06-16-2024, 06:34 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-17-2024, 08:31 PM by wetwilleh. Edited 1 time in total.)
There are only 3 games left in S48 of the ISFL. Thus far, we have something kind of amazing; in the same season we have one of the greatest and one of the worst defenses in the history of the entire league simultaneously.
The Cape Town Crash, currently 2nd in the conference on tiebreaker, boast a 14.5 points allowed per game total, and the Colorado Yeti, who have already clinched the 1st overall pick, are stuck at a gargantuan 38.5 points allowed per game.
I wanted to see how the Crash compared all time, as I've been keeping track of where the Yeti wind up, but I also wanted to see what some of the other worst defenses of all time. What follows is every team who allowed over 34 points per game, and every team who allowed under 18.
S1 YKW (16.1 pag, 225 points allowed)
S2 OCO (15.6 pag, 219 points allowed)
S2 COL (15.4 pag, 216 points allowed)
S1 AZ (14.6 pag, 204 points allowed)
S1 OCO (14.0 pag, 196 points allowed)
S2 AZ (12.5 pag, 175 points allowed)
These six teams are getting left to the side, as looking like an all time great defense in the first two seasons of ISFL history...is extremely easy to the point it feels like cheating. The best offense in S1 scored under 20 points per game, half the teams in the league scored under 18 points, and as seen half the league was able to boast a defense that would look amazing shortly, but was very pedestrian back then. Meanwhile, S2 was slightly better, league leader Arizona boasted an actual points scored stat at 26.4 that's better than 8 teams in the current ISFL, but even 2nd place Yellowknife with a 21.4 points per game is worse than the 2nd lowest scoring team in today's league. 6/8 teams scored under 20, 3/8 scored under 18, and as a result more teams reached under 18 points per game in these two seasons than any other ISFL season, and the worst of these defenses wasn't even close to going over that metric.
Going deeper, S1 and S2 Arizona were, as is well known, both cheating (not sure if there was any defensive cheating for S1) and league champions, beating S1 and S2 OCO in the playoffs in the process. S1 Yellowknife lost at S1 COL 13-6, and S2 COL didn't actually make the playoffs, losing out on tiebreakers.
S3 AZ (11.9 pag, 166 points allowed)
S3 saw an explosion of offense around the league; only 2 teams scored less than 20 points per game, and while both the Legion and Yeti were absolutely godawful offenses who scored less than 15 per game, they were only 4 out of 14 games on the schedule. Still, there's an argument that this defense isn't quite as good as it looks; every team who wasn't Orange County or Arizona still averaged below 25, and Arizona obviously didn't need to play themselves, and of course were also cheating. But this is by far the best defense in league history from a points allowed perspective. Not counting themselves from S2 for the reasons explained above, the only team even within 2 points of them is much, much later. And that's 2 points, 1/6th of the entire points allowed for this team. They gave up more than 20 points only 3 times over the season, gave up 10 or less 6 times, and cakewalked to victory in the playoffs. If this isn't the best defense in league history, it's close, or you're discounting it for cheating reasons which is perfectly justifiable.
S4 OCO (17.0 pag, 238 points allowed)
S4 AZ (14.5 pag, 203 points allowed)
These are a very interesting pair to talk about; this is the last of the cheating Arizona seasons, and while it was absolutely one of their best in terms of talent and overall performance, in terms of defense it was more moderate for this stretch; this is almost entirely down to the fact that other teams could score at this point. The Outlaws gave up more than 20 in 4 games, and gave up 10 or less 6 times. OCO meanwhile gave up more than 20 in 6 games and allowed 10 or less 5 times. The Otters upset Arizona in the playoffs, the first time a road team won a playoff game in league history, and went on to win the Ultimus easily. That being said, this year had two great teams, and two bad teams, one being far worse than the other.
S4 COL (34.4 pag, 482 points allowed)
The first team to allow over 34 points per game in league history is, surprise surprise, Colorado. Granted, part of that came from the league scoring a decent chunk more, but they also gave up a lot of points to the other basement dweller in the Legion. Las Vegas averaged 28.5 points per game in their two wins over Colorado, and 14.75 in their other 12 games. Colorado gave up 24 or less points only once on the season, and gave up over 40 on 5 separate occasions. This was the beginning of one of, if not the single worst, stretch of teams in league history. Colorado finished 1-13.
S6 COL (38.6 pag, 541 points allowed)
The next stretch of seasons was more notable for how bad the bad defenses were than how great the great defenses were. S6 Colorado, in particular, is one of the worst teams of all time and has a defense to match. Funnily enough, they seem to grade out better in one stat, giving up 24 or less points 3 times, but those totals were 24, 24, and 23. It also doesn't matter when they gave up over 40 5 times, and over 60 twice. Just absolutely miserable, the first winless season in league history.
S7 COL (35.8 pag, 501 points allowed)
This season, Colorado was a significantly worse team, but that was due to one of the worst offenses in league history. While nobody would call Colorado's defense good, it was less catastrophe prone than the previous year's. Sure, it only gave up 24 or less once, and it was again only 23 points, but it only gave up over 40 in 4 games and bottomed out at 59 points allowed in a single game, both notable improvements from the previous season. That was not enough to stop Colorado from going winless yet again.
S8 SJS (39.5 pag, 553 points allowed)
By points per game, this is the worst defense of all time. Granted, there are turnovers involved in each of these, so if there were enough pick sixes, safeties, or special teams touchdowns then they might be less bad than some others, but I don't have the time or inclination to go through and take all of those out for all of these teams. Incredibly, this team gave up less than 24 points on 3 separate occasions, including only allowing 12 points. They even won a game, although funnily enough not the game that they allowed only 12 points in. But this team probably owns a record despite being in a 14 game season: most games where they allowed 40 points or more at 9. To tie that record, the Yeti would have to give up 40 points in 2 of their remaining 3 games, and incredibly, even if the Yeti gave up 40 or more in each of their remaining games these Sabercats would still have a worse ratio of games where they gave up 40 points. The best offenses this season averaged 31 points per game. Against the Sabercats, the Otters averaged 41 points over 2 games. The Wraiths averaged 53.5 points.
