UGAChemDawg, I think you're forgetting the fact that Florida can't stop anyone either. Ole Miss did score 31 on them.
Kentucky only scored 5, yes, but that's because they can't score on anyone. They scored 27 on Louisville, who's got no defense (as we learned last year), 17 on SCarolina in a loss, 14 on Alabama in a loss, and 21 on Arkansas, whose opponents average 32 points against them, win or lose.
The rest of the Gators' schedule ain't great, either. I know your argument is always, \"Well, who have we played yet?\" but Florida hasn't played anyone either. They defeated Hawai'i, Miami (who we've found out is no one this year), Tennessee (ibid.), Arkansas (getting repetitive here), LSU, and Kentucky. We did the same thing to LSU that they did, actually one point better.
What I'm looking at is quality of loss. They lost to Ole Miss. We lost to the number two team in the country. Florida has defeated exactly one ranked team all year. We've defeated two. We lost to a ranked team. Florida lost to an unranked team, a team who's lost to Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina.
This isn't an elite defense, no. But neither is Florida's. If you look at the last three times we've beaten Florida, it's always been a who-can-outscore-whom-first game. 1997: 37-17. 2004: 31-24. 2007: 42-30.
Under Mark Richt, games we've lost have been low-scoring affairs. 2001: 24-10. 2002: 20-13. 2003: 16-13. 2005: 14-10. 2006: 21-14. I don't see either of these offenses scoring less than 24 in this game, do you?
Look, I don't know who's going to win this year. I knew we were going to beat Florida last year, knew it from the second the 2006 game was a final. I knew we were going to beat Tennessee this year. I knew we'd beat LSU in the 2005 title game. I don't know if we'll beat Florida. But there's no reason for doom and gloom. It's a push at this point. But I'll tell you: we've played better competition, and we've come out on top.
When you're looking at the LSU game, by the way, please remember that, after the score was 24-17, LSU was never close again. All of their points after that were scored in garbage time, after we had at least a 14-point lead. Not that our boys should ever relax on D, but they may have and they could afford it.
\"Dawgs on top! We were gone! We were out of it and gone! I gave up, you did too. Miracle!\"
- Larry Munson, Jacksonville FL, 1980
Red and Black, Win or Lose