Are Armstrong's completions enough?

[lo country]

NU in the day beat teams who schemed to stop the option with QB's who never completed more than 52-54% of their passes.

 

Teams will continue to scheme to take away our running game. Will "better" D's do a better job? Yes, but the running game will still work. TA doesn't have to be Peyton to get them out of the box. Beck simply needs to call enough high percentage passes to make them respect the threat. Real or not. Limit the route tree of the receivers and the progressions TA needs to go through. Have 2 reads and then dump to the RB. A simple pump, or shoulder dip would do wonders in freezing the safety. PA will also cause the DB to freeze allowing a better chance to complete a pass. We will probably see a lot of 1-1 match ups as teams stuff the box. Win those and force them to pull the safeties out. Wider splits and motions will also pull LB's out. As will running a "jumbo" package where the LB needs to hold to be accountable for the TE's.

 

TO beat teams regularly who schemed to take away the run. One thing our great QB's of old has was the pass was either a TD, completion or throw away. Rarely were they intercepted. That's the key. TA can hover around 50%. Who cares. So long as he is avoiding the picks. Lean in the run like we have the past 2 games. Regardless of what Beck "wants" its what he's got. Embrace it. Bo said after the game that nothing is as demoralizing as watching a team run over you and you can't stop it. MSU, like most teams, will feel the same way if we punch them in the mouth time and time again.

[Moiraine]

Hopefully we're saving the PA for MSU, because we haven't used it enough.

[NebraskaHarry]

Hopefully we're saving the PA for MSU, because we haven't used it enough.

We've used it once. Bell scored last night off it.

[Guy Chamberlin]

Starting to see a trend versus maybe some tougher teams. About a 50% completion percentage, usually a pick, but also hits a few big time passes up top for some big yards.

 

1) Is this enough to balance the strong running attack?

 

2) Does he just need to hit a few big passes a game?

 

1) Yes.

2) Yes.

[Hammerhead]

TO beat teams regularly who schemed to take away the run. One thing our great QB's of old has was the pass was either a TD, completion or throw away. Rarely were they intercepted. That's the key. TA can hover around 50%. Who cares. So long as he is avoiding the picks.

That will ultimately be the key. If we can keep them stacking the box and leaving us with 1-on-1 matchups (in other words, keep ourselves out of obvious passing situations), we'll be alright offensively. Tommy usually doesn't throw to a guy who's locked up in single coverage, but if they have LBs or safeties sitting back in zone coverage, that's where he runs into trouble, because he still has trouble reading zone coverage.

 

I think our best option offensively would be exactly that... the option. Zone read, triple option, even something out of diamond formation. We can still establish a passing game out of the option if we need to, and if we get any positive yardage on the ground through the option, I think we'd be better off using it to set up the pass than we would be if we went to good old fashioned 3-step drop passing. The one play where we ran play action against Illinois, Bell and Westerkamp were both wide open.

[74Hunter]

NU in the day beat teams who schemed to stop the option with QB's who never completed more than 52-54% of their passes.

 

Teams will continue to scheme to take away our running game. Will "better" D's do a better job? Yes, but the running game will still work. TA doesn't have to be Peyton to get them out of the box. Beck simply needs to call enough high percentage passes to make them respect the threat. Real or not. Limit the route tree of the receivers and the progressions TA needs to go through. Have 2 reads and then dump to the RB. A simple pump, or shoulder dip would do wonders in freezing the safety. PA will also cause the DB to freeze allowing a better chance to complete a pass. We will probably see a lot of 1-1 match ups as teams stuff the box. Win those and force them to pull the safeties out. Wider splits and motions will also pull LB's out. As will running a "jumbo" package where the LB needs to hold to be accountable for the TE's.

 

TO beat teams regularly who schemed to take away the run. One thing our great QB's of old has was the pass was either a TD, completion or throw away. Rarely were they intercepted. That's the key. TA can hover around 50%. Who cares. So long as he is avoiding the picks. Lean in the run like we have the past 2 games. Regardless of what Beck "wants" its what he's got. Embrace it. Bo said after the game that nothing is as demoralizing as watching a team run over you and you can't stop it. MSU, like most teams, will feel the same way if we punch them in the mouth time and time again.

I agree with much of what you said, but it's not the 90s anymore, Beck is no TO.

 

And if by avoiding interceptions you mean having them dropped, i agree.

