Best Pass Defense Ever: Ronde Barber And The 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers

[Blaze688]

Captain Comeback Scott Kacsmar took a long look today at Ronde Barber's Hall of Fame qualifications.

Nestled among the many individual accomplishments is one incredible team accomplishment: Barber and the 2002 Buccaneers won the franchise's only Super Bowl largely on the backs of one of the great pass defenses in history, and certainly the greatest pass defense of the Live Ball Era (1978-present), at least by one notable measure.

Below is a look at the 25 best pass defenses of the Live Ball Era, based upon Defensive Passer Rating. The 2002 Buccaneers (48.4) come in at No. 4, ahead of legendary units like the 1985 Bears or the last two champions of the Steel Curtain Steelers.

It's the lowest DPR, the best pass defense, of the past 24 seasons, a rather significant chunk of pro football history.

More impressively, Tampa's Defensive Passer Rating that year was 30.2 points below the league average (78.6), the greatest disparity in the history of the NFL. (Not a perfect measure, as inflated modern ratings mean greater opportunity to beat the league average; but still a figure that makes the 2002 Bucs a historically significant defense.)

In other words, you could argue that Barber and the Bucs fielded the best pass defense in modern NFL history and maybe of all time.

Clearly, the game has evolved greatly, even within the Live Ball Era. The league-wide passer rating in 1978 was 62.1. In 2012, it was 83.8.

It took offenses several years to catch up with the rule changes that spawned the Live Ball Era and truly adapt to the new game. That 62.1 league-wide passer rating figure provides plenty of evidence that the passing game was still fairly primitive by today's standards at the dawn of the Live Ball Era.

But this evolution only serves to show how great that Bucs defense was in 2002.

Tampa Bay then concluded its only Super Bowl-winning season with one of the great defensive performances in history: the Bucs picked off Raiders quarterback and 2002 NFL MVP Rich Gannon five times, returning three of those INTs for touchdowns.

The league's top quarterback that year was held by the Bucs to a 48.9 passer rating in the Super Bowl, nearly identical to their season-long DPR.

It's one of those signature team-wide performances that often help marquee individuals like Barber make it into the Hall of Fame.

http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/cold-hard-football-facts-blog/best-pass-defense-ever-ronde-barber-and-the-2002-tampa-bay-buccaneers/22708/

[germcanbuc]

Wow. Good, albeit short read. Thanks

[Benchwarmer#1]

If Kiff were here and we ran the T2, I still believe it would work.

I never believed the system was outdated, only the players became that way over time (or left), and in close timing of each other, which added to the downfall after the SB.

Four bad games doesn't make a system "outdated" and that system would be more "updated" than this blitz heavy, overzealious run covering, leaving Myron Lewis on an island defense (jk). Doesn't even come close. People underestimate the psychological and mental value of stress that defense placed on QB's. Almost luling them sleep while walking down the field, only to be snapped up with twenty or less yards to goal. Sometimes to our delight, for a pick six.

But the Superbowl winning team had the best, or at least second best defense ever. I never would've thought dex would have that kind of day. Honestly, I thought he would've been torched by the raiders. At times that defense scored more than the offense, so obviously, it's still fun to watch even to this day.

[lyronmewis]

I think that the Bears have proven that the system can still work, but we need elite talent on the Dline, and we're far from that right now. The Seahawks are a variant of the Tampa 2 as well if I'm not mistaken.

Personally i don't care about what kind of system it is, as long as you have players that are good, and match the system.