Florida Gators

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- In what seems like a lifetime removed, Nick Chubb ran for 156 yards and a touchdown against the Florida Gators.

Two years later, he managed 20 yards on nine carries. In fact, the entire Georgia Bulldogs offense managed a pedestrian 164 yards during Saturday's rivalry game here at EverBank Field.

By no means were the Gators flawless in their 24-10 victory. But in an imperfect game of football, the SEC's premier defense was on display for the full sixty minutes. A young Jacob Eason chose Georgia over Florida for his college commitment last year. On Saturday, the Gators defense played like it wanted him to sincerely regret that decision.

And while Eason may be the face of the SEC's future, there is no questioning the Florida defense is dominating the present.

"Our fans stayed the entire game," quarterback Luke Del Rio said. "Their fans obviously had a reason not to."

The reason, of course, being that the opposing offense failed to show any semblance of consistency. Besides the severe lack of any ground attack, the majority of Eason's passing yards came on one or two chunk gains in the first half, including a 38-yarder to sophomore receiver Terry Godwin.

It was merely a speck on an otherwise spotless performance, both by those who we've we come to expect it from, and by those who arguably notched their best performances of the season.
 
"Duke [Dawson] and Marcus [Maye] and Marcell [Harris], those guys on the inside now – and I thought Duke defended unbelievably well in the pass game – those guys are playing at a high level now and playing with a lot of confidence," said UF coach Jim McElwain. "But more than that, they're not just showing up and doing it. They're actually studying. And it's helping them play faster, and that's what's great to see."
 
For his part, Dawson had several big plays – including one of his two pass break-ups on a fourth down that essentially sealed the win for the Gators.

Dawson spoke on the elite nature of his fellow defensive backs throughout the season thus far and then mentioned that he thought he had played his best game of the season against Georgia. Going forward, he epitomized the team's belief that this defense can perform on par with or better than the best defenses in college football.

"We dominate," he said. "As you can see, that's one thing we always preach, get to the ball."  

But while the passing defense was as great as it's ever been, stopping the run was the name of the mission that McElwain challenged his front seven with coming into this game.

"We definitely wanted to try to make them as one-dimensional as possible," he said. "And the dimension that we wanted them to get into was to have to throw it. Our gap-control in the run game was pretty spot-on."

Spot on, it was.

The pass defense was stellar, too. The Gators combined for 16 quarterback hurries – defensive end Jabari Zuniga spearheaded the effort with four, constantly penetrating the Georgia backfield. In perhaps his best performance, the redshirt freshman has frequently made his presence known on the young Florida line.


 
The defensive effort was aided by the return of Jarrad Davis, Jordan Sherit, Joey Ivie, and Bryan Cox Jr., the first of whom played through an injured ankle and the last of whom sported an enormous cast on his left arm.

When asked if there was anyone that could have told him he couldn't play this game, Davis answered by simply saying "No, not a chance."

"I didn't want to miss this game," he continued. "It might have been a smart decision to just sit out, but it's football man. If I would have sat out, that makes me question myself and why I actually do this."

McElwain could only describe his reaction to Davis' performance by explaining that he was "shocked" by how well he had performed, noting that you can never count a player like him out, no matter the circumstances.

What was a close 14-10 game at halftime began to spiral out of Georgia's grasp in the third quarter. And as the Bulldogs began to abandon the run, Florida's defensive backs were content to sit back on the pass attack, preying on the inexperience of the young Eason.

It was easy pickings for the veterans prowling the field. Eason's meager 133 passing yards were a far-cry from his career-best 346 yards in a loss to Vanderbilt his previous game.

Florida's defense has made a habit of blanketing teams in almost every aspect this season. But in their most heated SEC rivalry game, Saturday's performance stands out as one of the best.