[MichiganDad3]

The thing that scares me is that Armstrong has had several certain picks that were dropped over these first few games. Had one yesterday in fact. The Sparty DBs won't drop balls that get within their grasp. Tommy gonna need to be more careful come Saturday, or it'll be a long day.

TA can't read defenses. The pick and the dropped pick were by defenders moving in the opposite direction of the receiver. Part of this is starring down his receiver rather than reading the defense. The coaching staff needs to work on this with him.

[MichiganDad3]

 

The thing that scares me is that Armstrong has had several certain picks that were dropped over these first few games. Had one yesterday in fact. The Sparty DBs won't drop balls that get within their grasp. Tommy gonna need to be more careful come Saturday, or it'll be a long day.

Yep. We won't be able to afford many, if any, mistakes. This game possibly comes down to who has the final possession. Unless we give a few possessions away.

 

Credit to our defense we have also been taking the ball away the last few games. Davies two picks were fantastic and Gerry's grab was simply amazing.

 

The importance of Armstrongs game against Michigan state will be converting some third down situations I think. Continuing and sustaining drives. I have no reason not to expect a big play or two also. WR matchups will be interesting to watch. Hoping Westerkamp can get back in the mix a lot in this game. Maybe use Pierson-Els athleticism at WR a bit on some of those screen routes. Something to move the offense and let Tommy find a rhythm. Right now, we haven't been throwing nearly as much, which is working out fine, but it doesn't give the QB a chance to establish that feel in the passing game.

 

I'll just continue to hope the run game keeps going the way it has been. Even though my faith in Armstrong is high, I'm a run first kind of guy. Always have been , always will be.

 

I would love to see Pierson-Els on a couple screens or even a reverse.

[Guy Chamberlin]

It appears national college football analysts are much more impressed with Tommy Armstrong than most Husker fans.

[Bowfin]

Mistakes that don't cost the team a win are known as "teachable moments". As long as coaches teach and players learn, I will give them all the "teachable moments" there are in a winning effort.

 

To use an analogy, I prefer to hunt with a dog that has already came out second best against a skunk as compared to one who has yet to do so. Heading into a Michigan State game, I prefer a Tommy Armstrong who has already lost a fumble to poor ball security to a Tommy Armstrong who has yet to learn that lesson.

[grandpasknee]

Tommy Frazier completed what...57% (to lazy to google it, sorry). It was never about his percentage, it was about the ones he did complete...and when.

 

Too early to judge T.A., but I'm keeping an open mind. If he leads this team to conf championship(s) and playoff appearances, I couldn't care less about his %.

[True2tRA]

It appears national college football analysts are much more impressed with Tommy Armstrong than most Husker fans.

 

A lot of Husker fans don't know what they are looking at or what to look for.

 

Some of us (myself included) knew Tommy was going to be a good one. He's got two more years to keep getting better.

[True2tRA]

Anyway, to keep the thread on track, its hard to say if Armstrong will do enough to win this game or not. He's done enough in every game so far.

 

It really depends on Michigan States defense. This just might be the game we've all wondered about. When a team shuts down the run and dares us to throw can we do it. Personally, I don't think Michigan State can stop our run, but I have no worries if we have to rely on Tommy's arm to win the game. This is what being a Quarterback is all about, and Nebraska should expect to be able to answer the challenge. We just aren't used to being able to do that consistently yet. Hopefully Armstrong opens some eyes and fans start to trust the kid.

 

Or we run like crazy on em' and worry about the passing game another day.

[Dr. Strangelove]

It appears national college football analysts are much more impressed with Tommy Armstrong than most Husker fans.

I will say that going into this season I was very unimpressed with TA. However, I think he has improved on his game considerably since last season. The biggest difference, by far, is his ability to run the ball. The improvement in that category has made him a really nice QB in our system. I went from thinking anybody should start over him going into the season to really liking his game, particularly his option/zone read game. He's made beautiful reads for the most part this season.

 

I'm not sure he's progressed much as a passer, however. I think he can throw an accurate deep ball, but lacks some touch on the shorter passes. But if he can limit his mistakes next week, our running attack can win us the game if we can force some 3 and outs while controlling the clock on offense.

[zoogs]

Think of our passing game as kind of like that of a team that throws 30-40 times a game, only instead of the 15-20 high percentage passes per game they use as their bread and butter, we run the ball instead.