To listen to the glowing tributes to the defensive acumen of the two head coaches, Bill Belichick and John Fox, it's inevitable that Super Bowl XXXVIII between the New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers will be a 0-0 tie in the fourth overtime before it's won on a field goal from, say, 75 yards.
Will anybody score a touchdown? Can anybody score a touchdown?
Will either team even advance close to its kicker's field-goal range?
The answer, of course, is yes to those questions. It won't be 0-0 in the fourth overtime. But in this matchup, each team's defense might score or position more touchdowns or set up more field goals than its offense does. That's life now in the NFL, where defense dominates, especially in this Super Bowl, where the team with the better defense on Feb. 1 in Houston will win, just as the team with the better defense has won the last three Super Bowl games.
A year ago, Tampa Bay's five interceptions -- three returned for touchdowns -- wrecked Oakland's high-octane offense, 48-21.
Two years ago, the Patriots turned three turnovers into 17 points and edged Kurt Warner (who threw for 365 yards) and the St. Louis Rams, 20-17, on Adam Vinatieri's 48-yard field goal as time expired.
Three years ago, middle linebacker Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens crushed the overmatched New York Giants, 34-7.
Not that long ago, offense ruled the Super Bowl. Joe Montana and then Steve Young popularized the West Coast offense for the San Francisco 49ers. Troy Aikman handed off to Emmitt Smith and threw to Michael Irvin for the Dallas Cowboys. John Elway handed off to Terrell Davis and threw to Shannon Sharpe for the Denver Broncos.
Every so often, a team without a Hall of Fame quarterback found a way to win -- the 1985 Chicago Bears with Buddy Ryan's 46 defense, the 1986 and 1990 Giants with Coach Bill Parcells and linebacker Lawrence Taylor, and the 1982, 1987 and 1991 Washington Redskins under Joe Gibbs (who has now returned to the sideline).
But more than ever, it's dee-fense, dee-fense, with Belichick and Fox each confusing opposing offenses his way -- Belichick with muscular deception, Fox with no-nonsense toughness.
When cornerback Ty Law, who had three interceptions, and safety Rodney Harrison suggested that they flip-flop covering Marvin Harrison, the Indianapolis Colts' All-Pro wide receiver, Belichick agreed - as long as it worked. It did. Marvin Harrison, usually a game-breaker as quarterback Peyton Manning's go-to receiver, had only three catches for 19 yards Sunday as the Patriots won the American Football Conference championship game, 24-14.
"Chess is a finesse type of thing," linebacker Tedy Bruschi said, alluding to the usual description of Belichick's defenses. "To us, it's more like rock-'em sock-'em robots."
When Fox took over in Carolina in 2002 after the Panthers' 1-15 disaster, he bluntly told his players that, yes, they had talent, but they weren't tough enough. They are now. They won the National Football Conference South with an 11-5 record, eliminated the Cowboys and the Rams, then battered quarterback Donovan McNabb to the sideline in their 14-3 upset of the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC title on Sunday.
"We've got a bunch of strong-willed guys," Fox said. "They keep swinging their sword, they don't let it down and they finish."
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