Everyone would love a great defense.
That being said, let's compare the defense that gave up 29 points in 31 minutes to the Panthers to the defense that gave up 17 and 21 points to the Giants.
Seems to me the great 2004 defense flubbed in the Super Bowl while the flawed 2008 and 2012 defense did a pretty credible job--except in the final minute.
Another anomaly in this discussion: the 2004 offense, however you rate it, won that 2004 Super Bowl over the Panthers. Not the defense. Brady had to put up a top 5 Super Bowl performance for that victory.
1.--Keep in mind that during the SB runs of '01, '03, and '04 we gave up about 16.5 to 17 points per game. That's the sign of a pretty damn good group of defenses.
That was true throughout 7 1/2 of those 9 games, so the only real outlier is the 2004 AFCCG vs Pittsburgh, which was a game that we were well ahead of pretty much from the start, so the reality is that some points occurred in a setting that was coming from behind. It wouldn't really be considered "garbage time" in the traditional sense, but it was the next best thing in a general sense. The game was never in doubt, and Belichick's scheme was probably designed in a way to attempt to force time off the clock. I decided not to use "garbage time" since it was a playoff game, for the sense of being fair.
The other "1/2" came after our defense held the 2003 SB CAR team to a big fat ZERO at the half, then both teams traded blows in the second half.
2.--To take it one step further, look at the stretch run of the 2001 defense. They played 12 of their last 13 games down the stretch and into the playoffs while only allowing 17 points or less in every single outing. There was even a finishing stretch of like, 8 or 9 final games in a row of 17 points or fewer. Can you imagine what our record would be if we had a post Thanksgiving run that went all the way into February where we only allowed 17 or less total points? That's one big hell of a difference from our current postseason defense.
3.--To put it fully into perspective, just the same way we won 3 SB's in 2001, 2003, and 2004 by averaging only 16.5 to 17 pts per game on defense, we've recently allowed the following in our last 5 losses:
--2009 BAL (33) The most postseason pts allowed in franchise history at home
--2010 NYJ (28) Another 2 TD in the fourth quarter performance
--2011 NYG (21) Another late fourth quarter defensive collapse, with another backbreaking final game drive resulting in a TD when we had the opposition pinned inside of their own 20
--2012 BAL (28) Another 2 TD fourth quarter performance...again
--2013 DEN (26) The most yards allowed EVER in the Belichick era
4. Since I compared the first 9 game playoff run that resulted in 3 SBs in the beginning that allowed an average of 16.5--17 points (in 7 1/2 of 9 games), we can now look at the last 8 losses and average those defensive performances
2005 DEN (27)
2006 IND (38)
2007 NYG (17) clearly the outlier
2009 BAL (33)
2010 NYJ (28)
2011 NYG (21)
2012 BAL (28)
2013 DEN (26)
That gives us an average of.....27+ points per game. When you take out the outlier the same way we did with the 3 SB run, we get a new defensive average of.....almost 29 points per game.
Pretty huge difference lately between "Brady's" (since so many want to blame him specifically) initial 9 games started at 9-0 when the defense basically gave up about 16-17 ppg, and the 9-8 record since when the defense basically gave up 27-28 ppg.
