Do you like soccer?
(If so, keep reading. If you hate soccer like I used to, avert your eyes because I'm about to make a comparison that will border on blasphemy.)
Do you appreciate all the little things that go into a goal-scoring opportunity, even if it ends in failure?
Does a long possession of buildup capped off by an inexplicable miss in front of the goal still leave you with hope and confidence?
If you answered yes to all three, you will absolutely adore the UF football team's offense.
It might have been the cowbells ringing in my ears that evoked the feel of a third-world soccer atmosphere. Or maybe it was because I was keeping tabs on a soccer match via an Internet feed, but during Florida's 29-19 win against Mississippi State, it hit me.
Watching the Gators is like watching soccer.
In both soccer and football, it can be really tough to move from one end of the field to the other. Lots of things have to go right for a team to march down the field and get a chance to score, and, especially in soccer, it's still very difficult to convert those chances into something tangible.
The closest way to compare this to football is to look at how teams perform in the red zone. Points are easier to come by in football - UF is the nation's No. 76 red zone team but has still scored on 80 percent of its red-zone trips - and it gets more interesting without field goals in the equation.
Look at the Gators' stats when it comes to touchdowns in the red zone, and they're operating at a rate closer to a good soccer team than a good football team.
In five Southeastern Conference games, they've scored seven TDs on 25 red-zone trips (28 percent).
Arsenal, which leads the English Premier League in scoring, has notched six goals in a match twice. In those two net-busting performances, it converted 33 percent and 25 percent of its shots into goals.
Florida's percentage is great for soccer, bad for football.
On six red-zone drives Saturday, UF managed just one touchdown, a total the Bulldogs matched thanks to Johnthan Banks' 100-yard interception return.
These red-zone troubles are making a pretty good offense look like garbage.
The Gators are in the NCAA's top 10 for rushing, total and scoring offense, and if they could translate all those yards and scoring opportunities into touchdowns, they'd be blowing teams away.
In the first half Saturday, they almost doubled MSU's time of possession and racked up more than three times as many yards, yet they only led 13-10.
That's unacceptable, and if the trend continues, it could easily lead to losses.
It's frustrating to see the offense steadily move across the field and then look totally lost when it's TD time - like UF is playing fútbol when it should be playing football.
The Gators are blessed with a defense that equates to a brick-wall keeper who can also score goals, but they can't keep missing chances in front of the net.
If they turn that around, their chances of reaching the national championship game in the Rose Bowl - the site of the 1994 World Cup Final- will be as bright as ever.
