I'm not interested in a pissing contest where we compare my knowledge depth to your ability to quote a pat theory that's older than both of us. One reason I never had much respect for "The Greatest Show on Turf" was that they had no D--but they won a Super Bowl anyway, and if the Titans D wasn't stellar, it was better than the Rams almost by definition. The Colts practically had no defense when they beat a Bears team that had one of the best ever. Of the two, the most recent of those games was in 2000, which, last I checked, came after 1980.

But speaking of the '80s, there's little question in my mind, as much as it galls me to admit, which was the dominant team of that decade, and if the 49ers had a pretty good defense, it was their incredible offense that set them apart from everyone else. Ever heard of a "West Coast Defense"? Hell, if it was just down to defense I don't think Dallas beats Pitt in '95--but it wasn't, and the Steeler offense was Jerome Bettis plus nothing.

No, this is about more than just my respect for Elway; it sounds more like the old "great defense always beats great offense" stuff that I have neither the time nor interest to debate now. It's a pointless and unprovable argument either way, since you can't match defenses against each other anymore than offenses, but I do think it's noteworthy that:

1) The offense, not the defense, puts the ball into play at a time and manner of their choosing, forcing the defense to react to them,

2) The offense scores a touchdown if it breaks the plane of the goal line, whether or not it crosses it, at which point the ball is dead and the play over, even if the defense subsequently knocks the ball carrier two yards out of the end zone,

3) In the case of simultaneous possession, the tie goes to the receiver, not the defender,

4) Pass interference in the end zone results in first down and goal to go at the one yard line and

5) A quarter can't end on a defensive penalty.

When you say something like "The '85 Bears would beat them by two touchdowns. *NM* " it's pretty clear where the bias lies, especially when you follow that up by saying, "'85 Bears were the best defense in the history of the game. " If that's the case, WTF were they when the Giants won in '86? The '85 Bears had a darned good D, but I'm not convinced they were better than the Doomsday D, or the Steel Curtain, or even the Purple People Eaters. Oh, wait, I forgot; you want me to only consider Super Bowl Champs of the past 25 years when evaluating whether the '85 Bears were the best D ever....