S9 BAL (17.1 pag, 240 points allowed)
S9 NOLA (14.1 pag, 197 points allowed)
S9 sees the return of all time great defense. Part of that is due to an outsized number of all time terrible offenses, 3 teams under 16 points per game, but we do have multiple great offenses here too, with 3 teams scoring over 30 per game. Not a great offensive year necessarily but not as bad as back in S1 or 2. Starting with the worse team, the Hawks went 11-3, gave up over 20 points 4 times and gave up 10 or less 5 times. In the playoffs, they'd lose to, well, the better defense. S9 NOLA is one of the greatest teams ever seen on the field, if not the single greatest, and while their defense isn't quite as jawdropping as S3 AZ it's certainly close. Going 12-2, they gave up 20 or more points on 3 separate occasions, and gave up 10 or less 7 out of their 14 total games on the season. Honestly, the fact that they gave up over 20 points in both of their playoff games feels like a bit of a disappointment for this outfit.
S9 PHI (34.4 pag, 481 points allowed)
In these Liberty we have more of a run of the mill all time bad defense than what the last few were; the Liberty even won a ton of games this season for a defense this bad, going 4-10. They gave up 24 or less 6 times, 17 being the lowest total, but surpassed that with 7 games where they allowed over 40, including 3 different 50 burgers, topping out at 58.
S12 SJS (17.9 pag, 250 points allowed)
This SJS season barely scrapes by the point per game margin, mainly due to completely collapsing down the stretch; the team went 2-4 in their last 6 to finish the season at 10-4, and gave up more than 20 points half the time during that end of game skid for a total of 4 across the entire season. They only gave up 10 or less 3 times, and lost their first game of the playoffs 35-10 at Orange County.
S12 COL (35.4 pag, 495 points allowed)
This team went 6-8. I cannot quite figure out how; their offense was OK but not great, and they only gave up 24 or less one time all season. They gave up 40 or more 6 times, topping out at 58. They did not make the playoffs, but actually would have if they won their week 13 game. Probably the worst defense to be anywhere NEAR the playoff picture.
S14 SJS (16.6 pag, 233 points allowed)
San Jose, after missing qualification for a year, stormed back and finished the season strong this time. While by record, they were a worse team at 9-5, their defense on the whole was significantly better. They gave up more than 20 in 4 games again, but kept their opponents to 10 or less 4 times, and won their first ring in league history after beating Orange County on the Road and the Liberty at home. In the playoffs, they gave up 17 to OCO and 24 to Philly.
S14 AZ (37.4 pag, 523 points allowed)
I'm surprised I've never looked at this team before. Granted, they won 2 games, their point differential at -21.4 is terrible but not all time bad, but I feel like I could have very easily written about a team with a 10 game loss streak to open the season at some point. They gave up 24 or less on 3 separate occasions, including both of their wins, only gave up 40 or more 5 times (still a lot, but the only team to do that less frequently was S7 COL), but their real claim to fame was their biggest loss: one of the worst games in ISFL history, a 76-7 loss to the Otters. That one game took them singlehandedly from barely qualifying for this list to being the 3rd worst defense in ISFL history up to that point.
S18 OCO (17.9 ppg, 233 points allowed)
Now we're into the 13 game seasons, which is why this points allowed total barely qualifies. That being said, this was a season where no offense outside of San Jose was terrible, and Orange County generally kept teams in check. They gave up over 20 on 6 occasions, but kept teams to 10 or less on 4. They went 10-3 overall. In the playoffs, OCO won 21-16 over Arizona and 16-10 over Yellowknife for yet another ring.
S21 OCO (17.7 ppg, 230 points allowed)
Yet again, OCO brings one of the better defenses ever to the table. This year had no great offenses, but no offenses averaged less than 20 per game. OCO overall went 10-3 again, gave up more than 20 in 3 games (including a win) but only gave up 10 or less on one occasion. This was a defense without many highs or really any lows, the most points they allowed in a game was 27. This took Orange County to the top of the conference yet again, although this time they could not win a ring, losing 27-24 in OT to NOLA.
S22 COL (16.0 ppg, 208 points allowed)
S22 YKW (15.1 ppg, 196 points allowed)
These are two I almost want to disqualify; S22 might be the single most watered down, weak year for offense since the first few seasons in ISFL history. Half the teams in the league averaged under 20 points per game, only the Wraiths averaged over 30, the 4th best offense in the league only averaged 22.2, this year had 2 different bad expansion teams and the worst offense in ISFL history...
For example, Colorado would still have a great D, but it would miss the cutoff by over half a point except for the fact that they went against S22 Chicago and allowed only 3 points in their two appearances. Yellowknife was better on that front, they gave up 14 to Chicago in their 2 games and would still be well under 18 points allowed per game not counting those games, but this is one of the weakest defensive schedules of all time. Colorado got to play 6 of its 13 games against teams who averaged less than 17 points per game, and Yellowknife got to play 7 of their 13 games against that same mark.
Still, for what they did, they were both great. The Yeti gave up more than 20 only 3 times, and gave up 10 or less 4 times (including a loss) on their way to an 8-5 record, while the Wraiths gave up over 20 in 5 different games, and matched that total for games they gave up 10 or less. This led to an 11-2 record, and one of the closest playoff runs we've ever seen a team make...for the Yeti, as they won against an awful Sailfish team 36-14, beat the Wraiths 17-16, and upset the Otters 25-24 to win their first and so far only ring in league history.
Overall these two defenses are probably not quite as good as their point totals show, but I still wanted to cover them if only for the playoff run. As you might expect from a season like this, no defense came even close to qualifying for this list; the Butchers didn't crack 30 points allowed, and the 2nd worst team, the Outlaws, was at 23.5.
S23 COL (17.8 pag, 285 points allowed)
I kind of look at this defense a bit more fondly than the previous Yeti one; for one we're now into the 16 game season, so 2 games against a team as bad as the S22 butchers isn't anywhere near as much of a swing for your point differential. For two, no team came anywhere near that S22 butchers team, and less teams overall were bad. Overall, the Yeti gave up more than 20 points 6 times, and gave up 10 or less 6 times as well, including a 6-3 loss I absolutely have to mention here. In the playoffs, they won their first game 32-25 over the Liberty, but lost 10-13 against the Wraiths.
