Here's a break down of the top 15 teams on defense and where the Cardinals rank. I came up with an interesting stat which you can see in the first column under "AVG". This is the average rank of all the top categories including total yards, yards per game, passing yards, pass yards per game, rushing yards, rush yards per game, total points and points per game. I took the top 15 teams and where they rank in each category, and averaged them out. It's pretty interesting and much more efficient then just going by total yards which can be misleading. The Cards rounded out at 13th. The team they play on Thursday, the Eagles, took number 7 overall. Pittsburgh finished number 1 in each category, very impressive. I will release the same style of stats for offense later today.
| Team | AVG | Total Yards | PPG | |
| 1 | Pittsburgh | 1.00 | 2589 | 14.5 |
| 2 | Baltimore | 3.25 | 2885 | 17.0 |
| 3 | Washington | 4.75 | 2992 | 18.1 |
| 4 | Tampa Bay | 5.25 | 3022 | 16.4 |
| 5 | NY Giants | 6.00 | 3029 | 18.1 |
| 6 | Tennessee | 7.75 | 3227 | 15.0 |
| 7 | Philadelphia | 8.00 | 3175 | 20.8 |
| 8 | Carolina | 11.00 | 3322 | 18.2 |
| 9 | Dallas | 12.25 | 3240 | 22.8 |
| 10 | Minnesota | 12.50 | 3288 | 22.4 |
| 11 | New England | 12.75 | 3476 | 20.2 |
| 12 | NY Jets | 13.75 | 3491 | 21.3 |
| 13 | Arizona | 14.25 | 3319 | 24.1 |
| 14 | Jacksonville | 15.25 | 3508 | 21.8 |
| 15 | Chicago | 15.25 | 3574 | 21.3 |