What’s wrong with the second-half offense? Why didn’t Pitt get more sacks against Miami? What makes the best fan? Answers to those questions and more in this week’s Mailbag.

Do you or Jim believe Kenny Pickett is playing with an injury that restricts his ability to throw deep or run well? How about last year? - smenges
I don’t think Pickett is 100% healthy, but I can’t say with any certainty how far from that mark he might be. His shoulder injury from the UCF game was obviously serious enough that the staff wanted to keep him out of the Delaware game, but is it serious enough to make a significant impact on his performance? I don’t know. I would think that if his health was seriously jeopardizing the offense, the coaches would look at other options - both in the interest of improving the offense and getting Pickett healthy. That hasn’t been the case.

How would you evaluate our O-lines pass blocking performance to date? Sacks and pressures are good data points, but it also seems like we aren't taking downfield shots as we can't protect KP very well. - vanbuma
I mean, it hasn’t been great. They let pressure into Pickett’s face far too often - to the point where I think that sometimes he feels pressure that isn’t even there. I’m not sure if the downfield passing game is being hindered by that, but if you expect pressure, then you need to get the ball out quick, so that doesn’t leave many opportunities for those throws.

How bad is our penalty situation this year. How does it compare with other Narduzzi Pitt teams? - Estif2
It’s pretty bad. Pitt is tied for No. 123 in the nation in penalties - meaning there are only six FBS teams with more penalties (Florida State and Syracuse are among those six so, you know, #GoACC).

I didn’t realize this, but Pitt’s numbers with penalties weren’t great last year either; the Panthers were No. 102 nationally in penalties per game. 2017 was different; Pitt was No. 3 in the nation, averaging just 3.83 penalties per game. The Panthers were top-50 in 2016 and top-20 in 2015. So it has gotten worse each year, save for 2017. It’s definitely something Pitt needs to clean up.

Pretty simple question, what do you think the remedy is for our second half woes? We obviously have seen this for 3-4 games now.... so it’s not an anomaly - Supreme Bin

What can Pitt do to shake the doldrums of the 3rd quarter, every poster knows I propose a different qb series, but seems that is out of reach, what does this team do?? - PotterCountyNative
I’ll put these two questions together since they address the same topic.

I’ve said that I think the second-half offense has been atrocious, and that’s accurate: Pitt has scored five offensive touchdowns in the second half of games this season. But I think it’s broader than that, because the Panthers only have 12 first-half touchdowns in eight games. That’s less than two per game in the first half, which is a pretty bad total, too. Not as bad as five in eight games, but pretty bad.

So for me, it’s less a matter of bad second-half offense and more a matter of just bad offense. Pitt is averaging 21 points per game; that ranks outside the top 100 nationally and it’s worse than the team’s numbers last season. They haven’t been good enough or effective enough all season long, regardless of quarter or half.

Should Pitt try Nick Patti or Jeff George Jr. or Davis Beville for a series in the second half? Eh, I’m not a big fan of making that kind of switch, particularly when it’s trying a different guy in the same offensive system. I am not entirely opposed to the idea if you have a different style of quarterback, maybe a run-first guy who could come in and give the defense a different look.

But putting Patti or George or Beville out there to run the same offense isn’t as appealing to me. I still think Pickett is the best option, so I think you ride with him and keep giving him chances to put together some consistency. He’s the guy who is going to lead you to wins or losses in the final four games, and if it’s going to be more wins than losses, he needs to get more consistency - pulling him for a series or two probably wouldn’t help with that.

Chris - you often have guests from other rivals sites (duke - Syracuse - etc) talk about the upcoming game - do you ever talk to them after the game and get their thoughts about the game or what they saw or like about Pitt in general ?

3 worse rock bands ever

For Me - yes - Duran Duran- poison - if you call any of that rock and roll - Rockhen
I don’t usually have those guys on the podcast or anything; we’ll chat during the game, as you would with anybody in the press box. But usually once the game ends, we’re all going our separate ways.

Worst rock bands…Poison is definitely one. Really, most of the hair bands don’t do much for me (I am not including Guns ‘n’ Roses in that category; I think they get unfairly pigeonholed as a “hair band” when in reality they’re arguably the greatest American rock band in history). Oh, and that late-90’s “frat rock” thing with Limp Bizkit and those Woodstock ’99 guys - yeah, I have no interest in that whatsoever. I loathe that stuff.

Give me a list of the 5 most recognizable opening guitar riffs in music history in your opinion. - potentpotables1
It’s probably all Led Zeppelin, Hendrix and AC/DC, isn’t it? Whole Lotta Love, Stairway, Voodoo Child, Hey Joe, Thunderstruck, Back in Black. And of course Paradise By The Dashboard Light. Also, I know it’s not a guitar riff, per se, but I think Tom Sawyer is probably the greatest opening to any song. It punches you in the face and never lets up.

I watched Kyi Wright the last 3 years play both football and basketball and believe he could be a dynamic tight end. I expected that he would play in 4 games this year. Do you think he will play? If so when? - pantherhornet
I would be giving him a look, if it was me, but I think there’s some truth to the idea that tight end is one of the most difficult positions in football to learn. There’s a lot going on there, and while I think he’s got a lot of potential, it’s tough to throw a guy in there. That said, there’s only four regular-season games left; might as well throw him the ball a couple times and see if he can catch it.

Just a quick thought re: TOs. I think Pitt has forced a lot of fumbles, but hasn't recovered that many. I bet a lot of TOs left on the field have been missed fumble recoveries. If the ball starts bouncing the right way, they could come in bunches.

Paris Ford's forced fumble inside the Cuse 10 yard line that Pitt didn't recover comes to mind. Matter of fact, I think the very next play is when Pinnock blew his coverage for the long TD. Potentially a 14-point swing in the game.

