Florida’s defense didn’t do a great job stopping South Carolina’s offense on Saturday, but the Gators still walked out of Columbia with a victory at the end of a 41-39 shootout.
There’s a lot of good to say about the offense, but The Athletic’s Max Olson doesn’t care one bit about all that. No, Olson is locked in on defensive metrics this season, more specifically stop rate.
What exactly are stop rates and how does a sports news website keep track? Olson explains it very well.
“It’s a basic measurement of success: the percentage of a defense’s drives that end in punts, turnovers or a turnover on downs. This simple metric can offer a more accurate reflection of a defense’s effectiveness in today’s faster-tempo college football than yards per game or points per game.”
This week, the Orange and Blue is ranked No. 54 overall with a 65.1% stop rate while allowing 2.08 points per drive. Those numbers are all heading in the wrong direction compared to Week 6’s results, but that’s expected after giving up more than three dozen points. Also, every week isn’t Vandy week.
The good news is that Florida gets a bye and can’t do any damage to itself, at least when it comes to stop rate. But the bad news is that Georgia is up next, and it’s going to be hard to slow the Bulldogs down.
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