Ugly

A friend of mine, who I usually think to be a sober observer of college football and the Gators in particular, and I are debating how close (or not) Saturday’s game really was.

He says, and I quote, “That game was not that much different than 2008. Had Hernandez caught the ball on the 3, we go into ½ time down 19-17.”

True, but it was still a total beatdown. Take a look at the box comparisons between this year’s game and last –
























Of course it is the time of possession that really leaps off the page with almost an exact 2 to 1 ratio. Florida’s offense simply wasn’t on the field much, because we couldn’t get Alabama off the field.

Alabama ran 71 plays on offense to our 49, while 53 of ‘Bama’s snaps were clock killing rushing plays. Last year Alabama ran 53 offensive plays total, and Florida had 64.

Last year the Tide converted only 5 of 12 third down chances (41.7%). This year they converted on a deadly 11 of 15 tries, or 73.3%.



That this game was close at all through halftime was a miracle.

Still don’t believe it was a monumental beatdown? Well, let's compare the box from this year to another epic whuppin’ of historic importance –
























Team “A” was, obviously, the blowout victim here. Notably the teams had the identical number of first downs as occurred in this SEC Championship. Both teams had slightly less total yardage than did their comparative numbers here in Florida and Alabama (the percentages of total yards are nearly the same – 40.6% to 59.4% in the 2009 SEC Championship, and 39.9% to 60.2% in our mystery game).

Alabama had 163 more rushing yards than Florida, while Team B had 123 more than Team A. Passing yardage was similar in both cases.

Time of possession was also vastly in favor of the winning team, with Alabama having 3:10 more than our mystery winner in Team B.

The final score of the mystery game – 52-20 in favor of Team “B”.

That’s right – that’s the box for the 1997 Sugar Bowl of Florida over FSU.

I’ll let that settle in.