ATLANTA — Florida’s defense grew tired of hearing about Darren McFadden long before kickoff for Saturday night’s SEC Championship Game.

“Everybody talked about Mc-Fadden, McFadden, McFadden all week,” linebacker Brandon Siler said. “Nobody ever said anything about us. I didn’t hear one reporter, one anybody, say anything about us, so that motivated us.”

Florida’s defense, which extended its streak of not allowing a 100-yard rusher to 18 games in a 38-28 victory over Arkansas, actually has received its share of attention from opposing coaches, if not the college football world in general. The Gators likely will receive more following a game in which they held the Razorbacks’ Heisman hopeful to 73 yards on 21 carries to cement their status as the league’s top rushing defense.

“I’m pretty sure he’s sick of seeing us,” linebacker Earl Everett said of McFadden, who produced his lowest rushing output since a 65-yard effort against Ole Miss on Oct. 21 while playing roughly half the game on a sprained right ankle.

“He wasn’t full speed, he wasn’t himself,” Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt said. “That had a lot to do with it.”

The Gators also had plenty to do with the struggles of McFadden — and Felix Jones — to get untracked, employing a game plan that funneled both backs inside whenever possible. With a front four that mostly controlled the line of scrimmage complemented by a linebacking corps that stayed disciplined and filled the gaps hard and fast, Florida held Arkansas to its second-lowest rushing total (138 yards ) of the season.

“Our front seven played as good as we did all year,” Siler said. “We came out and stopped two really good backs, two of the best backs in the country. I said that before the game, and I’ll stick to it. They’re really good.

“ We took that personal because we are the No. 1 rush defense in the SEC... but all I heard was McFadden rushed for 1, 000, [Jones ] rushed for 1, 000. Tonight it was a little different.”

The result was an Arkansas offense that struggled to get in gear for much of the game. Arkansas had 12 drives, not counting two end-of-half possessions with only a few seconds remaining, and six of them went 13 yards or less, including five of 7 yards or less.

“They got us on trick plays,” said Siler, who finished with a team-high 12 tackles. “I think that was the only thing that got us was trick plays. Besides that, I think we shut down their offense.”

Even though Arkansas unleashed a barrage of trick plays and new wrinkles in several of its offensive packages, Florida’s defense mainly carried out individual assignments rather than getting fooled and pulled out of position. Everett said that was the key to bottling up McFadden and eventually securing the championship.

“We knew that if we stopped big plays from McFadden, we had a great chance of winning this game,” Everett said. “Ninety percent of their offense is running the ball, and he’s in 90 percent of all those plays. If you let him get on the edge, to daylight, he’s gone.”

Florida gave McFadden little daylight Saturday, and that’s something the Gators were more than happy to hear about.