeman, Terell Davis, Ed McCaffrey, Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce ... You get the picture
All of those teams had great defenses, but so did their opponents. In fact the NFL in general did, but those with the elite offenses always came out on top
Now.... Fast forward to those Superbowls you mentioned ...
2011 Giants over Pats, pretty balanced game overall. Giants D did pretty well, but most of the key plays like that 3rd and long diving catch were determined by the offense
2012 Ravens over 49ers, offense dominated this game easily. 34-31 is a big shootout. Ravens have just traditionally been known as a defense team, but there's a reason why that unit never won more Superbowls with Ray Lewis and Ed Reed because that offense wasn't good enough until this year when they averaged 31 ppg in the playoff run and scored 34 in that Superbowl.
2013 Seahawks over Broncos - I'll give you that one, the better defense did win over the better offense in this one
2014 Pats over Seahawks - Another offensive shootout. Granted a defensive play an interception did save the day for the Patriots. But then again the media's story was that it was a bad play call and Seattle should have run it. So ... Look at it how you will, but I still say offense doing most of the work put the Pats in that position with one, just one defensive play at the end.
2015 - Broncos over Panthers - This one yes, it was a true defensive show
2016 - Patriots over Falcons - I would say anything but defense in this game. In fact, I'd call it a defensive embarrassment. Other than maybe the sack on Matt Ryan to take Atlanta out of FG range, a game with a 34-28 score and decided by an OT coin toss and offensive TD drive sure as hell ain't no defensive winning game.
2017 Eagles over Pats, um yeah umm 43-35 .... That's a shootout all the way. The Eagles relied far more on their offense to get this win than the defense. Going for it on 4th down, pulling out the trick play, Pederson put that game in his offense's hands to win it, not the defense's.
2018 Patriots over Rams, yes a defensive game all the way. Course I'd say very much an anomaly in terms of it being the lowest scoring in NFL, and I have my own opinions on what caused that, but I digress. Defensive game.
So yeah I'd say about 3 of those 8 games, maybe 4 if you want to throw the 2011 Giants in there could be considered games where the defense did the talking, but the rest definitely had the league's leading offenses running it up out there.
Bottom line, even for teams who have had pretty good defenses winning Superbowls, it cannot be denied most of them had league dominating offenses rolling them there. Out of all the dominant defenses that have won Superbowls over say the last 20 years, how many have had half baked offenses on the other side?
2000 Ravens, 2002 Bucs and 2015 Broncos probably fit the bill for truly needing the defenses to carry all the weight. Then perhaps the 2007 Giants and 2013 Seahawks might fit the next tier with not great but offenses a little above those bottom 3. Bottom line is you can count on all those teams on one hand among a sea of elite offenses.
Then you got a few teams who had the league's leading defenses who failed when meeting the unstoppable force on the other side like the 1999 Titans, 2004 Steelers, 2006 Bears, 2009 Jets, 2010 Steelers, and 2017 Vikings
So while having a defense is important, history shows I'd say at least 75℅ of the time they got an elite offensive unit on the other side when they win the Superbowl.
