“Defense wins football games.” It’s been said a countless amount of times in a countless amount of arguments, but the statement is false. Offense wins football games. A team cannot win until their offense produces points. No one has ever heard of a team that won scoring zero points. Defense does have a role in the outcome of a game, but the soul reason a team wins is their offensive production.

In the last five years (2008-12) the NFL (National Football League) has had 107 games played with 40 or more points scored in them (3 of these games had both teams score 40 or more points). The New England Patriots accomplished this feat 12 times, as dis the New Orleans Saints. The Patriots have the best record (54-19) in the NFL in those years, plus a Super-Bowl appearance. The Saints have the 3rd best record (49-24) and a Super-Bowl win. The Green Bay Packers have ten 40 or more point games, and they have the 4th best record (48-25) plus a Super-Bowl win. The Atlanta Falcons have seven 40 plus point games and they are tied with two other teams for the 2nd best record (51-22) and they have had multiple playoff appearances. To finish, the Chicago Bears, New York Giants, and Detroit Lions all have six 40 or more point games, and the Philadelphia Eagles, and San Diego Chargers have five 40 plus point games. Each of these teams has had playoff opportunities and the Giants won a Super-Bowl. These teams all have had great success due to the fact they score points.

Now, you obviously can’t score 40 or more points every game, but you can still score a lot. Looking at the points per game stats in the past fivr years (2008-12), they show similar results to the 40 or more point games. The Patriots lead the pack again with 29.74 points per game. They are followed by the Saints (29.7 points per game), the Packers (28.42 points per game), the Chargers (26.14 points per game), and the Giants (25.44 points per game). In the last five years these teams have combined three Super-Bowl wins, four Super-Bowl appearances, five AFC/NFC Championship Game appearances, and a combined record of 238-125. If that isn’t dominance, then what is?

Then there are those teams that are down in the dump. They can’t seem to win more than five games a year and it’s for one reason. They can’t get the ball over the goal line enough. The St. Louis Rams are the horrible. In the past five seasons, they have scored 14.7 points per game. They also own the worst record in the NFL during that time, at 15-57. The Cleveland Browns are next worst (15.82 points per game) and they have the 2nd worst record at 20-53. Next are the Kansas City Chiefs (17.58 points per game) and they have the 4th worst record with 24 wins and 49 losses. The Jacksonville Jaguars (17.68 points per game) own the 5th worst record at 26-47. To top of the best of the worst, the Washington Redskins are last in the line of top five worst points per game (19.04 points per game), and are tied with the Jaguars for the 5th worst record at 26-47. These teams are having no success in the NFL simply because they can’t score.

This is clear evidence that the teams that score the most points are the most successful. Honestly the Patriots and Saints have been dominant powerhouses in the NFL, while the Rams and Browns get laughed at for their awful performance. Every single team to have averaged 22.5 or more points per game in the last five years have a .500% winning percentage or better (13 total teams). Offense is clearly the focal point of how NFL teams win games. The only way NFL teams will win football games is if the scoreboard lights up with numbers, the higher the better.