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All Time NFL Defense Records

(per Inside the Numbers statistics, not official NFL records)

Rankings and Records Home

Welcome. Inside the Numbers is working on updating our Past Years and Records pages. Rather than wait until we have completed updating all of our records, we will put up the records from 1990 - Present. When the 1980's are done they will be added on, and so on until we have reached 1966. Our target date for this page is: October 20th, 2008. We will keep you informed on when pages get updated on our homepage.

We have two ideas we'd like to run across you before you view these records.

1. Using offense/defense yards per game and points per game as a major factor in making football picks is a poor method. It is common to see other websites and experts justify their rankings or predictions by pointing directly to how many rush yards a team averages, or even more commonly to how many points they score per game or allow per game. Unfortunately this does not have a history of predicting which team is going to win in a matchup. If you want more details on why this is, and why we rank the teams the way we do, visit our Ranking and Predictions Comparisons page.

2. Records that only look at a team's yards/points does not accurately reflect who had the best offense/defense. This is due to rules changes over the years, and that the quality of teams also changes from year to year. There have been a lot of rules changes since 1966, particularly in the last few years that have benefited offensive stats. This skews any ranking that looks only at how many yards or points a team had without taking into consideration rule changes. Also, it does not take into account how difficult a teams schedule was, or the quality of teams in that year. Hence below you will see two sets of rankings, one which is a ranking of teams by the numbers straight up. The other is our method of viewing a teams defense. Again we like to stress our first point though, which is that these numbers, as fun as they are to view and debate, are not accurate indicators of how good a team really is.

Overall Defense by Yards and PPG

Underlined teams have notes you can view
by hovering over them

Rnk Year Team Def Pts
1 2000 Ravens 6.3
2 2000 Titans 6.1
3 1991 Eagles 6.0
4 1991 Saints 5.5
5 2002 Buccaneers 5.2
6 1992 Saints 5.0
7 2001 Steelers 4.9
8 1992 Cowboys 4.9
9 2006 Ravens 4.9
10 1996 Packers 4.8
11 1999 Bills 4.8
12 1990 Giants 4.6
13 1990 Steelers 4.3
14 1997 49ers 4.2
15 1991 Redskins 4.2
16 2004 Steelers 4.2
17 2003 Cowboys 4.2
18 1999 Jaguars 4.2
19 1990 49ers 4.1
20 1992 Chargers 4.1

Overall Defense by ITN Ranking

Underlined teams have notes you can view
by hovering over them

Rnk Year Team Def Pts
1 2002 Buccaneers 2.04
2 2006 Ravens 1.79
3 1991 Eagles 1.78
4 2000 Ravens 1.75
5 2000 Titans 1.72
6 1995 49ers 1.66
7 1996 Packers 1.63
8 2004 Steelers 1.61
9 1997 49ers 1.60
10 1991 Saints 1.60
11 2001 Steelers 1.59
12 1995 Chiefs 1.58
13 1999 Bills 1.58
14 2003 Cowboys 1.55
15 1992 Saints 1.43
16 2004 Redskins 1.42
17 1994 Steelers 1.41
18 2007 Steelers 1.40
19 1992 Cowboys 1.38
20 1999 Jaguars 1.37

Best Regular Season Rush Defense

Rnk Year Team Rush Yds
1 2000 Ravens 60.6
2 2006 Vikings 61.6
3 1995 49ers 66.3
4 1994 Vikings 68.1
5 1991 Eagles 71.0
6 1998 Chargers 71.2
7 2000 Giants 72.3
8 1990 Eagles 73.1
9 2007 Vikings 74.1
10 1999 Rams 74.3
11 2001 Steelers 74.7
12 1998 Falcons 75.2
13 1991 Saints 75.8
14 2006 Ravens 75.9
15 1999 Ravens 76.9
16 1992 Cowboys 77.8
17 1990 49ers 78.6
18 1993 Oilers 79.6
19 2007 Ravens 79.6
20 1998 Broncos 80.4

