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Gator fans you had better get used to it...nothing will probably come too easy for your Gator football team this season. Florida won its 20th straight game 24-14 last Saturday but it sure wasn't easy.

But like it has done in many of Florida's games this season, the Gator defense stepped up when it was most needed. The play of this unit arguably won the game.

It was anyone's game in the fourth quarter. Florida's offense was sputtering. South Carolina was driving, and in Florida territory. It was a 17-14 Gator lead when a Stephen Garcia pass bounced off a receiver and into the hands of defensive lineman Justin Trattou who rumbled with it deep into Gamecock territory.

Trattou's pick turned out to be the play of the game.

When you try to knock off the number one team in the country, things have to go just right and you can't make too many mistakes. This mistake turned out to be huge as quarterback Tim Tebow finished off the drive with a one yard run and the game was over, over because the Florida defense completely shut down the Gamecocks for the remainder of the night.

In the first half, the Gator defense was victimized at times by a Carolina running game that was statistically last in the SEC. The read option, often employed by the Florida offense, seemed to confuse the Gators at times and as a result Carolina was able to sustain some drives in the first half and stay in the game.

The Gator defense had a little prayer meeting so to speak with defensive coordinator Charlie Strong and the result was a much better second half effort according to Florida defensive end Jermaine Cunningham.

"The first half wasn't Gator defense," Cunningham said. "We all came in at halftime and got a little pep talk from Coach Strong and we went out in the second half and decided to play Florida "D" and had a couple of game changing plays."

In that second half, especially in the fourth quarter with the game on the line, the defense turned up the heat and came up big, stopping the run game cold, holding it to minus yardage in the second half. The passing game was stopped too at first with a dizzying variety of blitz packages and then with pressure from just the front four. As a result, quarterback Stephen Garcia was sacked, harassed, and forced to run for his life, unable to make a play.

Offensively, it looked like Florida was going to have a good day early, scoring on its first three possessions. But after that, it was mostly a tale of missed opportunities as Florida could not take advantage of excellent field position given to it many times during the game. In addition, wide receiver Riley Cooper couldn't catch a couple of long balls that could have been touchdowns and kicker Caleb Sturgis missed three field goals, although two of them were from over 50 yards.

But if we have seen anything this year, we have seen the "plan to win" include excellent defense, no turnovers and just enough offense and good special teams play and that's exactly what got Florida to win this game. Florida did not turn the ball over for the third straight game and quarterback Tim Tebow says its all about just winning.

"I think that's the identity of our team," Tebow said. "Sometimes it's not pretty, sometimes we have to fight for four quarters but we've been able to keep fighting at the end and find a way and I'm just proud of my teammates and it shows a lot of character."

Character indeed. This team has a lot of it...a lot. Florida is now 10--0. it went through the SEC schedule undefeated for only the fourth time in school history. And the Gator seniors have now tied the record for the most wins by a senior class in the SEC.

That's a lot of accomplishments and more are sure to come but the best accomplishment at this time of the year is to win and advance.

Mission accomplished.