Florida fans got more than their fair share of bad offensive football last year, so watching Saturday’s 9-7 win over Vanderbilt must have brought back some ugly flashbacks.

The Gators were held to a season-low nine points despite having excellent field position throughout the game (13 total drives with an averaging starting spot of its own 46-yard line). Kicking-game issues were a factor and four turnovers certainly didn’t help, either, but the primary problem was an offensive line that couldn’t protect QB Treon Harris.

There were warning signs this might happen.

The Gators were dealt two significant blows heading into the Vanderbilt game, with starting LT David Sharpe and LG Martez Ivey both injured. What those injuries exposed was that Florida has one good offensive line configuration and any change to that is problematic.

Behind an offensive line playing out of position and banged up, Florida could neither run (34 carries, 93 yards, TD) nor throw (13-of-26, 165 yards, INT) effectively against Vanderbilt’s defense, ranked No. 19 in the FBS.

“They took it to us up front,” Florida coach Jim McElwain said after the game.

Many UF fans will direct their frustration at Harris (12-of-24, 158 yards, INT), but as our own Talal Elmasry points out, Harris’ 12 completions all came when he could pass from the pocket. The Commodores exploited Florida’s protection issues on the edge, and forced Harris to scramble. Harris is a dual-threat QB and it’s been presumed that moving the pocket or rolling him out would be a good thing. But what we learned from the Vanderbilt game is that forcing him out of the pocket actually hinders his passing ability.

“The guy didn’t have a chance back there,” McElwain said about Harris.

By its nature, a single-digit score triggers a knee-jerk “What’s wrong with the offense?” reaction. The most obvious change from a  dominating 27-3 win over Georgia to a 9-7 squeaker over Vanderbilt is the makeshift offensive line. For as ineffective as Harris and the Gators were with the football, it wasn’t as much of a departure from the 7-1 start as it might have looked.

Aside from five quarters in the games against Tennessee and Ole Miss, the 2015 Florida offense has never been a high-powered, score-at-will unit. In SEC play, the Gators have most often scored two or three offensive touchdowns (Kentucky, Missouri, LSU and Georgia). They had a good chance to continue that trend against Vanderbilt, but committed four turnovers. Two of those turnovers were fumbles that ended drives deep in Commodores territory.

With the SEC East wrapped up, the Gators can either march into Atlanta as playoff contenders or stumble into the Georgia Dome as a team that backed into winning its soft division.

Florida’s offense might not have been as bad as it looked against Vanderbilt, but for it to look better, the offensive line will have to protect Harris in the pocket and open up more running lanes in the next four games.