S24 OCO (17.4 pag, 278 points allowed)
For the first time in a while, we have an OCO team listed where they weren't a powerhouse, indeed this team was even the 2 seed. At 9-7, this might be the worst team by record out of any of the best defenses ever. Overall, they gave up more than 20 on 6 separate occasions, and held teams to 10 or less 5 times, including a 7-3 loss. In the playoffs, they won their first game 31-21 over the Second Line, but lost their second game 3-17 against the meme team to end all meme teams, the Sabercats.
S27 CHI (17.3 pag, 276 points allowed)
A fractionally better defense by points than OCO a few years prior, Chicago marks the turn into the New Sim Era. That being said, this was a team who was absolutely catapulted into this section via the efforts of one particularly bad team in S27 Baltimore, giving up only 7 points in those two games combined. This team still could lock up teams that weren't the Hawks, though; they gave up over 20 points 6 times and gave up 10 or less 5 times, including an 8-5 loss that I'm guessing is the single one of its kind in ISFL history. This team kinda got screwed by the dumb playoff system, in that I'm pretty sure as a 12-4 team with the best point differential in the conference they should have been the 1 seed; instead they lost out on the 1 seed because points scored matters more in this dumb sim, and ended up losing in the first round 24-19 to the Yeti.
S27 BAL (38.6 pag, 618 points allowed)
The current record holders for Most Points Allowed in a season, S27 Baltimore might not be quite as bad as the S8 Sabercats but not for a lack of trying. They gave up 24 or less points only twice on the season, and tie the aforementioned Sabercats in giving up 40 or more points on 9 separate occasions. That being said, they did hold back teams from running up the score on them too much; the most any team scored against them was 51. These Hawks went 0-16 and were one of the worst teams to ever grace this sim. Heck, their best defensive game was still a loss by 20 points as they were shut out.
S28 BAL (34.9 pag, 559 points allowed)
So let's cover them again! A slightly better team, this Baltimore squad managed to only go 2-14, and just generally be less embarrassing on the whole. They gave up 24 or less points on 3 separate occasions, including both of their wins, and only allowed 40 or more 7 times over the course of the season. They only had 50 scored on them once (52) compared to the 3 times for S27 Baltimore, and held a team to 10 points once. Still, even as it was a massive improvement from the previous season, it remained one of the worst defenses in ISFL history.
S31 BAL (34.0 pag, 544 points allowed)
Just barely qualifying for this list, S31 was a far cry from the absolute nadir of the Hawks franchise back in S27-28. That being said, this defense wasn't that far off. They allowed 24 points or less three times, although funnily enough all of those times were losses. That being said, they only allowed 40 or more points in 4 games, the worst being 56 points allowed. This team still managed to go 4-12, but all of its wins were when the defense allowed between 25-35 points.
S34 COL (34.8 pag, 556 points allowed)
This Colorado team went 2-14, but absolutely had the defense to go 0-16. They only gave up 24 points twice, never giving up less than that, it's just that their offense scored 40+ in both of those games. That being said, their defense did prevent teams from running up the score on them too much, only allowing 40+ in 4 games with a max of 55.
S35 HON (17.4 pag, 278 points allowed)
It's been close to a decade of seasons since the last all time great defense. This HON team finally added to the total by giving up over 20 points on only 5 occasions, and even managed to boast a winning record over those 5 games. They kept teams to 10 or less 4 times, and got the 1st overall seed as a result of their 13-3 record. They won the conference championship 26-20 over Arizona, and the Ultimus 24-13 over the Hawks. Honestly, the most impressive part of this season was just how great the offenses around the league were; one team scored 19.6 points per game, but the 4th lowest scoring team in the league scored 24.9 points per game, and while there weren't many great offenses the Hahalua were still able to at least somewhat shut them down most of the time, only giving up a lot of points once, in a 37-13 loss to Sarasota.
S35 COL (36.6 pag, 585 points allowed)
I'm going to make the educated guess at this point in the project that Colorado has allowed more points than anyone else in league history and that they probably have the worst points per game allowed mark as well. Colorado gave up less than 24 points in 3 games, their only 3 wins in this 3-13 season, and gave up 40 or more points 8 times. Granted, the max was only 52 and that was the only time they gave up 50, so their ceiling as a bad defense wasn't quite as high as some others that we've seen over the years, but this still remains one of the worst defenses of all time.
S36 BER (36.8 pag, 588 points allowed)
A team one field goal worse than last year's Colorado team on the entire season, Berlin was remarkably similar, only losing one more game for a 2-14 season. They gave up 24 or less 3 times, only winning one of those. They gave up 40 or more points in 6 games overall, all of which came in the final 8 games of the season. Their particularly shameful performance came against a 5-11 Yeti team who averaged 22.3 points per season against teams who weren't Berlin and 51 points in their two Berlin games. They gave up 65 points in a single Week 14 game to a team who was mediocre at best on offense even COUNTING their Berlin games.
S38 HON (34.6 pag, 553 points allowed)
It's always weird to look at this team and say that they should definitely have been a significantly worse team than they already were, as an 0-16 team and one of the worst defenses of all time, but that's just how bad this team was in terms of TPE. In terms of performance, they allowed 24 or less points in a single game, but they only allowed over 40 points in 4 games, only one of which was over 50 (58 points allowed in that one). All in all, this looks like a team who only barely made the list and a team who was a little unfortunate to not win a single game, considering the plethora of worse defenses who were at least able to do that. If you know anything about how this team was constructed, you know just how incorrect that actually is.
