Pitt's red zone offense was the best in the nation

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Among the many improvements Pitt’s offense made this season, few are as significant as the progress the Panthers made in the red zone.

In fact, Pitt went from being a middle-of-the-pack team inside the 20 to the best in the nation.

And that’s not an exaggeration: while nine teams had a better scoring percentage in the red zone than Pitt’s 92.3 and 23 teams had more total red-zone scores, no one was better than the Panthers at producing touchdowns inside the 20.

With 43 touchdowns on 52 red-zone attempts, Pitt boasted a red-zone touchdown percentage of 82.7; nobody in the country had a higher number. And in terms of points per red-zone attempt - arguably the best overall metric for measuring success in the red zone - the Panthers averaged 5.25, which also ranked No. 1 in the nation.

All of that is a marked improvement form 2015, when Pitt ranked 62nd nationally by averaging 4.38 points per red-zone attempt and tied for 53rd with a red-zone touchdown percentage of 62.5.

Pitt’s 43 touchdowns in the red zone this year didn’t rank as the most touchdowns in those situations nationally, but the Panthers still stood out on the other end of the spectrum: their nine red-zone drives that didn’t end in touchdowns ranks as the fewest among all 128 FBS teams.

The Panthers scored a touchdown on every drive inside the red zone in six games this season, including 13 consecutive red-zone touchdowns in the final three games of the season (they were 4-for-4 at Clemson, 4-for-4 against Duke and 5-for-5 against Syracuse). Pitt also was perfect on red-zone touchdowns against Penn State (6-for-6), at Oklahoma State (2-for-2) and against Virginia Tech (5-for-5).

Of the 43 touchdowns scored in the red zone this season, only 13 came via the pass, but overall, Nate Peterman was very efficient inside the 20. He completed 18-of-29 passes (62.1%) for 148 yards, 13 touchdowns and one interception (Tre Tipton also threw a pass in the red zone and completed it for 11 yards).

And Peterman was even better when throwing on third down in the red zone: in those situations, he completed 7-of-9 passes for 56 yards and six touchdowns. In total, Peterman's 26 touchdown passes this season were evenly split: 13 inside the red zone, 13 outside the 20.

On the rushing side, Pitt scored 35 total touchdowns on the ground and 30 of those were inside the red zone. That includes all 16 of James Conner’s rushing touchdowns this season, as well as all five of George Aston’s, two each from Qadree Ollison, Nate Peterman and Quadree Henderson and the lone touchdown runs by Chawntez Moss and Maurice Ffrench, as well as Brian O’Neill’s five-yard run against Virginia Tech.

Pitt’s only rushing touchdowns from outside the red zone were Henderson’s 66-yard run against Syracuse, 52-yard run against Duke and 50-yard run against Oklahoma State, Ffrench’s 77-yard run against Syracuse and O’Neill’s 24-yard run against Georgia Tech.

All told, Pitt scored 61 offensive touchdowns this season and 43 of them came from the red zone.