Entering their bye week, the Missouri Tigers possess a defense that is envied nationally.

Missouri’s D is the 10th-best in total defense, which is good enough for 2nd in the SEC behind Alabama. The Tigers boast the nation’s leading tackler in Kentrell Brothers, a stout secondary and talented pass rushers along the defensive line.

The offense, on the other hand, is anything but envied. Missouri’s 277.6 yards per game is ranked 126th in Division I. There are 127 teams in Division I.

So has something like what Missouri is going through happened before?

This sort of disparity doesn’t happen too often, and with good reason. The less successful an offense is, the less time it usually possesses the ball. That means defenses are on the field more and have more opportunities to allow yards and points. There are only 60 minutes of game time in college football and defenses share the brunt of the load when their offenses continuously go three-and-out.

Simply put, you need to have a really great defense to rank in the top 10 nationally in total defense when your offense is ranked in the bottom 10. But there are recent comparisons.

The most recent in the SEC is Florida in 2013. Will Muschamp coached one of the country’s best defenses two seasons ago. The Gators finished as the 5th-best team in total defense, even better than Missouri is performing now. That’s miraculous considering how poor Florida’s offense was. The Gators only averaged 334.4 yards per game. They scored a so-so 39 touchdowns, but their total offense was in the bottom-20 of college football.

A closer comparison may be Connecticut in 2012.  The Huskies gave up just 309.9 yards per game then, good for 9th-best in Division I. But their offense could only score 17.8 points per game, which was tied for 4th-worst in the FBS in 2012.

And then there’s Boston College. The Eagles are sleeping through the same nightmare as Missouri this year. They’re currently ranked 2nd in total defense and just ahead of the Tigers at 125th in total offense.

While Missouri fans may welcome company in their “Great Defense, Terrible Offense” club, they won’t like hearing how those teams fared.

None of the last four teams to finish with a top 10 defense and bottom 10 offense ended with a winning record. Those 2013 Gators went 4-8, losing every game after the second week of October.

Coincidentally, the 2015 Tigers played Florida during the second week of October. Florida won, and Missouri hasn’t won since. The offense hasn’t scored a touchdown during that span, and the Tigers (4-4) have a tough four-game stretch to close the season that includes Mississippi State, Tennessee and Arkansas.

We’re in the home stretch, but it may still be a long season for Missouri.