I don't care what Armstrong can do with his legs. Unless he's the second coming of Touchdown Tommie he needs to be able to pass at or near 60%, without throwing picks, or our offense is going to stagnate.
We have a pretty good corps of WR: Bell, Turner, Westerkamp, Allen, Burtch, Moore... all of these guys will be wasted without an effective passing QB.
Maybe it's blasphemy to say at Nebraska, but this offense may need more Zac Taylor than Tommie Frazier. Abdullah, Cross, Newby, Taylor, maybe Wilbon - these guys can handle the load on the ground. If Armstrong any quarterback can't deliver strikes downfield, what good does he do us?
I've felt this way about our QBs in general for a while now. Not only that, but our immense receiving talent in recent years.
But, that doesn't seem to be the direction we've been heading. Both Bo & Beck seem to really want a guy that can function in the running game ('force the defense to defend 11-on-11', as they've said) and also to make a great commitment to running the ball (which is OK, but it requires the QB to be an important part of that and comes at the cost of utilizing the receivers fully). There seems to be some tug-of-war here, and some feel that Beck would prefer a more balanced split and sometimes takes us in that direction.
That's not who Armstrong is, though. However, I still think he can run a hypothetical offense very well. Yes, our RBs are more than enough to carry the load. But he brings the option game, maybe the zone read game as well into play, and gives the defense one more runner to think about. Three or four yards a pop isn't glamorous, except when it's consistent, keeps us on schedule, and grinds drives away along with the clock. And he clearly has the arm to take the top off the defense. We've seen him launch strike after strike downfield, which are low percentage throws for any QB, but even when they fail to connect, they force the defense to account for it. With deep threats like Kenny Bell, this could be a very effective, very cohesive attack, whether or not it comes with pretty completion stats.
Our short passing game IMO hasn't done much for us, when combined with a lack of deep threat. You'd have to get to Zac Taylor / Joe Ganz levels of WCO efficiency for it to be a part of our game that threatens the defense constantly (and I'm sure if you go back and look, Zac's stats weren't all that earth shattering. And yet, you knew what he was bringing to the table). I think this lack of a dangerous short passing game will continue. There's nothing about our QBs' skillsets that would lead me to think different. Stanton is very young. Our passing game will, or should be, reduced to a change-up role.
With that comes the continued waste of excellent and athletic slot receiver types like Jamal Turner (and maybe Westerkamp and Alonzo Moore after him). If we ran that kind of spread passing attack, I feel we'd see these guys put up insane numbers and become household names across the country. It just doesn't really seem to be what the team is overall best geared towards, but they'll still make impacts -- blocking, huge catches here and there.
