Florida's Defense, Run Game Make Gators Legit Playoff Contenders

Georgia entered the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party spinning its wheels offensively, and for 60 minutes inside EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday afternoon, Florida acted as an oil slick.

The Gators baffled Bulldogs starting quarterback Faton Bauta, who made his first career start after serving as the third-stringer for the first two months of the season, en route to a 27-3 win.

It wasn't as close as the score indicated.

Bauta completed just 15 of 33 passes for 154 yards, zero touchdowns and four interceptions and looked as lost as you'd expect a backup to look when making his first start in a key spot.

As Nick de la Torre of GatorCountry.com noted during the game, it was a snooze-fest early thanks to the work of head coach Jim McElwain and defensive coordinator Geoff Collins' crew:

Georgia's offense hardly had momentum, but Florida's defense again proved that it is one of the nation's best and is fully capable of leading the team to the SEC East title and squarely into playoff contention.

Up front, Jonathan Bullard has become a monster along the Gator defensive line. He finished the day with four total tackles, split a tackle for loss with Brian Poole and generally owned the middle of Georgia's offensive line all afternoon. As Chris Low of ESPN.com noted, that sound you hear is the NFL cash register:

Say what you will about Bauta and the decision of Bulldog Mark Richt to mix things up in the biggest game of the season, but Sony Michel and Keith Marshall are still super talented running backs, and Georgia's offensive line is supposed to be one of the best run-blocking units in the country.

There was no room for anything on Saturday, thanks to the Gators.

Michel finished with just 45 yards, Marshall managed just 16, the Bulldogs as a team gained just 69 on the ground and that allowed the Gators to tee off on Bauta once Florida built a lead.

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Another important thing happened on Saturday afternoon along the First Coast—Florida found a running game.

Kelvin Taylor rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns, quarterback Treon Harris added 39 yards, freshman Jordan Scarlett racked up 96 and the Gators looked like a bona fide threat on the ground.

Not bad for a rushing attack that came into the day 13th in the SEC with 126.71 yards per game on the ground against a Bulldog rushing defense that had allowed just 21 for an entire game the last time out against Missouri.

Did Harris look great through the air? Not really. He started out 2-of-11 before settling in nicely and finishing with 155 passing yards and a score. But that's on the heels of a solid outing through the air two weeks ago versus LSU.

Now, though, he can fine-tune his game through the air down the stretch. 

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South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Florida Atlantic don't exactly strike fear in opposing offenses (although Vandy isn't half-bad), which means the "Florida 2.0" offense under Harris has plenty of time to get right prior to the rivalry game with Florida State to end the regular season.

At that point, Florida will essentially be playing national playoff games.

Beat the Seminoles, and a trip to Atlanta should be for a College Football Playoff berth. 

It's crazy to think that Florida—a team that had to piece together its offensive line on the fly, adjust to a new coaching staff under McElwain and deal with the sudden suspension of starting quarterback Will Grier—could be a legit contender for the playoff

But that's where we are in college football in 2015.

Gators in the playoff discussion—get used to seeing quite a bit of that as the College Football Playoff rankings start getting released over the next month.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics are courtesy of cfbstats.com.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.