The 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers were really good at defense, leading to the only Super Bowl in Bucs history. That’s 15 years ago now, and it’s still true: since then and the 16 years before then, no defense was ever more efficient at stopping the pass than they were.
That, at least, is what Football Outsiders has consistently found over the years. And in their retrospective on 30 years of DVOA (their measure of efficiency) at ESPN, that’s still what they see. The 2002 Bucs’ somewhat lackluster run defense means they’re just the second-best overall defense, though, behind the 1991 Philadelphia Eagles.