Only two INTs through 5 games

[Elf]

Tommy's looked better but that int number could easily be 4 if not 5. Several near picks already but fortunately for Nebraska and Tommy those passes were dropped by the defenders. A little luck never hurts obviously.

You can say the samething about coulda, shoulda, woulda picks any any QB. It's just part of the game.

In how many pregame shows (other than Nebraska) do they talk about how consistently a QB has made bad decisions. These are at the level of "WTH were you thinking", game after game. Some of those "could, woulda, shoulda" passes that were dropped by defenders are perfect examples of this. Like the one on Saturday where there were 3 defenders around the husker receiver.

Tommy has gotten better about his WTH moments but they are not gone by a long shot. We've been pretty lucky so far that it hasn't bit us in the hindquarters more.

 

[ZRod]

Tommy is miles ahead of last year with those throws though. Brees, Brady, Manning, Brett friggin Favre (most of all!) have WTH moments in their games/seasons. Tommy is a college QB, there will likely be one of those every game. That's the way the college is, they're young guys learning, but he has improved tremendously over last year in that department. He just needs to maintain at a minimum for the rest of the season.

 

[GBRHouston]

That's because TA is being played how he is meant to be played. The majority of plays involving him are designed runs or screen passes, which is very encouraging.

He was horrible in recent years in screen passes and dump off throws. TA deserves A LOT of credit for improving in those areas.

He seems to be able to throw less than 100mph on short passes now. Still does occasionally (To Brandon Reilly yesterday), but he has gotten better about that.

 

[Mavric]

I give Langsdorf a lot of credit. He's learned to stick with the running game and limit the times we try to throw it. He's also done a great job of giving Tommy the absolute easiest throws possible - doesn't go through progressions much, gets to throw a lot of short passes and a lot of times the receivers are stationary or only slightly moving.

All that being said, we've also been helped by facing a pretty easy schedule. We've only played one team inside the Top 70 in the country in opponent's QB rating (#55 Northwestern). With all that, I would have thought his completion percentage would be better than it is. We'll see if we can keep it up as the competition improves.

 

[stargazer]

Still hanging on at #30 in pass efficiency, nearly 60% completion rate.

 

[Landlord]

Tommy has gotten better about his WTH moments but they are not gone by a long shot. We've been pretty lucky so far that it hasn't bit us in the hindquarters more.

It's not really luck - we've had pretty much the same "luck" that it hasn't bitten us in the a$$ more for every season he's started. He's always had the WTH moments that were near picks. Go back and watch my USC highlight video - his most balling game ever and there were like 5-6 passes right into the hands of USC defenders.

 

[Elf]

Tommy is miles ahead of last year with those throws though. Brees, Brady, Manning, Brett friggin Favre (most of all!) have WTH moments in their games/seasons. Tommy is a college QB, there will likely be one of those every game. That's the way the college is, they're young guys learning, but he has improved tremendously over last year in that department. He just needs to maintain at a minimum for the rest of the season.

I agree he is doing far better this year. You won't get any argument from me on that.

 

[Count 'Bility]

His number of head scratchin decisions are way down. That's what I like. I'm not playing the "what if" game of near picks with him anymore. If they were picks, they woulda been picks. So we cant hold that against the guy anymore. Even his yolo bomb saturday to Peirson-El i didnt mind. It was one on one at the goal line with a guy who's made some neat catches numerous times before. Not saying it was premeditated on Tommy's part, cuz he's got a good tendacny of doing this, but that's a matchup i'll take a stab at anytime. The pick at the end of the half. meh. It happens. and it was only his second of the year. You really have to feel good about it. I just feel bad for Tommy he hasnt been able to experience this level of qb coaching 2-3 years ago. Cuz he's really starting to show his capabilities in all phases.

 

[Undone]

I give Langsdorf a lot of credit. He's learned to stick with the running game and limit the times we try to throw it. He's also done a great job of giving Tommy the absolute easiest throws possible - doesn't go through progressions much, gets to throw a lot of short passes and a lot of times the receivers are stationary or only slightly moving.

Agreed. The turnaround in both philosophy and willingness to use what he has is really making this season very different from last.

I'm still not exactly sure what we have with our offensive line. Do we have a line that can show up and allow us to grind out drives against Wisconsin? I'm leaning towards "no." But what's interesting is, we're finding different ways to get our play-makers into space in the flats, etc.

I was really surprised and impressed at how quickly Illinois flew to the ball with speed. We couldn't get outside as much throughout the majority of the game; they showed a lot of speed on the edges. I expect the same against Wisconsin, so it'll be interesting to see if we'll be forced to have Tommy throwing from the shotgun more in that game. I hope not, but I'm just not really sure what our offensive line is really capable of in that game.

 

[husker98]

That's because TA is being played how he is meant to be played. The majority of plays involving him are designed runs or screen passes, which is very encouraging.

I'm not an X and O guy, but I wonder if we have some of Tom Herman's run pass option plays installed. I still think TA is much better rolling out.

Other than yesterdays INT, he has really cut down on the who in the heck was that ball thrown to. He and Langs seem to really have him playing at a much better level than last year and within his abilities. Finally square peg square hole with him. Langs also appears to be growing into calling what works. Although yesterday I was confused at some play calls.

It's just your standard run pass read, or pass run read. Some of it is even the modern triple option, read the screen if its not there then run the read option ect. This is the type of offense Tommy was made for and that's why we have progressed on offense. I'm not sure it is quite the same as Hermans offense which is really similar to Meyer's though.