Will B.C.’s 2012 defence prove to be the most dominant Lions’ unit in decades?

It's no secret that the B.C. Lions have an impressive defence. They've only conceded 307 points on the year through 16 games (19.2 points per game, by far the best figure in the league), and heading into Friday's game against Edmonton, they led the CFL in 17 of the team statistics tracked weekly by the league. Yes, the Lions' offence has been solid as well, and it was again this week when Mike Reilly and Paul McCallum helped them put up 39 points against the Eskimos, but it's the defence that's fueled this club's run to a league-best 12-4 record and an already-clinched bye to the West Final. What's remarkable, though, is that as Lowell Ullrich writes, this edition of the defence might allow the least points per game of any B.C. club in decades:

It's obviously hard to compare squads across eras, but this would be a pretty impressive mark for the Lions. The CFL game has changed in some ways since 1986, but the point-scoring environment looks reasonably similar. The top-scoring team that year was the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who put up 545 points in 18 games, 30.3 per game. This year's top-scoring team at the moment is the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who have 470 through 16 games, 29.4 per game. In 1986, teams scored an average of 24.0 points per game; in 2012, they're scoring an average of 23.1.

That is a difference, make no mistake, but it's far less of a significant one than say, the first official CFL season in 1958, where teams scored an average of just 18.6 points per game, or the 1963 season where the Lions won their first Grey Cup (teams averaged 19.7 points per game there). Thus, it would be awfully hard to say if the Lions' defence is better than say, their impressive 1963 unit that allowed just 232 points in 16 regular-season games (14.5 per game), as the league-wide offensive environment has changed so much. However, comparisons within the 1986-modern era seem quite reasonable, and while they suggest this defence is dominant, they don't necessarily declare it a clear winner.

The previous top Lions' defensive unit from 1986 on is likely the 2006 Grey Cup-winning squad Ullrich mentions; they allowed the least points, at any rate. That team allowed 19.7 points per game, so the current B.C. squad is already ahead there with their 19.2 mark. Another point in the current B.C. squad's favour is that as good as B.C. was in 2006, allowing just 352 points, Toronto was even better, with 343 allowed. By contrast, the modern Lions are tops in the league in points allowed. However, 2006 was a slightly better point-scoring environment than this year has been; teams averaged 23.3 points then, a little better than the 23.1 they've averaged so far in 2012. It's close enough that there's room for debate over the dominance of the 2006 and 2012 Lions. If B.C. can put up average or better defensive performances in their final two games, though, they'll set a team modern-era record for points allowed. That's certainly a pretty big accomplishment, even if it won't completely settle the debate about how this team stacks up against past Lions' clubs.

Here's the spreadsheet I created to work this post out, for anyone interested in how the point-scoring environments stacked up in 2012, 2006, 1958, 1963 and 1986. Feel free to ask questions via e-mail or Twitter if it doesn't make sense. A bigger version can be found here.