Which Carolina Panthers team had the best defense?

The 2003 Super Bowl team or this year's surprise team?

With Seattle's recent domination in the Super Bowl, they proved that defense really does win championships. In an offense-oriented league, the NFL's top defense stepped up and shut down the top offense.

After the Super Bowl, I got to thinking, "Carolina has almost always been a defensive team." This led me to wondering which Carolina Panthers team had the better defense, the 2003 team that reached the Super Bowl, or this year's team that shocked everyone.

It's difficult to say which was better, especially when you factor in how different the league is nowadays with the rules changing to favor the offense, along with the strength of schedule for that season. So let's take a look at some numbers.

Points Allowed - 2003: 304 (19.0 per game), 10th in NFL. 2013: 241 (15.2 per game), 2nd in NFL.

Yards Allowed - 2003: 295.3 per game, 8th in NFL. 2013: 301.3 per game, 2nd in NFL.

Passing Defense - 2003: 188 yards per game, 19 TD allowed, 16 INT, 40 sacks, 9th in NFL. 2013: 214 yards per game, 17 TD allowed, 20 INT, 60 sacks, 6th in NFL.

Rushing Defense - 2003: 107.6 yards per game, 10 TD allowed, 8 forced fumbles, 5 recovered, 11th in NFL. 2013: 86.9 yards per game, 4 TD allowed, 5 forced fumbles, 2 recovered, 2nd in NFL.

Takeaways - 2003: 16 INT, 10 fumbles, 26 total, tied for 18th in NFL. 2013: 20 INT, 10 fumbles, 30 total, tied for 7th in NFL.

From a statistical standpoint, it seems that this year's defense was superior to the 2003 defense, allowing less points, forcing more turnovers, getting more sacks, and ranking higher in nearly every category.

When you factor in strength of schedule, it actually swings in the favor of this year's defense. The Panthers entered the 2013 season with the toughest strength of schedule in the league of .543. The 2003 Panthers entered that season with a strength of schedule of .523, the 10th toughest of that season.

If you include the fact that today's NFL is much more offense-oriented, due to rules changing to favor the offense, you still have to give the edge to this year's team. Even with the rule changes, they still allowed less points than they did in 2003.

The only thing that I would say gives the 2003 team an edge is the fact that they actually got to the Super Bowl, whereas this team lost in the divisional round of the playoffs.

So, with all of this in mind, which team do you think had the better defense? My vote goes to this year's team. With LB Luke Kuechly winning Defensive Player of the Year this year (to go along with his Defensive Rookie of the Year award last year, I might add) and "Riverboat" Ron Rivera winning Coach of the Year, Carolina's young and hungry defense is nearly unstoppable.