S39 YKW (13.8 pag, 221 points allowed)
This is the gold standard for a defense that wasn't cheating. By far the least points allowed in the 16 game era, the closest team still being 4 touchdowns worse, this Yellowknife team pulled off things that I'm guessing no team has ever deserved to, such as shutting out teams in 3 consecutive weeks. Overall, the Wraiths went 13-3, only allowed more than 20 points twice all season, and allowed 10 or less points 7 times, including the 3 straight shutouts mentioned above. That total allowing 10 or less matches S9 NOLA and surpasses both S3 and S4 AZ! This, even counting S3 AZ, is arguably the best defense ever. As such, they proceeded to win their playoff games, 48-27 over the Butchers and 34-6 over the Outlaws, to win the franchise's 5th and most recent Ultimus.
S39 HON (37.2 pag, 596 points allowed)
Meanwhile, this Honolulu team that was almost definitely a better team in terms of defense and roster quality as a whole than S37 was over 40 points worse. This team is most notable for what they didn't do, holding teams to 24 or less only once all season, which wasn't even one of their 3 wins on the season. They gave up 40 or more 6 times, with their absolute worst performance being a 52 point loss. When Honolulu sends out a bad team, they send out a really, really bad team.
S40 AZ (15.6 pag, 249 points allowed)
While there's arguments for and against which of S40 Arizona and S39 Yellowknife are better, there isn't an argument which has the better D. That's not a slight against Arizona here, they gave up over 20 points in 2 games all season, their only 2 losses in the 14-2 regular season that I believe currently holds the record for most wins in a regular season for a championship winning team. They only allowed 10 or less twice, but the strength of this team was very much its consistent low points against total, 10 of their games involved them allowing between 13-17 points, a total that this team was very much able to beat by significant margins. In the playoffs, Arizona swept away its competition cleanly, winning 37-17 over Orange County and 45-21 over Yellowknife.
S41 NOLA (35.6 pag, 570 points allowed)
The only NOLA team who performed bad enough to actually be one of the worst teams of all time during their 3 season streak of 1 win seasons, S41 NOLA is most notable for how little points they gave up in their single best performance of the season, a 10-14 loss to Arizona. They gave up 24 or less points 3 separate times, gave up 40 or more 7 times, and otherwise were a bit of a run of the mill bad defense.
S42 CHI (36.7 pag, 587 points allowed)
Somewhat hilariously, the worst defense in a stretch absolutely not remembered for how bad Chicago was, was a Chicago defense. And even had the league's DPOY, which I now question in hindsight. This Butchers team went 4-12, allowed 24 or less only 3 times, and allowed 40 or more 8 times including a 48-42 win over Cape Town. As far as I know, this is the only team to make the list for negative reasons to have a DPOY (the only other guy listed as having a DPOY on a team on this list was Alex Selich for the S14 Outlaws, who apparently was actually on Yellowknife), and that's easily the most interesting thing about this team. I can't tell if that makes Joe Reed's performance this year more or less impressive.
S44 HON (16.7 pag, 267 points allowed)
After a few seasons where there was no all time great D, Honolulu stepped back up in their swan song return to the Ultimus season to add on to this list. They gave up more than 20 on 5 different occasions, and gave up 10 or less on 5 occasions as well. They went 12-4 for the top seed in the conference, although not the top seed overall, and their defense...well, it performed in the Conference Championship game. Winning 19-16, the D picked up the Offense on a day where it absolutely did not perform. The Ultimus was very different, as the Crash scored a total of 36 points on the day. Thankfully for Honolulu, they scored 43 to win the franchise's 4th Ultimus. Still, a bit of a collapse from the D.
S44 NOLA (35.4 pag, 567 points allowed)
NOLA had another season after the more famous 3 where they actually performed worse. As a matter of fact, this team's D was only a field goal worse than their S41 D. Overall, they held teams to 24 points or less three times, including 2 of their 3 wins on the season. They allowed over 40 points 5 times, although 2 of those times were over 50 points. The most they gave up was 59 to the Hahalua, although the strangest was undoubtedly giving up 57 to a Fire Salamanders team who barely averaged over 25.
S48 CTC (14.5 pag, 189 points allowed) (currently 3 games remaining)
After a few seasons where we haven't seen any particularly great or terrible defense (although last season's Hahalua came very close), we come to the current season, where the Crash are poised to etch their name into the positive side of the list for the first time as a franchise. So far, through 13 games, the Crash have allowed over 20 points 3 times, including a 45 point shellacking by the Hawks, and allowed 10 or less 7 times. If they allow 10 or less points one more time, that should be a new record, and if they do it twice they'll have a better ratio than even the S9 Second Line! If they get 1 they merely tie on ratio. They definitely could get that record; them allowing 10 or less against the Sailfish at home isn't impossible, although it's very unlikely, and them allowing 10 or less against the Yeti seems much, much more likely. To put hard numbers to the stats they're chasing, with 3 games remaining they need to allow 31 or less points in those games to overtake the Wraiths for the best defense in a 16 game season, and they'd need an astronomically unlikely 3 straight shutouts to overtake the S3 Outlaws for the best defense ever. Technically they have 1 point of leeway but I doubt that the sim even knows that a 1 point safety on a point after try is even possible, much less that ever happening. The Crash are currently 10-3, and in 2nd place in the conference. For them to fall out of this grouping entirely, they'd need to really collapse; they'd have to give up 99 points in the next 3 games, an average of 33 points per game. One of their 3 opponents remaining hasn't even reached 33 points scored all season!
S48 COL (38.5 pag, 501 points allowed) (currently 3 games remaining)
Both of these last two teams are a bit different as the season is still currently ongoing. So far, the Yeti are 0-13, probably favored to go winless for the 3rd time in their history, and have not allowed 24 or less points all season; the lowest they've allowed was 27 to the Butchers. They've allowed 40 or more 7 times so far, and are thus unable to have a worse percentage of times giving up 40 or more than S8 San Jose. That being said, they could take the lead in number of games if they give up over 40 every game for the rest of the season. If they don't give up 24 or less in their next 3 games, that's also likely a record. Even S39 HON did it once!
There are a few, much harder to reach now, totals that Colorado could technically challenge for if New Orleans does everyone a solid and wins this next game while scoring well over 50 points. First off, the Most Points Allowed ever is Baltimore's 618; for Colorado to tie that they'd need to average 39 points allowed over the next 3 games, one more point would give them the most ever. How about worst ever Defense? That'd require 44 points allowed per game. For them to get out of this group entirely and allow less than 34 points per game? Well, it's technically possible, they have 42 points of leeway.
