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Seahawks historical 4 years defensive run

boogiewithstu2007

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The legacy
We're going to look back on this Seahawks defense as one of the best over an extended period of time in league history. The Seahawks ranked first in points allowed four consecutive times from 2012 to 2015 before falling to third in 2016 and then to 13th last season. That five-year run from 2012 to 2016 saw them allow an average of 16.3 points per game in a league in which the typical team was allowing 22.9 points per contest.

To put this in context -- and compare defenses across eras -- we can use a stat called standard score, which measures just how dominant an individual example was across a broader population. In this case, we're going to look at how the Seahawks performed on defense over that five-year stretch versus the rest of the NFL, and then compare that to every other defense over every other five-year stretch since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.

The table below lists the 10 best five-year runs by a defense since the merger. I've removed overlapping runs; as an example, both the 2011-15 Seahawks and 2012-16 Seahawks would qualify as two of the 10 best five-year runs in modern league history. To give more context and include more great defenses, I'm only including the best five-year run for each defense. In this case, that leaves the 2012-16 Seahawks in at the expense of the 2011-15 defenses.

I'll include each dynasty's standard score, but to make things a little easier, I'll also be translating their statistics to the most recent (2013-17) scoring environment, so we can estimate what that defense would look like if it were playing in the current NFL. Obviously, we can't account for rule changes, but this is a useful measure in comparing how dominant one defense was in its era versus another defense in its own.

What it tells us is that the Legion of Boom-era Seahawks had the best five-year run of any defense in post-merger NFL history:

RANK TEAM YEARS STANDARD SCORE 2013-2017 PPG
TEAM YEARS Standard score PPG

10 Cowboys 1992-1996 -1.98 18.3
9 Steelers 1972-1976 -1.99 18.3
8 Ravens 2008-2012 -2.09 18.1
7 Rams 1973-1977 -2.11 18.1
6 Buccs 1999-2003 -2.13 18.0
5 Eagles 2000-2004 -2.17 17.9
4 49ers 2009-2013 -2.27 17.7
3 Steelers 2007-2011 -2.57 17.1
2 Bears 1984-1988 -2.72 16.7
1 Seahawks 2012-2016 -2.72 16.7


The Seahawks are just narrowly ahead of the legendary Bears defenses of the mid-1980s. The Seahawks were 2.724 standard deviations below the mean, and the Bears were right behind them at 2.715. If your defense is being compared to the Mike Singletary-era Bears, you're doing something right. The other side of that is also true: The Sherman-and-Thomas Seahawks set a mark that the rest of the league is going to chase for decades to come. Even if this day inevitably had to come for Seattle, there's no joy to be had in seeing one of the best units in NFL history splitting up and going their separate ways.

Bill BarnwellESPN Staff Writer
 
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Anointed One

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Showing up in the postseason is the most important stat.. This Hawk defense wasn't as good in '15, '16 in the post season...
 
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