Offense and defense. The teams with the most balanced attacks, with the best combination of powerful offenses and potent defenses, typically play on and into January, quite often up to the last Sunday of this season. Funny how such a supposedly complicated game can be boiled down to one basic formula. But it really works. By adding each team's overall offensive and defensive ranking, and producing a cumulative score, anyone can detect that teams with the lowest totals usually are the ones to go the furthest into January.
History proves it.
Last season, the St. Louis Rams had the NFL's top-rated offense and the sixthrated defense, for a total score of a leaguebest 7. Not surprisingly, they won the Super Bowl. Almost always, this formula provides a fair indication for how the postseason will shake out and go down. Sure, there are the Music City Miracles, when a team such as Tennessee with a cumulative score of 30 upsets a team such as Buffalo with a cumulative score of 12. But it just goes to show what it takes for teams whose numbers do not measure up to pull out a victory.