We may see history over these next few games.
The Cape Town Crash, currently 2nd in the conference on tiebreaker, boast a 14.5 points allowed per game total, and the Colorado Yeti, who have already clinched the 1st overall pick, are stuck at a gargantuan 38.5 points allowed per game.
I wanted to see how the Crash compared all time, as I've been keeping track of where the Yeti wind up, but I also wanted to see what some of the other worst defenses of all time. What follows is every team who allowed over 34 points per game, and every team who allowed under 18.
S1 YKW (16.1 pag, 225 points allowed)
S2 OCO (15.6 pag, 219 points allowed)
S2 COL (15.4 pag, 216 points allowed)
S1 AZ (14.6 pag, 204 points allowed)
S1 OCO (14.0 pag, 196 points allowed)
S2 AZ (12.5 pag, 175 points allowed)
These six teams are getting left to the side, as looking like an all time great defense in the first two seasons of ISFL history...is extremely easy to the point it feels like cheating. The best offense in S1 scored under 20 points per game, half the teams in the league scored under 18 points, and as seen half the league was able to boast a defense that would look amazing shortly, but was very pedestrian back then. Meanwhile, S2 was slightly better, league leader Arizona boasted an actual points scored stat at 26.4 that's better than 8 teams in the current ISFL, but even 2nd place Yellowknife with a 21.4 points per game is worse than the 2nd lowest scoring team in today's league. 6/8 teams scored under 20, 3/8 scored under 18, and as a result more teams reached under 18 points per game in these two seasons than any other ISFL season, and the worst of these defenses wasn't even close to going over that metric.
Going deeper, S1 and S2 Arizona were, as is well known, both cheating (not sure if there was any defensive cheating for S1) and league champions, beating S1 and S2 OCO in the playoffs in the process. S1 Yellowknife lost at S1 COL 13-6, and S2 COL didn't actually make the playoffs, losing out on tiebreakers.
S3 AZ (11.9 pag, 166 points allowed)
S3 saw an explosion of offense around the league; only 2 teams scored less than 20 points per game, and while both the Legion and Yeti were absolutely godawful offenses who scored less than 15 per game, they were only 4 out of 14 games on the schedule. Still, there's an argument that this defense isn't quite as good as it looks; every team who wasn't Orange County or Arizona still averaged below 25, and Arizona obviously didn't need to play themselves, and of course were also cheating. But this is by far the best defense in league history from a points allowed perspective. Not counting themselves from S2 for the reasons explained above, the only team even within 2 points of them is much, much later. And that's 2 points, 1/6th of the entire points allowed for this team. They gave up more than 20 points only 3 times over the season, gave up 10 or less 6 times, and cakewalked to victory in the playoffs. If this isn't the best defense in league history, it's close, or you're discounting it for cheating reasons which is perfectly justifiable.
S4 OCO (17.0 pag, 238 points allowed)
S4 AZ (14.5 pag, 203 points allowed)
These are a very interesting pair to talk about; this is the last of the cheating Arizona seasons, and while it was absolutely one of their best in terms of talent and overall performance, in terms of defense it was more moderate for this stretch; this is almost entirely down to the fact that other teams could score at this point. The Outlaws gave up more than 20 in 4 games, and gave up 10 or less 6 times. OCO meanwhile gave up more than 20 in 6 games and allowed 10 or less 5 times. The Otters upset Arizona in the playoffs, the first time a road team won a playoff game in league history, and went on to win the Ultimus easily. That being said, this year had two great teams, and two bad teams, one being far worse than the other.
S4 COL (34.4 pag, 482 points allowed)
The first team to allow over 34 points per game in league history is, surprise surprise, Colorado. Granted, part of that came from the league scoring a decent chunk more, but they also gave up a lot of points to the other basement dweller in the Legion. Las Vegas averaged 28.5 points per game in their two wins over Colorado, and 14.75 in their other 12 games. Colorado gave up 24 or less points only once on the season, and gave up over 40 on 5 separate occasions. This was the beginning of one of, if not the single worst, stretch of teams in league history. Colorado finished 1-13.
S6 COL (38.6 pag, 541 points allowed)
The next stretch of seasons was more notable for how bad the bad defenses were than how great the great defenses were. S6 Colorado, in particular, is one of the worst teams of all time and has a defense to match. Funnily enough, they seem to grade out better in one stat, giving up 24 or less points 3 times, but those totals were 24, 24, and 23. It also doesn't matter when they gave up over 40 5 times, and over 60 twice. Just absolutely miserable, the first winless season in league history.
S7 COL (35.8 pag, 501 points allowed)
This season, Colorado was a significantly worse team, but that was due to one of the worst offenses in league history. While nobody would call Colorado's defense good, it was less catastrophe prone than the previous year's. Sure, it only gave up 24 or less once, and it was again only 23 points, but it only gave up over 40 in 4 games and bottomed out at 59 points allowed in a single game, both notable improvements from the previous season. That was not enough to stop Colorado from going winless yet again.
S8 SJS (39.5 pag, 553 points allowed)
By points per game, this is the worst defense of all time. Granted, there are turnovers involved in each of these, so if there were enough pick sixes, safeties, or special teams touchdowns then they might be less bad than some others, but I don't have the time or inclination to go through and take all of those out for all of these teams. Incredibly, this team gave up less than 24 points on 3 separate occasions, including only allowing 12 points. They even won a game, although funnily enough not the game that they allowed only 12 points in. But this team probably owns a record despite being in a 14 game season: most games where they allowed 40 points or more at 9. To tie that record, the Yeti would have to give up 40 points in 2 of their remaining 3 games, and incredibly, even if the Yeti gave up 40 or more in each of their remaining games these Sabercats would still have a worse ratio of games where they gave up 40 points. The best offenses this season averaged 31 points per game. Against the Sabercats, the Otters averaged 41 points over 2 games. The Wraiths averaged 53.5 points.
