Florida Defense through this season

Much is being made about Florida's defense and rightly so. I did some quick looking through cfbstats.com to see if there was any rhyme or reason (or hope) in their stats:

2012 Florida Gators Scoring Defense Game Log through 10/20/2012

showing opponent offensive national scoring ranking

Date	Opponent	Rank	Result	TD	FG	1XP	2XP	Saf	Points
09/01/12	Bowling Green	94	W 27-14	2	0	2	0	0	14
09/08/12	@ 22 Texas A&M	9	W 20-17	2	1	2	0	0	17
09/15/12	@ Tennessee	37	W 37-20	3	0	2	0	0	20
09/22/12	Kentucky	111	W 38-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10/06/12	6 LSU	51	W 14-6	0	2	0	0	0	6
10/13/12	@ Vanderbilt	108	W 31-17	2	1	2	0	0	17
10/20/12	17 South Carolina	48	W 44-11	0	3	0	1	0	11
	Totals			9	7	8	1	0	85

Nothing discernible here, except holding the number 9 scoring offense in the nation to 17 points. It should be noted that TAMU's stats are padded by hanging 70 on South Carolina State and also facing Arkansas (90th in scoring D), SMU (78th in scoring D) and Louisiana Tech (114th in scoring D).

2012 Florida Gators Passing Defense Game Log through 10/20/2012

showing opponent passer rating rank

Date	Opponent	Rank	Result	Att	Comp	Pct.	Yards	Yards/Att	TD	Int	Rating
09/01/12	Bowling Green	103	W 27-14	52	25	48.1	226	4.3	0	1	80.74
09/08/12	@ 22 Texas A&M	46	W 20-17	31	24	77.4	200	6.5	0	0	131.62
09/15/12	@ Tennessee	50	W 37-20	44	22	50.0	257	5.8	2	2	104.97
09/22/12	Kentucky	105	W 38-0	27	8	29.6	60	2.2	0	3	26.07
10/06/12	6 LSU	112	W 14-6	25	11	44.0	158	6.3	0	1	89.09
10/13/12	@ Vanderbilt	71	W 31-17	31	17	54.8	237	7.6	1	0	129.71
10/20/12	17 South Carolina	29	W 44-11	40	17	42.5	155	3.9	0	1	70.05
	Totals			250	124	49.6	1293	5.2	3	8	90.60

Again, other than shutting down South Carolina's read zone attack, there is nothing here that is illustrative. They have faced one top rated passing attack. They did own Shaw (9 of 20 before getting fired in the second half).

2012 Florida Gators Rushing Defense Game Log through 10/20/2012

showing opponent rushing ypc national rank

Date	Opponent	Rank	Result	Att	Yards	Avg.	TD
09/01/12	Bowling Green	37	W 27-14	27	101	3.74	2
09/08/12	@ 22 Texas A&M	14	W 20-17	38	134	3.53	2
09/15/12	@ Tennessee	48	W 37-20	28	83	2.96	1
09/22/12	Kentucky	80	W 38-0	32	159	4.97	0
10/06/12	6 LSU	31	W 14-6	25	42	1.68	0
10/13/12	@ Vanderbilt	86	W 31-17	47	126	2.68	1
10/20/12	17 South Carolina	85	W 44-11	26	36	1.38	0
	Totals			223	681	3.05	6

Now, this is where I get nervous (but look at their performance against Kentucky.....)

From what I can see, their defense is largely a product of their opponent's ineptitude. That isn't to say they aren't good, they are, and very. That is to say that they can be beaten by using edge rushing (which Vandy did until Florida started to pull away) to set up coverage opportunities in the seams and on back shoulder passes. Texas A&M would have won that game if they had figured out a way to leverage their running backs on the edge after Florida committed to stopping Manziel on runs in the second half.

I'm working on a similar offensive breakdown for the Gators. (Hint: it involves making Driskel do anything other than run the ball.....).
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