ATLANTA - Late in the fourth quarter with the Gators nursing a 24-20 lead, LB Brandon Spikes went up and said a few choice words to his defense that may have saved their championship hopes.
"Spikes told us that we had to make a stop and we're going to win the game," CB Joe Haden said. "We just went out there and focused on that. He told us that we weren't playing like ourselves and that we had to make a play."
Though the 31-20 final score wouldn't suggest it, for a time the Gators defense to revert back to the sieve they were last season. Alabama RB Glen Coffee ran through Florida's vaunted run defense with ease as he totaled 112 yards rushing yards and a touchdown on 21 attempts.
Freshman WR Julio Jones finished with 112 yards receiving on just five receptions-including a 64-yard reception in the first quarter that swung the momentum in Alabama's favor after the Gators scored on their opening drive.
But after Spikes' speech, the Gators once again played the type of defense observers have come to expect.
First Haden broke up a John Parker Wilson pass to Jones down the sideline. Then the defensive line converged around Coffee, limiting him to a 2-yard gain. DE Jermaine Cunningham then made arguably the play of the game as he sacked Wilson for an 11-yard loss.
"We knew that we got them down to a third down situation and that they were down and we knew they had to pass the ball and we just put our pass rushers out there and came down the edge," Spikes said. "Jermaine Cunningham came down the edge and he was able to get to him."
Though Cunningham had the Gators lone sack of the day Florida was able to get consistent pressure on Wilson and forced him to throw the ball away multiple times.
"They said their offensive line could block anybody and our defense took that to heart and came out and played a great game," WR Louis Murphy said.
More than anything else what Florida's win may have done is end the talk that they are simply a finesse team that can't win a physical matchup. Though the Gators admit that Alabama was certainly the toughest team they have played this season, they see this as a test that they passed in coming back from a fourth quarter deficit and earning a win against one of the toughest teams in the country.
"It shows the heart of our team to keep on fighting," Haden said. "That's one thing that we haven't really had to see this year to have to dig deep and come back and win."
And now, the Gators would like you to refrain from calling them soft or finesse,
"We get so tired of that is because the only reason they look past our toughness is because of our speed," Haden said. "Our speed outweighs our toughness but that doesn't mean we're not tough. We can still be pretty and fast at the same time."