S9 BAL (17.1 pag, 240 points allowed)
S9 NOLA (14.1 pag, 197 points allowed)
S9 sees the return of all time great defense. Part of that is due to an outsized number of all time terrible offenses, 3 teams under 16 points per game, but we do have multiple great offenses here too, with 3 teams scoring over 30 per game. Not a great offensive year necessarily but not as bad as back in S1 or 2. Starting with the worse team, the Hawks went 11-3, gave up over 20 points 4 times and gave up 10 or less 5 times. In the playoffs, they'd lose to, well, the better defense. S9 NOLA is one of the greatest teams ever seen on the field, if not the single greatest, and while their defense isn't quite as jawdropping as S3 AZ it's certainly close. Going 12-2, they gave up 20 or more points on 3 separate occasions, and gave up 10 or less 7 out of their 14 total games on the season. Honestly, the fact that they gave up over 20 points in both of their playoff games feels like a bit of a disappointment for this outfit.
S9 PHI (34.4 pag, 481 points allowed)
In these Liberty we have more of a run of the mill all time bad defense than what the last few were; the Liberty even won a ton of games this season for a defense this bad, going 4-10. They gave up 24 or less 6 times, 17 being the lowest total, but surpassed that with 7 games where they allowed over 40, including 3 different 50 burgers, topping out at 58.
S12 SJS (17.9 pag, 250 points allowed)
This SJS season barely scrapes by the point per game margin, mainly due to completely collapsing down the stretch; the team went 2-4 in their last 6 to finish the season at 10-4, and gave up more than 20 points half the time during that end of game skid for a total of 4 across the entire season. They only gave up 10 or less 3 times, and lost their first game of the playoffs 35-10 at Orange County.
S12 COL (35.4 pag, 495 points allowed)
This team went 6-8. I cannot quite figure out how; their offense was OK but not great, and they only gave up 24 or less one time all season. They gave up 40 or more 6 times, topping out at 58. They did not make the playoffs, but actually would have if they won their week 13 game. Probably the worst defense to be anywhere NEAR the playoff picture.
S14 SJS (16.6 pag, 233 points allowed)
San Jose, after missing qualification for a year, stormed back and finished the season strong this time. While by record, they were a worse team at 9-5, their defense on the whole was significantly better. They gave up more than 20 in 4 games again, but kept their opponents to 10 or less 4 times, and won their first ring in league history after beating Orange County on the Road and the Liberty at home. In the playoffs, they gave up 17 to OCO and 24 to Philly.
S14 AZ (37.4 pag, 523 points allowed)
I'm surprised I've never looked at this team before. Granted, they won 2 games, their point differential at -21.4 is terrible but not all time bad, but I feel like I could have very easily written about a team with a 10 game loss streak to open the season at some point. They gave up 24 or less on 3 separate occasions, including both of their wins, only gave up 40 or more 5 times (still a lot, but the only team to do that less frequently was S7 COL), but their real claim to fame was their biggest loss: one of the worst games in ISFL history, a 76-7 loss to the Otters. That one game took them singlehandedly from barely qualifying for this list to being the 3rd worst defense in ISFL history up to that point.
S18 OCO (17.9 ppg, 233 points allowed)
Now we're into the 13 game seasons, which is why this points allowed total barely qualifies. That being said, this was a season where no offense outside of San Jose was terrible, and Orange County generally kept teams in check. They gave up over 20 on 6 occasions, but kept teams to 10 or less on 4. They went 10-3 overall. In the playoffs, OCO won 21-16 over Arizona and 16-10 over Yellowknife for yet another ring.
S21 OCO (17.7 ppg, 230 points allowed)
Yet again, OCO brings one of the better defenses ever to the table. This year had no great offenses, but no offenses averaged less than 20 per game. OCO overall went 10-3 again, gave up more than 20 in 3 games (including a win) but only gave up 10 or less on one occasion. This was a defense without many highs or really any lows, the most points they allowed in a game was 27. This took Orange County to the top of the conference yet again, although this time they could not win a ring, losing 27-24 in OT to NOLA.
S22 COL (16.0 ppg, 208 points allowed)
S22 YKW (15.1 ppg, 196 points allowed)
These are two I almost want to disqualify; S22 might be the single most watered down, weak year for offense since the first few seasons in ISFL history. Half the teams in the league averaged under 20 points per game, only the Wraiths averaged over 30, the 4th best offense in the league only averaged 22.2, this year had 2 different bad expansion teams and the worst offense in ISFL history...
For example, Colorado would still have a great D, but it would miss the cutoff by over half a point except for the fact that they went against S22 Chicago and allowed only 3 points in their two appearances. Yellowknife was better on that front, they gave up 14 to Chicago in their 2 games and would still be well under 18 points allowed per game not counting those games, but this is one of the weakest defensive schedules of all time. Colorado got to play 6 of its 13 games against teams who averaged less than 17 points per game, and Yellowknife got to play 7 of their 13 games against that same mark.
Still, for what they did, they were both great. The Yeti gave up more than 20 only 3 times, and gave up 10 or less 4 times (including a loss) on their way to an 8-5 record, while the Wraiths gave up over 20 in 5 different games, and matched that total for games they gave up 10 or less. This led to an 11-2 record, and one of the closest playoff runs we've ever seen a team make...for the Yeti, as they won against an awful Sailfish team 36-14, beat the Wraiths 17-16, and upset the Otters 25-24 to win their first and so far only ring in league history.
Overall these two defenses are probably not quite as good as their point totals show, but I still wanted to cover them if only for the playoff run. As you might expect from a season like this, no defense came even close to qualifying for this list; the Butchers didn't crack 30 points allowed, and the 2nd worst team, the Outlaws, was at 23.5.
S23 COL (17.8 pag, 285 points allowed)
I kind of look at this defense a bit more fondly than the previous Yeti one; for one we're now into the 16 game season, so 2 games against a team as bad as the S22 butchers isn't anywhere near as much of a swing for your point differential. For two, no team came anywhere near that S22 butchers team, and less teams overall were bad. Overall, the Yeti gave up more than 20 points 6 times, and gave up 10 or less 6 times as well, including a 6-3 loss I absolutely have to mention here. In the playoffs, they won their first game 32-25 over the Liberty, but lost 10-13 against the Wraiths.
