He was able to get away with that in the atrocious AFC West, but playing against playoff defenses are going to be another story.
Barrow was asked whether the Giants were playing playoff-caliber defense.
As Jan Hubbard writes on CBSSports.com, the Suns might actually have the team to contend this time around because they are finally playing playoff-caliber defense.
In the playoffs, the defense beat three likely Hall of Fame quarterbacks in Kurt Warner, Brett Favre and Manning, and Brees assumed a spot among the elite quarterbacks.
All of which leads back to Smith, and whether a team with a playoff-caliber defense can withstand — and indeed, tolerate — many more performances like Sunday's.
Even though the Redskins reached the playoffs, their defense was among the worst in the conference, and Nolan was let go when Washington's season ended.
When the Knicks were last in Miami, in February, the Heat introduced the neophyte Lin to playoff-level defense, making him admit, "I can't remember another game where it was hard to just take dribbles".
Detroit went on to a 28-13 victory, denting a lot of the assumptions about the Giants' 4-1 sthet, the first and most important being the rise of what had looked like a playoff-caliber defense.
In the NFL, the 2006 Steelers, who finished 8-8 and out of the playoffs in defense of their Super Bowl win, had an injury issue, too.
While the Browns' 9 7 record did not get the team into the playoffs – the defense struggled all year, forcing Sipe and the offense to compensate with late-game comebacks – a sense of optimism and excitement took hold.
