A very big game for Florida. SC hasn't looked too good this season but Rattler can create some scoring in games he isn't getting sacked like crazy. SC gives up the most sacks in all of the FBS - 5 1/2 sacks per game they average giving up in their FBS games. Florida is only # 106 in getting sacks against FBS teams though. Florida has only 7 sacks this year against FBS teams and 6 of the 7 sacks came against Charlotte (4) and Vandy (2). We only have 1 sack (TN) against the 3 good teams we have played this season. Our pass rushing specialist Princely has a grand total of 1 sack against FBS schools and that was against Charlotte. His other sack came against FCS McNeese. On paper not looking at our poor success at getting sacks you would think our defense would have a huge advantage in this game with SC having a poor running game and being unable to give their QB much time to pass but if we don't get Rattler on the ground he can get the ball down the field.
As far as our passing game against the SC defense its hard to say as they have a pretty weak defense but how effective will our line of scrimmage passing game be against that defense. It was pointed out that we had a grand total of "28 air yards" against Vandy despite the decent passing yardage. Air yards are how far the ball travels past the line of scrimmage when the receiver catches it minus the yards of passes caught behind the line of scrimmage. So our completed passes averaged traveling less than 1 yard beyond the line of scrimmage when caught by the pass catchers. Our jet sweep attempts affect this number some but it still shows how close to the line our passing game is overall. SC looks pretty bad at times so maybe that can work against them but I highly doubt its too effective against remaining teams on the schedule that can score quite a bit.
As far as our passing game against the SC defense its hard to say as they have a pretty weak defense but how effective will our line of scrimmage passing game be against that defense. It was pointed out that we had a grand total of "28 air yards" against Vandy despite the decent passing yardage. Air yards are how far the ball travels past the line of scrimmage when the receiver catches it minus the yards of passes caught behind the line of scrimmage. So our completed passes averaged traveling less than 1 yard beyond the line of scrimmage when caught by the pass catchers. Our jet sweep attempts affect this number some but it still shows how close to the line our passing game is overall. SC looks pretty bad at times so maybe that can work against them but I highly doubt its too effective against remaining teams on the schedule that can score quite a bit.