Best Regular Season Scoring Defense

Rnk Year Team PPG
1 2000 Ravens 10.3
2 2000 Titans 11.9
3 2002 Buccaneers 12.3
4 2006 Ravens 12.6
5 1992 Saints 12.6
6 2005 Bears 12.6
7 2001 Bears 12.7
8 1994 Browns 12.8
9 1993 Giants 12.8
10 2001 Eagles 13.0
11 1996 Packers 13.1
12 1991 Saints 13.2
13 1990 Giants 13.2
14 2001 Steelers 13.3
15 1999 Jaguars 13.6
16 1996 Panthers 13.6
17 1991 Redskins 14.0
18 1992 Steelers 14.1
19 2000 Dolphins 14.1
20 1993 Cowboys 14.3

Best Regular Season Pass Defense

Rnk Year Team Pass Yds
1 1991 Eagles 150.8
2 2006 Raiders 150.8
3 2000 Titans 151.4
4 1992 Saints 154.4
5 2002 Buccaneers 155.6
6 1990 Steelers 156.2
7 1997 Cowboys 157.6
8 1992 Chiefs 158.6
9 2006 Colts 159.3
10 1992 Oilers 161.1
11 2004 Buccaneers 161.2
12 2004 Dolphins 162.0
13 1993 Saints 162.9
14 2000 Redskins 163.8
15 2004 Bills 164.0
16 2003 Cowboys 164.4
17 1990 Cowboys 164.9
18 1990 Vikings 165.2
19 1997 49ers 165.4
20 1992 Seahawks 166.3

Best Regular Season Rush Defense per ITN

Rnk Year Team Rush Yds
1 2006 Vikings 2.49
2 1994 Vikings 2.42
3 1995 49ers 2.34
4 2000 Ravens 2.26
5 1997 Steelers 2.05
6 2004 Steelers 2.04
7 2004 Redskins 2.02
8 1991 Eagles 2.02
9 2004 Chargers 2.01
10 1992 Cowboys 2.01
11 2001 Steelers 1.96
12 2007 Vikings 1.96
13 2002 Steelers 1.86
14 2006 Ravens 1.85
15 1997 49ers 1.85
16 1990 Eagles 1.80
17 2003 Titans 1.79
18 1991 Saints 1.76
19 1998 Chargers 1.75
20 2000 Giants 1.75

Best Regular Season Scoring Defense per ITN

Rnk Year Team Rush Yds
1 2006 Ravens 2.71
2 2002 Buccaneers 2.70
3 1995 Chiefs 2.56
4 1994 Browns 2.33
5 2000 Ravens 2.22
6 1995 49ers 2.16
7 2005 Bears 2.16
8 2006 Patriots 1.95
9 1993 Giants 1.95
10 1997 Chiefs 1.91
11 2002 Eagles 1.90
12 1999 Jaguars 1.87
13 2000 Titans 1.87
14 2003 Patriots 1.83
15 1996 Packers 1.82
16 2001 Bears 1.81
17 1992 Saints 1.79
18 1994 Steelers 1.77
19 2001 Eagles 1.73
20 1991 Saints 1.71

Best Regular Season Pass Defense per ITN

Rnk Year Team Rush Yds
1 2006 Raiders 2.61
2 2002 Buccaneers 2.23
3 2006 Colts 2.20
4 1991 Eagles 2.19
5 2000 Titans 2.17
6 1997 Cowboys 2.06
7 1999 Bills 2.03
8 1995 Jets 2.00
9 1994 Cowboys 1.90
10 2007 Buccaneers 1.90
11 1993 Saints 1.87
12 1992 Saints 1.86
13 2003 Cowboys 1.84
14 2004 Buccaneers 1.83
15 2007 Colts 1.82
16 1995 Eagles 1.81
17 2004 Dolphins 1.80
18 1994 Oilers 1.77
19 1996 Packers 1.75
20 1990 Steelers 1.74