GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida’s offense spent the first half of the season dealing with one issue or another.

Against UMass, the deep ball was missing. The following week, against Kentucky, Luke Del Rio and Antonio Callaway connected on the deep pass, but the quarterback’s accuracy was questionable (19-of-32). Del Rio was even sloppier in Week 3 against North Texas, going 14-of-25 with an interception before exiting due to a knee injury.

In Del Rio’s absence, the offense briefly took a step forward … before taking two giant steps backward. Backup Austin Appleby threw two touchdown passes in the first half against Tennessee, and was showing impressive arm strength on deep passes, but things quickly went south. In the six quarters that followed, the Gators scored only two offensive touchdowns. While the passing attack struggled, the ground game also posted season lows.

Heading into the LSU game, and then – thanks to Hurricane Matthew – the Missouri game, the expectation was that Del Rio’s return would re-ignite the offense. In Del Rio’s first game back, the Gators won 40-14 over Mizzou despite the signal-caller’s worst outing of the season (18-of-38, 236 yards, TD, 3 INT).

As Florida turns its focus to Georgia specifically and the second half of the season in general, coach Jim McElwain is confident that the redshirt sophomore will bounce back and learn from it.

“I think the biggest thing is don’t try to do too much,” McElwain said at his most recent media opportunity. “And I think he was, you know, he took the plan, he knew the plan and yet he got himself into trouble.

“I like to refer to it sometimes when you’re playing that position as seeing ghosts rather than just taking what’s real and doing it. And I think he saw that when he watched the video.”

It should come as no surprise that the turnovers bothered the coach most, according to Del Rio.

“You’ve just got to take care of the ball,” Del Rio said, relaying what McElwain told him. “It’s like, three picks is awful. You can’t do that. You will lose a lot of those games. Luckily we have a great defense. And the other 10 guys played really well on offense. So I need to be better and that’s about it.”

It’s humble of Del Rio to say the other 10 players played well, but there were plenty of other issues. The offensive line had eight false-start penalties, and running back Jordan Scarlett fumbled on the Missouri 1-yard line. The quarterback knows that while every area has something to improve on, all eyes are on him as the leader of the unit.

“You know, we’re a young team but it’s part of growing up,” Del Rio said. “I think I need to do a better job at leading guys and maintaining positivity even when things do go wrong and it’s not easy but this is the reality of it.

“We can either sulk and say, ‘I can’t believe we just jumped offsides,’ or did whatever, or you can say, ‘OK, we’re going to get the next play, we’re going to get 10 yards here.'”

The Gators rank No. 8 in the SEC in scoring, at 30.3 points per game. They’re sixth in total offense.

While it’s admirable that Del Rio is taking responsibility for the offense’s issues, it’s time for the 2016 team to drop youth as an excuse. All season, Florida players have said that getting the mental approach right and doing their jobs is the key to overcoming their lingering issues with consistency and execution.

Entering Georgia Week, it’s time for the Gators to show that they’ve grown up. They can demonstrate that by making plays instead of excuses. Their SEC East title hopes hang in the balance.