Is this something you have charted? Interested in what this looks like. - garrett101999
You’re not wrong: Pitt has forced 11 fumbles this season but only recovered three of them, and two of those recoveries were strip-sacks by Patrick Jones in the Duke game. Illinois, by comparison, leads the nation in fumble recoveries with 13; the Illini have forced 17 and clearly recovered a high percentage of them. UAB is No. 2 with 12 recoveries; the Blazers have forced 19.

Auburn, Arizona State and South Florida are next with 11 recoveries each; Auburn has forced 16 fumbles, Arizona State has forced 20 and USF has forced 15.

So those teams have forced more than Pitt, but they’re also recovering at a higher rate than Pitt. The ball just isn’t bouncing the Panthers’ way in those situations.

It seemed that in the beginning of the season the left side of the line was stronger but lately, it seems the left tackle has struggled in pass protection. Has that position graded lower in recent weeks? - dk16000
I’m not sure about the coaching staff’s grades, although the fact that they gave Carson Van Lynn some work at left tackle in place of Carter Warren during the Miami game is telling. Pro Football Focus did rate the last two games among Warren’s worst of the season in pass-blocking, grading Syracuse as his worst performance and Miami as his third-worst of the year.

I would say that it’s not a complete surprise to see him struggle in those games (and Penn State, which was his second-worst pass-blocking grade on PFF), since those were two of the best pass rushes Pitt has faced. The level of competition went up and Warren struggled; it makes sense.

I think Warren has looked like a first-year starter this season and especially in the last two games. He should have a more favorable matchup this week against Georgia Tech, but it will be interesting to see if the coaches sub on the offensive line like they did against Miami, when both tackles rotated at various points.

Who is the best fan on here and what is the criteria in which this is measured. - NC Panther
Anybody who makes a Striking Distance reference on the board is the best fan. That’s an automatic.

What seemed to be the reason for Pitt's lack of pressure on the QB against Miami, which was a big advantage it appeared? Especially in the last drive of the game, when in similar situations this year the DL took the game over and pretty much shut the door on any hope for the opponent? - cdmg
I think Miami did a good job of throwing quick passes; that’s one area to start when considering Pitt’s lack of pressure on the Hurricanes’ quarterbacks. I don’t really remember many, if any, deep pass attempts from Miami on Saturday; I think they knew Pitt’s pass rush was coming, so they tried to get rid of the ball as fast as they could. That said, while the Panthers only had two sacks, Pro Football Focus did credit the defense with 20 pressures, so they were getting after Miami’s quarterbacks - they just weren’t finishing the sacks, which they had been doing last week.

As for the last drive, check out the Drive Breakdown from Pat Bostick; he broke down that particular possession to see where things fell apart. There was really one or two key plays where Miami took advantage of missed execution, and that decided the game.

What ended up happening with Albert Tucker. Is he injured and still with the team? - ejn3
Still injured, still with the team.

If you could add one of the following to this year's team, who would it be:

- Nate Peterman
- Brian O'Neil
- Tyler Boyd - Bw32
Probably O’Neill. He was a really good offensive tackle at Pitt, and I think they could use that desperately. Give Kenny Pickett a little more comfortable of a pocket, and he can make enough throws to win games. Similarly, Pitt’s receivers can catch enough passers to win games. But I don’t think the offensive line has been up to snuff, and O’Neill would be an instant upgrade and possibly the boost they’d need.

Chris - I’ll go one step further than the question above

If this team had the 2016 offense and special teams - what would this football teams record be? - Rockhen
The 2019 defense with the 2016 offense against this season’s schedule should be an 8-0 team. But let’s be honest: they wouldn’t have been 8-0. 7-1 would be more likely and 6-2 wouldn’t be out of the question. Those things just seem to happen, so while they should expect to be 8-0 with that kind of talent on both sides of the ball, I think we all know they’d probably drop one - or two - along the way.

My guess is 7-1.

In your opinion, on Pitt's current roster, where does Pitt find explosive, dynamic offensive play makers at RB and WR? Do you believe it's our conservative offensive scheme that is the main reason for our wide receivers to have such extremely poor yards per catch averages? It's mind boggling that Maurice Ffrench averages only 8.4 yards per catch. Taysir Mack only 11.7 yards per catch. Nakia Griffin Stewart (9.5) actually has a better yards per catch average than Maurice Ffrench! Our starting WR average yards per catch would be considered average for the tight end position in the overall NCAA statistics. After having two RB's rush for 1,000 yards last year, we may not one rush for 700 yards this year. We've recruited speed offensively, but rarely see it. What are your thoughts on how we can become a better team offensively? - thelegendmjb54
I think a lot of it is the design of the offense. Take Maurice Ffrench, for instance; yes, he’s averaging 8.4 yards per catch, but the passes he is catching this season - 64 of them - are averaging 2.47 air yards. He’s catching passes, on average, less than 2.5 yards downfield. I think Ffrench has a lot of ability for yards after the catch, but they seem to be relying on that element almost entirely, and it’s bringing down his ypc average (he could also help himself by catching more of the downfield passes that are actually thrown to him).

Similarly, Taysir Mack’s ypc average is down from last season by more than 10 yards, but we’re just not seeing the downfield attempts, especially against good pass rushes in the last two games. Some of that is due to philosophy and some is due to pass-blocking, but it’s just not happening.

With the running backs, we knew there would be a step back after losing both of those 1,000-yard rushers and four of the five starting offensive linemen. I’m a little surprised that nobody has really stepped up, but again, this offense is so heavily tilted toward the pass that it’s difficult to truly judge the performances of A.J. Davis, V’Lique Carter, Todd Sibley and Vincent Davis.

I think this offense does have some dynamic playmakers, but a variety of forces - some in their control, others not - are working against them.