You know who's hoping we maintain a robust passing game?
Ameer Abdullah.
Pass if necessary?
Of course it's necessary.
Announcing your intention to run Abdullah into the line 30 times a game and treating the forward pass (and your quarterback) as a liability is a quick ticket to killing the rushing game. Defenses will be licking their lips if we decide to be predictible rather than multiple. And what's the point of being loaded at wide receiver?
When Tommy Armstrong's yards per attempt passing fall below Ameer Abdullah's yards per attempt rushing, we can talk.
I think this has been an obvious issue of Beck's and had been discussed at great length. Don't go away from what's working. Abduallh works, PERIOD. Still, I see someone plus1'd your comment so apparently multiple is still the in thing. Yea, because being a perennial top ten rushing team in the country just isn't good enough.
Run the ball, play defense. I'm a Broncos fan, trust me on this!
Yep, one thing Peyton Manning and John Elway are famous for is not passing the football. : )
I agree that when the running game is working, you stick with it. I just think there's a contingent of Husker fans who remember the offense getting 5, 6, 7 yards a carry in the first quarter, and conveniently forgetting when we got stuffed for zero, 1 and 2 yards a carry after defenses adjusted.
I just don't see how "multiple" takes away from the running game. The efficient offense you just described could be accused of being multiple. You run to set up the pass. But you also pass to set up the run. I don't think that's too tricky or overly sophisticated.
Maybe it's the notion that there's a preferred run/pass ratio, and Beck intends on maintaining if for every game regardless of what's actually working. Bo and Beck have uttered things recently to give that impression. I hope they don't have a magic number myself. I'd expect every game to have variations, because every game will unfold differently.
The offense actually worked pretty well last season, all things considered, with Beck's 5:3 rush/pass ratio. When things didn't work it seemed more a matter of execution than play calling. Believe it or not there were times when Abdullah and Cross got stuffed in short yardage situations. No one complained about Beck's stubborn insistence on running.
Abdullah got his yards playing in a multiple offense. That was basically my point. The passing game is Abdullah's friend.
