This Super Bowl should be first-rate

It took 37 years for the NFL to finally deliver the Super Bowl match-up that football purists have been craving.

For the first time, the NFL’s No. 1 offense will play the No. 1 defense in a Super Bowl. The AFC champion Oakland Raiders bring the offense, led by NFL MVP Rich Gannon, and the NFC champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers bring the defense, led by NFL Defensive Player of the Year Derrick Brooks.

The best offense in football is favored to win this game, and it’s easy to see why America has become enamored with the Raiders. They ring up points like a pinball machine.

Gannon passed for an NFL-high 4,689 yards and 26 touchdowns. With a pair of Hall of Famers on the flank in Tim Brown and Jerry Rice, Oakland led the NFL in yards and finished second in points. The Raiders storm into the Super Bowl averaging nearly 400 yards and 30 points per game.

But don’t be fooled. Offense has long been a postseason tease in the NFL. Defense wins the championships.

The most explosive offenses, the Dan Marino Dolphins, the Jim Kelly Bills and the Kurt Warner Rams all came undone in Super Bowls by defenses that wouldn’t allow them to throw the football.

So history tells us the Buccaneers will emerge as champions of the 2002 NFL season.

The Bucs lack the offensive firepower of the Raiders. They don’t have a Hall of Famer on offense, much less two at wide receiver. But the Super Bowl has rarely been decided by those who gained the most yards. It’s all about which defense allows the fewest points.

The Bucs allowed the fewest yards and points in the NFL this season. They are the eighth franchise since the merger in 1970 to take the No. 1 defensive ranking to the Super Bowl. Their predecessors have compiled a 6-1 record.

Miami, Pittsburgh and Dallas all won in the 1970s with No. 1-ranked defenses, Chicago won in the 1980s, and Dallas and Green Bay won in the 1990s. The only loser was the 1982 Miami Dolphins.

But you don’t have to be the best defense in the NFL to win a Super Bowl. You just have to be better than the defense on the other sideline.

In the last 10 Super Bowls, the team with the higher-ranked defense won seven times. In the last 20 years, the higher-ranked defense won 13 times. The Raiders finished 10 rungs below the Bucs in defense this season at No. 11.

Tampa Bay led the NFL in scoring defense, allowing an average of only 12.2 points per game. The Bucs posted two shutouts and held four other opponents without an offensive touchdown in their 16 regular-season games.

Tampa Bay also held Atlanta without a touchdown in the NFC semifinals, then limited Philadelphia to one TD in a 27-10 NFC championship game triumph.

The Raiders, meanwhile, were piling up 71 points this postseason, ripping through the Jets, 30-10, and the Tennessee Titans, 41-24, on Sunday on the way to their first Super Bowl berth in 19 years.

Oakland poses the ultimate test for the Bucs. This is the best passing team in football. Gannon set an NFL record with 10 300-yard passing games this season. Brown, Rice and Jerry Porter all had 100-yard receiving games, and rookie tight end Doug Jolley is a budding Todd Christensen.

Gannon usually has someone open on every pass play. All he has to do is find him – but sometimes that can take an extra second.

Extra seconds aren’t what Tampa Bay end Simeon Rice allows a quarterback. He led the NFC with 15 sacks. Tackle Warren Sapp chipped in seven more. Both linemen are going to the Pro Bowl.

They are backed up by the NFL’s best pass defense. Opposing quarterbacks completed barely 50 percent of their passes against the Bucs. Tampa Bay cornerback Brian Kelly shared the NFL lead with eight interceptions. The Bucs picked off a league-high 31 passes. They’ve added four more in the postseason.

If you like offense, you’ll like the Raiders. If you like defense, you’ll like the Bucs. If you like football, you’ll like this Super Bowl.