FEI: Bama's second half 88 yard drive best in 2009 in all college football

Read all about it here.

Florida faced 117 opponent non-garbage possessions this season, and 49 percent of those lasted only three plays or fewer. Before the game-clinching drive in the SEC championship, Florida had only given up two non-garbage touchdowns all season on opponent drives that began at or inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. Only 15 out of 79 opponent drives that began at or inside the opponent’s 30-yard line resulted in a score of any kind against Florida this season -- six of these drives were produced by the Crimson Tide offense on Saturday. In terms of game-specific Offensive FEI -- efficiency adjusted for opponent -- Alabama had the single best offensive game of the 2009 college football season.

 Also, a little taste of the upcoming matchup with Texas (ranked #3 behind Bama and Florida).

Compare that to Texas, who faced an almost impenetrable Nebraska defense on Saturday night, eking out a victory in the final harrowing seconds to clinch a spot in the BCS championship game. Colt McCoy and Texas’ offense took the field 16 times in the game, twice as many non-garbage opportunities as Alabama, but only managed 13 points. Against Nebraska and Oklahoma, the two best defenses the Longhorns faced in 2009, Texas’ offense never could find their rhythm. An average offense against an average defense would have expected to score more than 66 points with Texas’ starting field position in those two games -- Texas scored only 29 total points.

For their part, the Longhorns’ defense dominated their side of the ball in those games, setting up Texas for enough short field position situations to knock in a few clutch field goals and pull out victory in the end. But with a championship tilt against the nation’s best defense looming, the Longhorns are going to need to figure out how to jumpstart their offensive attack. Otherwise, workhorse Mark Ingram and the ball-hogging Crimson Tide will roll to a national championship victory.