Super Bowl XLV Will Be A Matchup of Dick LeBeau vs. Dom Capers

February 2, 2011   ·   Jeff Little   ·   Jump to comments


The moment that the conference championship games were set there was a chance that that at least one team that ran a 3-4 defense as their base defense would once again compete for a championship. The first championship game between teams that used, the 3-4 as their base defense, was Super Bowl XV when the Oakland Raiders beat the Philadelphia Eagles 27-10 in 1980.

Fifteen teams in the league use the 3-4 as their base defense. The Houston Texans will raise that number to 16 in 2011. There are rumors that the Oakland Raiders will increase the league total to 17. The Bears and Vikings are the only teams in the league to never use the 3-4 as their base defense.

Bud Wilkinson is widely recognized as the father of the 3-4 defensive front. Wilkinson devised the scheme at the University of Oklahoma in the 1940s. However, Chuck Fairbanks is the person credited with importing the scheme to the NFL. Fairbanks’ schemes greatly influenced winning teams long after he retired...

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