Red zone among top issues facing Pitt offense

MORE HEADLINES - Rundown: Everything Pat Narduzzi said on Monday | Free analysis: The Week Three depth chart is out | PODCAST: What to take from the Penn State game | Notebook: Personnel and more from the PSU game | 5 answers from the game in State College | Slideshow: Another look at the road retros | 10 thoughts on Pitt's 33-14 loss to Penn State

Pitt’s offense has a lot of issues to iron out as it moves through the 2017 season, but after two weeks, one top priority has to be the red zone.

So far this season, the Panthers have been below average in that area, with five touchdowns and two field goals on 10 trips inside the 20. That total scoring rate - scores on 70% of the team’s red zone drives - ranks No. 111 nationally, but the real problem isn’t total scoring; it’s touchdowns.

Pitt’s five touchdowns on 10 drives - a 50% touchdown rate - is tied for No. 89 in the nation. Obviously it’s early in the season and the sample size is small (17 other teams have a 50% touchdown rate right now, too, but the Panthers aren’t currently prolific or explosive enough on offense to survive on a 50% touchdown rate.

The situation was evident in Saturday’s loss at Penn State. Pitt’s offense struggled to build sustained drives throughout the game; the Panthers’ first three drives didn’t even move past their own 30 and only one of the team’s first five possessions even reached midfield.

So when Pitt actually moved the ball on its sixth drive, hitting short throws and nice runs to move to the Penn State 10 for a first-and-goal situation, the opportunity had to be capitalized upon.

But on first down, Qadree Ollison was stopped on a run for no gain. On second down, with a four-wide formation from the shotgun, Max Browne dumped a pass to Ollison in the right flat; the play had a chance for positive yardage, but Browne stared Ollison down before throwing, allowing two Penn State defenders to close on Ollison and tackle him for another no-gain play.

And on third down, with Jester Weah, Aaron Mathews, Rafael Araujo-Lopes and Matt Flanagan all out wide again, Browne threw too high in the end zone for Araujo-Lopes - the shortest receiver on the field.

The pass was incomplete, and Pitt’s first real scoring opportunity of the day ended with a field goal, sending the Panthers to the locker room at halftime trailing 14-3.

Pitt’s second drive of the third quarter went the same way. A 32-yard run by Ollison moved the ball into Penn State territory, and a couple eight-yard runs - one on a sweep by Maurice Ffrench and one on a handoff to Chawntez Moss - set Pitt up in the red zone once again.

On first-and-goal from the 5, Moss ran for two yards. Pitt had to call a timeout on second down due to some personnel confusion, but the post-timeout play ended up being a sweep for Quadree Henderson that lost three yards. And Penn State pressured Browne on third-and-goal from the 6, leading to a pass that was ostensibly intended for Flanagan, but was well off the mark.

Two trips to the red zone had produced just six points.

Pitt finally did get a touchdown from inside the 20 when Ben DiNucci, who replaced Browne after the starter’s helmet came off, ran the ball into the end zone from the 3 and then converted a two-point point-after attempt to make the score 28-14. But after Penn State made it 33-14, Pitt fell short one last time, as DiNucci led the offense on a 67-yard drive that stalled on fourth-and-goal from the 8.

Four red zone trips and one touchdown; that’s not enough scoring to hang with the No. 4 team in the country on the road, and similar production this week against No. 8 Oklahoma State will likely have similar results.

Going forward, Pitt needs to find a way to tap into 2016’s success. Last season, the Panthers were one of the best teams in the country in the red zone, scoring 45 touchdowns on 59 trips inside the 20, a 76.3% touchdown rate that tied for the fourth-highest nationally.

Aside from the obvious play-calling comparisons - Shawn Watson is going to be held against the standard Matt Canada set last season - there are also quite a few personnel differences. 12 players scored touchdowns in the red zone for Pitt last season, but the bulk of those 45 scores came from two players:

James Conner and George Aston.

Conner scored 18 touchdowns from inside the 20 (16 rushing and two receiving) and nine of Aston’s 10 touchdowns on the season came from that area, too. That’s 27 of the team’s 45 scores, and they came from players who aren’t currently available to the team (Conner is in the NFL, Aston is out with an injury).

On Monday, Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi also pointed to the losses of offensive linemen Dorian Johnson and Adam Bisnowaty, as well as receiver Dontez Ford, as contributing to the issues Pitt is having in the red zone.