BCS title game: Florida offense vs. Oklahoma defense
By pure numbers alone, the Florida Gators offense has not quite matched the Oklahoma Sooners, but it’s still pretty impressive.
The Gators have averaged 49.4 points during their nine-game winning streak, and nobody has come within single digits since that surprising home loss to Ole Miss (the same Ole Miss that routed Big 12 South co-champ Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl). And the Gators are 4.5-point favorites on WagerWeb.com for the national championship game.
UF quarterback Tim Tebow’s numbers aren’t huge: throwing for 2,515 yards, 28 touchdowns and just two interceptions to go with a 176.7 rating — second in the country behind OU’s Sam Bradford.
But Tebow’s leadership after the Ole Miss loss is credited with getting the Gators to where they are. And he took over in the fourth quarter of the SEC title game against Alabama.
But the overlooked aspect of Florida’s offense is the running game. UF They finished the regular season with the nation’s 11th-ranked rushing offense, averaging 229.8 yards per game, and they did it with five different players gaining at least 400 yards. The Gators rushed the ball 501 times this year. They threw it 299.
While Tebow carried a team-high 154 times for 564 yards and 12 touchdowns, Chris Rainey led the team with 655 yards on 83 attempts (7.9 yards per carry), followed by Jeff Demps’ 582 yards on 69 carries (8.4). Star receiver Percy Harvin, who missed two games but will play Thursday, rushed 61 times for 538 yards (8.8), while USC transfer Emmanuel Moody gained 417 yards on 57 carries (7.3).
Only two teams, Oregon and Nevada, average more yards per rushing attempt than the Gators (6.0).
Oklahoma (+170 on the WagerWeb.com money line) gives up 24.5 points a game, the highest average ever for a school seeking a BCS crown. And they allow opponents an average of 359 yards a game, ranking 63rd nationally.
Florida coach Urban Meyer said that OU’s stats are skewed by the fact the Sooners blew out most of their opponents. Eight of the 32 rushing or passing touchdowns scored against Oklahoma this season were scored in the fourth quarter of comfortable Sooner victories. Four were scored in the final minute.
“They’re just beating the mess out of teams and you get to the third and fourth quarter, and you can take all the statistical analysis out of it from there,” Meyer said.
OU faced plenty of high-powered offenses in the Big 12, but those were mostly pass-heavy. The Sooners more than held their own against nine of the 50 best scoring teams.
Seven scored a combined 87.5 points below their average or more than 12 points per game less. Only two exceeded their averages against Oklahoma. Averaging 43.9, Texas scored 45 in the Sooners’ lone loss. Averaging 34.9, Kansas State scored 35 and lost by 23.
The over/under for the title game is 69.5 on WagerWeb.com.
On the ground, OU allowed 1,823 yards, an average of 106 per game on the ground. Opposing backs are picking up 3.2 yards per carry. And the Sooners get back defensive linemen Alan Davis and Auston English from injury.
Oklahoma also leads the nation in turnover margin, just ahead of Florida, and ranks third in sacks per game.
“I love the fact we’re underdogs,” Oklahoma linebacker Travis Lewis said. “I love the fact people expect us to just lay down to these guys. . . . You get tired about people dissing on our defense, like everybody is. We’re going to show up, I guarantee you that. We would like to think that they’re going to score zero. We do have a defense and we’re going to prove it.”
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