Florida’s season has not gone as planned for Billy Napier and his coaching staff. You can look around at a number of different statistics that would accurately reflect the Gators’ 2-2 (1-1 SEC) record, but the area holding Florida back the most is third downs, both offensively and defensively. The lack of production is alarming.
The Gators convert just 36.8% of their third downs, which ranks 89th in the country. On defense, Florida is allowing 46.6% of third downs, which ranks 112th in the country.
I don’t have to tell anybody this, but you can’t be a successful football team if you can’t get off the field or move the chains.
Florida has actually been a decent offensive team on 1st and 2nd down as they hold the highest early down conversion rate in the SEC, according to SEC Stat Cat. The issue is when they get to third downs, they can’t convert them. Many factors go into this such as negative plays (sacks and penalties) forcing third and longs and play calling on both second and third down.
The Gators rank last in the SEC in yards per play on third down with an average of 3.92 yards. Florida is also the worst passing team in the SEC on third downs, averaging 3.19 yards per pass. Florida’s lack of production on third downs is killing their average plays per game offensively (57.75), which ranks 15th in the SEC, ahead of only Auburn.
The story is similar on defense. The Gators have played good enough on 1st and 2nd down, forcing a total of 58 third downs through four games, well above the FBS average of third downs forced. Buffalo has forced the most third downs in the country with 70, while the next highest team has 67.
Florida has not been able to find a pass rush this season, even with designed blitz packages, which has resulted in quarterbacks picking apart the Gators’ defense on third downs.
There are so many other factors at play when looking at third downs, but if you aren’t having success on offense or defense, you simply won’t have a successful team.