S24 OCO (17.4 pag, 278 points allowed)
For the first time in a while, we have an OCO team listed where they weren't a powerhouse, indeed this team was even the 2 seed. At 9-7, this might be the worst team by record out of any of the best defenses ever. Overall, they gave up more than 20 on 6 separate occasions, and held teams to 10 or less 5 times, including a 7-3 loss. In the playoffs, they won their first game 31-21 over the Second Line, but lost their second game 3-17 against the meme team to end all meme teams, the Sabercats.
S27 CHI (17.3 pag, 276 points allowed)
A fractionally better defense by points than OCO a few years prior, Chicago marks the turn into the New Sim Era. That being said, this was a team who was absolutely catapulted into this section via the efforts of one particularly bad team in S27 Baltimore, giving up only 7 points in those two games combined. This team still could lock up teams that weren't the Hawks, though; they gave up over 20 points 6 times and gave up 10 or less 5 times, including an 8-5 loss that I'm guessing is the single one of its kind in ISFL history. This team kinda got screwed by the dumb playoff system, in that I'm pretty sure as a 12-4 team with the best point differential in the conference they should have been the 1 seed; instead they lost out on the 1 seed because points scored matters more in this dumb sim, and ended up losing in the first round 24-19 to the Yeti.
S27 BAL (38.6 pag, 618 points allowed)
The current record holders for Most Points Allowed in a season, S27 Baltimore might not be quite as bad as the S8 Sabercats but not for a lack of trying. They gave up 24 or less points only twice on the season, and tie the aforementioned Sabercats in giving up 40 or more points on 9 separate occasions. That being said, they did hold back teams from running up the score on them too much; the most any team scored against them was 51. These Hawks went 0-16 and were one of the worst teams to ever grace this sim. Heck, their best defensive game was still a loss by 20 points as they were shut out.
S28 BAL (34.9 pag, 559 points allowed)
So let's cover them again! A slightly better team, this Baltimore squad managed to only go 2-14, and just generally be less embarrassing on the whole. They gave up 24 or less points on 3 separate occasions, including both of their wins, and only allowed 40 or more 7 times over the course of the season. They only had 50 scored on them once (52) compared to the 3 times for S27 Baltimore, and held a team to 10 points once. Still, even as it was a massive improvement from the previous season, it remained one of the worst defenses in ISFL history.
S31 BAL (34.0 pag, 544 points allowed)
Just barely qualifying for this list, S31 was a far cry from the absolute nadir of the Hawks franchise back in S27-28. That being said, this defense wasn't that far off. They allowed 24 points or less three times, although funnily enough all of those times were losses. That being said, they only allowed 40 or more points in 4 games, the worst being 56 points allowed. This team still managed to go 4-12, but all of its wins were when the defense allowed between 25-35 points.
S34 COL (34.8 pag, 556 points allowed)
This Colorado team went 2-14, but absolutely had the defense to go 0-16. They only gave up 24 points twice, never giving up less than that, it's just that their offense scored 40+ in both of those games. That being said, their defense did prevent teams from running up the score on them too much, only allowing 40+ in 4 games with a max of 55.
S35 HON (17.4 pag, 278 points allowed)
It's been close to a decade of seasons since the last all time great defense. This HON team finally added to the total by giving up over 20 points on only 5 occasions, and even managed to boast a winning record over those 5 games. They kept teams to 10 or less 4 times, and got the 1st overall seed as a result of their 13-3 record. They won the conference championship 26-20 over Arizona, and the Ultimus 24-13 over the Hawks. Honestly, the most impressive part of this season was just how great the offenses around the league were; one team scored 19.6 points per game, but the 4th lowest scoring team in the league scored 24.9 points per game, and while there weren't many great offenses the Hahalua were still able to at least somewhat shut them down most of the time, only giving up a lot of points once, in a 37-13 loss to Sarasota.
S35 COL (36.6 pag, 585 points allowed)
I'm going to make the educated guess at this point in the project that Colorado has allowed more points than anyone else in league history and that they probably have the worst points per game allowed mark as well. Colorado gave up less than 24 points in 3 games, their only 3 wins in this 3-13 season, and gave up 40 or more points 8 times. Granted, the max was only 52 and that was the only time they gave up 50, so their ceiling as a bad defense wasn't quite as high as some others that we've seen over the years, but this still remains one of the worst defenses of all time.
S36 BER (36.8 pag, 588 points allowed)
A team one field goal worse than last year's Colorado team on the entire season, Berlin was remarkably similar, only losing one more game for a 2-14 season. They gave up 24 or less 3 times, only winning one of those. They gave up 40 or more points in 6 games overall, all of which came in the final 8 games of the season. Their particularly shameful performance came against a 5-11 Yeti team who averaged 22.3 points per season against teams who weren't Berlin and 51 points in their two Berlin games. They gave up 65 points in a single Week 14 game to a team who was mediocre at best on offense even COUNTING their Berlin games.
S38 HON (34.6 pag, 553 points allowed)
It's always weird to look at this team and say that they should definitely have been a significantly worse team than they already were, as an 0-16 team and one of the worst defenses of all time, but that's just how bad this team was in terms of TPE. In terms of performance, they allowed 24 or less points in a single game, but they only allowed over 40 points in 4 games, only one of which was over 50 (58 points allowed in that one). All in all, this looks like a team who only barely made the list and a team who was a little unfortunate to not win a single game, considering the plethora of worse defenses who were at least able to do that. If you know anything about how this team was constructed, you know just how incorrect that actually is.
S39 YKW (13.8 pag, 221 points allowed)
This is the gold standard for a defense that wasn't cheating. By far the least points allowed in the 16 game era, the closest team still being 4 touchdowns worse, this Yellowknife team pulled off things that I'm guessing no team has ever deserved to, such as shutting out teams in 3 consecutive weeks. Overall, the Wraiths went 13-3, only allowed more than 20 points twice all season, and allowed 10 or less points 7 times, including the 3 straight shutouts mentioned above. That total allowing 10 or less matches S9 NOLA and surpasses both S3 and S4 AZ! This, even counting S3 AZ, is arguably the best defense ever. As such, they proceeded to win their playoff games, 48-27 over the Butchers and 34-6 over the Outlaws, to win the franchise's 5th and most recent Ultimus.
