There is no immitation for a good defensive back

Pittsburgh - Polamalu = shit.

Philadelphia - Dawkins = 370 passing yards to the Giants tonight.

Denver + Dawkins = 2nd best pass defense in NFL in 2009 (26th in 2008)

Minnesota - Sharper = stinks against the pass

New Orleans + Sharper = undefeated.

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I kind of went off on a Yahoo! Sports article about how great safeties are in our current age, but like, it is true: there have been some sea-changes in the NFL's balance of power this year, and the places to look for answers tend to be secondaries.

New England is still the Tom Brady / Randy Moss / Wes Welker show, but it seems like every week now, they're having to squeak by, not knowing if their safeties have shown up to play.

And as sighted above, both the Broncos and Saints were offensive powerhouses last year with no defense; and now? Both have upgraded their secondaries, and because of it are able to strangle the life out of opponents.

This entry was prompted mostly by tonight's SNF. Eagles at Giants. Both teams gained just a sickening number of yards. Both teams destroyed nonsense coverage, and exposed the other team's secondary as poor at best. The Eagles are playing an ex-Brown in the place of Brian Dawkins (their franchise's Troy Polamalu), while the Giants had to move a cornerback, Aaron Ross to the safety position for tonight's game. This led to just a total shitshow of breakaway points.

So. In conclusion. Defensive backs are kind of important.