Since the birth of the AFC, the talk and focus of pro football’s junior circuit was always offense. More specifically, passing offense. No longer.
Suddenly the conference long defined by its roots in Air Coryell, Len Dawson, Daryle Lamonica, Joe Namath and the quarterback draft class of ’83 only wants to talk about its defense.
With good reason. The Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers earned trips to Sunday’s AFC championship game despite scoring a combined 21 points, the fewest by winners in the 30-year history of divisional playoffs. Denver slipped by Kansas City 14-10 and Kordell Stewart slipped by New England defenders for the game’s lone touchdown in his Steelers’ 7-6 win over the Patriots.
Few on either side of the AFC title game expect a repeat of the 35-24 scorefest won by the Steelers over the Broncos on Dec. 7 at Three Rivers Stadium. The 35 points were the most allowed all year by the Denver defense and only two teams scored more than the Broncos’ 24 against the Pittsburgh defense.
“When you have a defense playing like that, you have the opportunity to win some championships,” said Pittsburgh quarterback Kordell Stewart after the Steelers’ shutdown of New England. “And that’s how they’re playing, like a championship defense.”
Both teams in fact are. Denver finished the regular season ranked fifth in yards allowed; Pittsburgh was sixth. The Broncos tied for sixth in scoring defense; the Steelers were 11th.
Denver sacked Kansas City quarterback Elvis Grbac four times Sunday and held the Chiefs’ fifth-ranked rushing offense to 77 yards.
“I don’t know if it’s the best they’ve played,” Denver tight end Shannon Sharpe said, “but I don’t think they can play any better under the circumstances. Any time you hold a team in their back yard to 10 points, that says a lot.”
What the season and postseason have said is that the teams who play most like traditional NFC powers will keep playing. Kansas City threw 37 times and is at home. New England played exceptional defense, but without running back Curtis Martin was forced to rely too heavily on Drew Bledsoe’s passing.
Meanwhile, John Elway was contenting himself with 19 passes, completing 10, and letting the Denver defense pressure the Chiefs into self-destruction. The Broncos rushed for 109 yards, 101 of it by Terrell Davis, who scored Denver’s two touchdowns on one-yard runs.
“The defense came through,” Davis said. “Defense wins championships.”
The lack of defense certainly loses them. When the Broncos lost to the Steelers last month, they did so because they couldn’t protect a 21-7 lead. The Steelers won because they were able to hold Denver to a field goal over the final 2 1/2 quarters while their offense was exploiting Broncos lapses. Now the Steelers expect even more.
“I really feel like we haven’t played our best game yet on defense,” linebacker Levon Kirkland said. “But we don’t have much more time to wait for that.”