S39 HON (37.2 pag, 596 points allowed)
Meanwhile, this Honolulu team that was almost definitely a better team in terms of defense and roster quality as a whole than S37 was over 40 points worse. This team is most notable for what they didn't do, holding teams to 24 or less only once all season, which wasn't even one of their 3 wins on the season. They gave up 40 or more 6 times, with their absolute worst performance being a 52 point loss. When Honolulu sends out a bad team, they send out a really, really bad team.
S40 AZ (15.6 pag, 249 points allowed)
While there's arguments for and against which of S40 Arizona and S39 Yellowknife are better, there isn't an argument which has the better D. That's not a slight against Arizona here, they gave up over 20 points in 2 games all season, their only 2 losses in the 14-2 regular season that I believe currently holds the record for most wins in a regular season for a championship winning team. They only allowed 10 or less twice, but the strength of this team was very much its consistent low points against total, 10 of their games involved them allowing between 13-17 points, a total that this team was very much able to beat by significant margins. In the playoffs, Arizona swept away its competition cleanly, winning 37-17 over Orange County and 45-21 over Yellowknife.
S41 NOLA (35.6 pag, 570 points allowed)
The only NOLA team who performed bad enough to actually be one of the worst teams of all time during their 3 season streak of 1 win seasons, S41 NOLA is most notable for how little points they gave up in their single best performance of the season, a 10-14 loss to Arizona. They gave up 24 or less points 3 separate times, gave up 40 or more 7 times, and otherwise were a bit of a run of the mill bad defense.
S42 CHI (36.7 pag, 587 points allowed)
Somewhat hilariously, the worst defense in a stretch absolutely not remembered for how bad Chicago was, was a Chicago defense. And even had the league's DPOY, which I now question in hindsight. This Butchers team went 4-12, allowed 24 or less only 3 times, and allowed 40 or more 8 times including a 48-42 win over Cape Town. As far as I know, this is the only team to make the list for negative reasons to have a DPOY (the only other guy listed as having a DPOY on a team on this list was Alex Selich for the S14 Outlaws, who apparently was actually on Yellowknife), and that's easily the most interesting thing about this team. I can't tell if that makes Joe Reed's performance this year more or less impressive.
S44 HON (16.7 pag, 267 points allowed)
After a few seasons where there was no all time great D, Honolulu stepped back up in their swan song return to the Ultimus season to add on to this list. They gave up more than 20 on 5 different occasions, and gave up 10 or less on 5 occasions as well. They went 12-4 for the top seed in the conference, although not the top seed overall, and their defense...well, it performed in the Conference Championship game. Winning 19-16, the D picked up the Offense on a day where it absolutely did not perform. The Ultimus was very different, as the Crash scored a total of 36 points on the day. Thankfully for Honolulu, they scored 43 to win the franchise's 4th Ultimus. Still, a bit of a collapse from the D.
S44 NOLA (35.4 pag, 567 points allowed)
NOLA had another season after the more famous 3 where they actually performed worse. As a matter of fact, this team's D was only a field goal worse than their S41 D. Overall, they held teams to 24 points or less three times, including 2 of their 3 wins on the season. They allowed over 40 points 5 times, although 2 of those times were over 50 points. The most they gave up was 59 to the Hahalua, although the strangest was undoubtedly giving up 57 to a Fire Salamanders team who barely averaged over 25.
S48 CTC (14.5 pag, 189 points allowed) (currently 3 games remaining)
After a few seasons where we haven't seen any particularly great or terrible defense (although last season's Hahalua came very close), we come to the current season, where the Crash are poised to etch their name into the positive side of the list for the first time as a franchise. So far, through 13 games, the Crash have allowed over 20 points 3 times, including a 45 point shellacking by the Hawks, and allowed 10 or less 7 times. If they allow 10 or less points one more time, that should be a new record, and if they do it twice they'll have a better ratio than even the S9 Second Line! If they get 1 they merely tie on ratio. They definitely could get that record; them allowing 10 or less against the Sailfish at home isn't impossible, although it's very unlikely, and them allowing 10 or less against the Yeti seems much, much more likely. To put hard numbers to the stats they're chasing, with 3 games remaining they need to allow 31 or less points in those games to overtake the Wraiths for the best defense in a 16 game season, and they'd need an astronomically unlikely 3 straight shutouts to overtake the S3 Outlaws for the best defense ever. Technically they have 1 point of leeway but I doubt that the sim even knows that a 1 point safety on a point after try is even possible, much less that ever happening. The Crash are currently 10-3, and in 2nd place in the conference. For them to fall out of this grouping entirely, they'd need to really collapse; they'd have to give up 99 points in the next 3 games, an average of 33 points per game. One of their 3 opponents remaining hasn't even reached 33 points scored all season!
S48 COL (38.5 pag, 501 points allowed) (currently 3 games remaining)
Both of these last two teams are a bit different as the season is still currently ongoing. So far, the Yeti are 0-13, probably favored to go winless for the 3rd time in their history, and have not allowed 24 or less points all season; the lowest they've allowed was 27 to the Butchers. They've allowed 40 or more 7 times so far, and are thus unable to have a worse percentage of times giving up 40 or more than S8 San Jose. That being said, they could take the lead in number of games if they give up over 40 every game for the rest of the season. If they don't give up 24 or less in their next 3 games, that's also likely a record. Even S39 HON did it once!
There are a few, much harder to reach now, totals that Colorado could technically challenge for if New Orleans does everyone a solid and wins this next game while scoring well over 50 points. First off, the Most Points Allowed ever is Baltimore's 618; for Colorado to tie that they'd need to average 39 points allowed over the next 3 games, one more point would give them the most ever. How about worst ever Defense? That'd require 44 points allowed per game. For them to get out of this group entirely and allow less than 34 points per game? Well, it's technically possible, they have 42 points of leeway.
We may see history over these next few games.