Florida Gator Football Message Boards

Looks like a quick scan of those message boards their fans have the collective mindset of a certain donkey on the feelings of their chances on this coming bowl game...

Florida passing game
Receivers in order of completions:
Henderson-out
Pearson-probable Lower Body
Shorter-out
Zipper-TE-questionable
Johnson-RB-good
Reynolds-out Portal (number 1 receiver last two games)
Looks a bit shaky on passing game…could be interesting

Oh, don’t kid yourself. There’s one in every crowd.

We got pushed around in our last bowl game. I'm taking nothing for granted.

Oregon was ranked first in rush defense in the Pac-12 before the game started?  You're talking about YPG, I'm guessing?

The Great Oregon Civil War was Oregon State's best running game on the year.  It might be possible to replicate, but Florida would have to do worse than the other 11 opponents.  Plus, the Ducks' defense seemed easy to run on based on scheme alone.  Oregon seemed to run a bend but don't break defense all year and seemed ripe for someone just to take the 6-7 yards per play on the ground, rather than trying to throw into a much better pass defense.  

Washington, with the Pac-12's actual best statistical rushing defense, did a great job on Oregon State. 

Oregon State did not play Pac-12 #2 UCLA. 

Wazzu had the third-best rush defense and did even better against the run than Washington, but did not have the offense to take advantage of holding Oregon State to 24 points. 

Utah had the fourth-best rush defense and crushed Oregon State's rush offense with only a slightly worse defensive outing against the run than Washington. 

Oregon State had the fifth-best rush defense in the Pac-12. 

California had the sixth-best rush defense and did the best job against Oregon State of any team, again holding the offense to 31 total points.  Anthony Gould tacked on a 55-yard punt return for a touchdown.  The defense held California to three points, the only other points coming on a fumble return.  The Bears only ran 50 plays and only totaled 156 total yards with Oregon State holding the ball for an additional 13:16 (almost a whole quarter!) than the California offense.

Statistically, Florida has a rush defense between Fresno and USC.  USC did the fifth-worst against Oregon State and Fresno State did the sixth-worst, basically the most average result against Oregon State.

Even though USC did the fifth-worst, the Trojans held Oregon State to the fewest yards.  The reason?  Oregon State dialed up 30 pass plays, which is tied for the second-most tied with the Montana State game and one behind the Utah game.  I believe that the Trojans game was the only game that run:pass was 50:50 or where there were more pass plays than runs. 

Did the Trojans really take the Beavers out of their offense, or was USC really packing the box to stop the run?  Very uncharacteristic game for Oregon State. 

And the Gators' defense is even better against the run than the Trojans' defense and better against the pass, too. 

I don't doubt that Florida can shut down the run.  The Gators are a very talented team on pretty much all sides of the ball with the probable exception of the passing game.  Florida's running game still worries me.

I have not made my whole way through this, but a YouTube analysis from a Gator perspective.....


Go Beavers!