Any team is very beatable in the playoffs, especially in a single game elimination.

I think the Warriors example doesn't work particularly well for you, especially since they were literally a game away from winning the Finals. Certainly not the best team of all time, but getting to Game 7 of the Finals is not shabby.

Anyway, Dallas' defense isn't great, but it doesn't necessarily need to be. I'll reference New England once again, as I'm most familiar with them, who made the Super Bowl in 2011 with the second worst defense in the league (and were another insane catch away from winning it). Having a great defense certainly helps, but not having one doesn't exclude you from title contention.

People seem to forget that they had a hard time making it to be finals they should have have lost to the Thunder in the semi finals.  A great defense is more helpful then a great offense.  Plus once we get to the title game the team with the better defense usually wins just last year was a prime example of that.

The better defense, by yards allowed, has lost in six of the past ten Super Bowls (2014, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2007, and 2006). The notion of "defense wins championships" has relatively little historical founding. Teams that can compensate for their biggest weaknesses win championships. Denver won last year not just because their defense was great, but because they had a quality running game and Peyton, despite virtually being wheelchair bound, didn't make mistakes. He only threw one interception all postseason. They compensated for a quarterback with a wet noodle for an arm by not screwing up and by letting their defense win the game for them.

The question isn't "is Dallas' defense too bad for them to reach the Super Bowl?" If New England can reach the Super Bowl with the second worst defense in the league, Dallas certainly can with theirs. The question is "can they do enough to compensate for the relative weakness of their defense?" That question will largely rely on whether their offense can continue do what it's been doing the whole season when playing teams not named the Giants; possess the ball for large stretches of time and give the opposing offense as few chances as possible to expose the defense's flaws.

good job rol & fated reality,
i won't be playing the losers round,playoffs or nothing for me

My picks are locked and loaded into Rol's inbox. No easy week for you NinjaBlade360!!

Wooo, 5 Cowboys got All Pro 1st team.

Sean Lee, Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick, Zack Martin, and Ezekiel Elliot in case anyone was wondering who.

Yards allowed is not the ultimate messure of the best defense and better defense its a combination of yards allowed, sacks, interceptions and other forced turnovers caused.

We can go by those totals, then, if you want.

The better defense, by sacks, has won in 6 of 10. 2008 (Steelers), 2009 (Saints), 2011 (Giants), 2013 (Seahawks), 2014 (Patriots), and 2015 (Broncos). Slightly better, over 50%, but hardly a guarantee that you will win a championship.

I'm going to compile turnovers forced on defense into one stat, because looking up individual fumble/INT totals is pretty time consuming. The better defense by turnovers allowed won in 2010 (Packers), 2012 (Ravens), 2014 (Patriots), and 2015 (Broncos). Only 4/10 this time around, so we're back to under 50%.

Admittedly this isn't a "combination" of measures; it's each measure individually, but it's hard to imagine any kind of combination measure where defensive quality winds up being a good sole predictor of who will win the Super Bowl. You wouldn't even get over 50% unless you started weighting sack totals extremely heavily, and at that point it's just selectivity bias.

You can win a superbowl with a lousy offense if you have a great defense Tampa Bay in 2002 would be the best example they actually pretty much shut down the #1 offense in the superbowl.  Plus you can win a superbowl with a great defenese and without a ballanced offense the 85 Bears would probably be the best example of that they had a great rushing offense but where near the bottom of the leauge when it came to passing yards.

It's pretty hard to beat a team three times in a season. I don't remember it happening except the 1999 season IIRC when the Titans went 13-3 but lost the division to the 14-2 Jaguars, whose 2 losses came to the Titans, and Tennesee beat them a third time en route to the Super Bowl. It might have happened since then, but I don't recall.

Dallas doesn't have a great defense but while you guys compare turnovers and yardage and sacks and etc etc Dallas is top 5 in the only stat that really matters for a defense, and that is points given up. Now that stat can sometimes be misleading, for example the Pats lead the league in points given up per game but they really only faced one scary offense this season and that is Seattle, who was very off and on week to week, but Wilson threw all over them. Only faced two top 10 offenses all season, one was #9 in week one, and the other was Pittsburgh who IIRC were without Ben for that game. Dallas had a top 3 divisional opponent they had to play twice plus Green Bay and a healthy Pittsburgh. They won all four games. They are 2nd in the league in TOP last I checked.

I mean, look at the Denver Broncos. #4 in points per game, #4 in yards per game, top 10 IIRC in third down percentage, top 10 in takeaways, fewest touchdown passes allowed, fewest yards gained per pass attempt, you could go on and on about how phenomenal the defense was. Yet because of how putrid the offense was, they had the 2nd or 3rd most plays ran against them, and every game they eventually wore down. Dallas has the exact opposite setup. Their offense is so good and more importantly efficient, they make the defense much better.

Of course, they are in the wrong conference this season. To get to the SB they could have to play through Green Bay, Seattle, or Atlanta. The less scary offenses are the Lions and Giants, either of which can ignite at any time. Compare that to the AFC where thanks to injury/Osweiler you have three teams with no QB, which is half the field.

GB and Atlanta have the offense to shred anyone in the playoffs defense. You have to worry about your teams offense, not the defense.