Crunching the Numbers: Florida Gators vs. Vanderbilt Commodores

The Florida Gators scored a season high in points, rushing yards, passing yards, and plays and that is exactly what Gator Nation needed after three rough games to start the season.

You see, most of the Florida Faithful expect points, flash, and want decided victories over teams like Vanderbilt (despite Vanderbilt ‘s yearly improvement that goes unmentioned).

And that is mostly what they got.

Sure, the defense struggled at times and sure, Florida still isn’t doing much in the passing game through the middle of the field, and sure, Florida is still trying to figure out their return game.

But that’s OK. There is marked improvement across the board and that is all you can ask of a team replacing most of their defense, a number of starters and major contributors, and almost zero depth at linebacker.

Florida had their first 200 yard rushing and 200 yard passing game in 10 games. Florida had their third straight game averaging more than six yards per play –something they haven’t done since 2009. And for the fourth time under Jim McElwain the Florida Gators had more than 450 yards of offense in a game.

The fans wanted offense – and they got it. And despite the qualms that it is ONLY Vanderbilt, Florida had never had that many yards against Derek Mason and you need to go back to 2010 to find a similar number of yards against Vanderbilt.

Let’s take a look at some numbers.

Offense

• Malik Davis is just exploding on to the scene – still. He averages more than 10 yards (10.07) per carry on first down and 7.5 yards per carry inside the opponent’s 40-yard line.
• Florida is averaging 4.68 points per trip inside the opponent 40-yard line, which is nearly one more point per trip over last season.
• The Gators are converting 83.3% of third downs where there is less than 3 yards to go for a first down or touchdown. They only converted 69.8% last season.
• Over the last two weeks Florida has improved from 127^th to 116^th in number of plays per game; 99^th to 80^th in offensive explosiveness; and 100^th to 81^st in scoring offense.
• Over the last two games, the Gators have averaged about 3.5 seconds quicker per snap than the previous two weeks.
• The 77 plays on Saturday were the third highest under Jim McElwain. Their 77 plays were 19 more than the Gators season average.
• The Gators have a 100% red zone conversion percentage, with a TD coming 77.78% of the time. Last season, it was 71.43% and 50%.
• The Gators had 20+ first downs in back-to-back games for the first time since Georgia/Missouri last season.

Defense

• The Gators held an SEC opponent to under a 50% third down conversion percentage (Vanderbilt was 3-for-13) for the 25^th consecutive SEC game.
• Florida’s defense ranks 14^th in the country on third down conversion rate.
• The Gators failed to get a turnover for the second straight game – the first two game stretch since 2013.
• However, the Gators are only allowing a 52% completion percentage – 18^th best in the country.
• The Gators also rank 18^th in the country in fewest points allowed per opponent trip inside their 40-yard line with only 3.35.
• The Gators rank 32^nd in the country in percentage of plays that cause a turnover, sack, or tackle for loss at 16.54% of plays. I highlight this stat often because it has the highest correlation to winning percentage on defense.
• Florida only allows opponents to convert on 3^rd or 4^th and 2 (or less) 42.9% of the time, which is sixth best in the country.