Tommy Armstrong's Very Busy Holiday Season

[knapplc]

What'd you do between Thanksgiving & Christmas? Likely you ate too much, did some shopping, got together with family & friends and generally were very busy.

Tommy Armstrong did all that, too. And...

He was disastrous against Iowa, kinda costing us the game.

He took the blame for the loss on his own shoulders, asked to be treated like a Freshman, and went back to work.

He did another 12 practices after Nebraska's season got a stay of execution & a bid to the Foster Farms bowl. Whatever that is.

He got engaged to his (now) fiancee, Husker soccer standout Jaylyn Odermann. For real.

He played in the Foster Farms bowl, where he was instrumental in the win.

And to cap it all off, he won the Offensive MVP award.

That's one hell of a busy Holiday Season for Mr. Armstrong.

Think what you will of Armstrong, compliment or criticize him however you want. But you can't question his work ethic. Yes, he's maddening at times, and yes, he's half incredible, half a disaster sometimes. But all things considered, I really like the guy. I'm glad he's our quarterback. And I'm firmly behind him taking all the snaps in 2016.

YOLO!

 

[grandpasknee]

Knappic....weren't you a mod? Retire? And I"m with you on your post...he's put in one heck of a month or so. He does make me crazy at times, but I love the fight in that guy.

 

[Bball1091]

Amazing what happens when Armstrong throws the ball less than 25 times and has 10 carries.

 

[Count 'Bility]

I compliment him for tonight. He talked. Then backed it up with solid play. Its no coincidence that playing one of the worst rush defenses in the nation that for whatever the hell decided to play with 6-7 in the box all night made him morecomfortable, but yeah.

He had some lapses. Still cant make solid throws on perfectly set up screens. Watching ucla gash us to death with bubbles makes me cry cuz we dont have a qb that is consistentky capable. But afew playscant change the narrative that he played a damn good overall game. Tommy is what he is. And he was good tonight. Real good. But are we ready toexpect this on a consistent basis for 2016? Im not. Not yet. But the best part is is he still has another year to prove me wring. My issue is i now have 3 seasons worth the results to go off of. Imnot reasy to overreact and say hes turned the corner. Not yet.

 

[alwayshusking]

Coaches used him well. Hopefully this is a sign for the future

 

[Jim Hammer]

So when Tommy plays well and the O-line is blocking well, the offense looks really good.

Who'da thunk it?

 

[knapplc]

I compliment him for tonight. He talked. Then backed it up with solid play. Its no coincidence that playing one of the worst rush defenses in the nation that for whatever the hell decided to play with 6-7 in the box all night made him morecomfortable, but yeah.

He had some lapses. Still cant make solid throws on perfectly set up screens. Watching ucla gash us to death with bubbles makes me cry cuz we dont have a qb that is consistentky capable. But afew playscant change the narrative that he played a damn good overall game. Tommy is what he is. And he was good tonight. Real good. But are we ready toexpect this on a consistent basis for 2016? Im not. Not yet. But the best part is is he still has another year to prove me wring. My issue is i now have 3 seasons worth the results to go off of. Imnot reasy to overreact and say hes turned the corner. Not yet.

They're better at bubble screens because they have a 6'4" WR blocking out wide, and our DBs weren't powering through to get to the ball carrier. We've defended that play well all year until tonight.

Conversely, we don't execute that play as well as UCLA because our perimeter blocking is often porous. Tommy usually delivers the ball well on that play. It's the blocking that makes or breaks it.

 

[Hujan]

Tommy makes mistakes but he also needs to be put into position to succeed. He's at his best when he's commanding a strong rush attack and can use the run to setup the pass. He is not going to be effective throwing 30, 35, or 40 times a game. Limit his passes, dial up some shorter routes to bring up his confidence, and let him throw off of play-action and he will succeed. It's really not rocket science and I hope the coaches finally understand how to best use Tommy.

 

[Count 'Bility]

I compliment him for tonight. He talked. Then backed it up with solid play. Its no coincidence that playing one of the worst rush defenses in the nation that for whatever the hell decided to play with 6-7 in the box all night made him morecomfortable, but yeah.He had some lapses. Still cant make solid throws on perfectly set up screens. Watching ucla gash us to death with bubbles makes me cry cuz we dont have a qb that is consistentky capable. But afew playscant change the narrative that he played a damn good overall game. Tommy is what he is. And he was good tonight. Real good. But are we ready toexpect this on a consistent basis for 2016? Im not. Not yet. But the best part is is he still has another year to prove me wring. My issue is i now have 3 seasons worth the results to go off of. Imnot reasy to overreact and say hes turned the corner. Not yet.

They're better at bubble screens because they have a 6'4" WR blocking out wide, and our DBs weren't powering through to get to the ball carrier. We've defended that play well all year until tonight.Conversely, we don't execute that play as well as UCLA because our perimeter blocking is often porous. Tommy usually delivers the ball well on that play. It's the blocking that makes or breaks it.

no. We cant execute them because our qb cant consistently make the throws. Its why the bubble was scrapped mid season. Tried to make a comeback against Spartyand was promply put on the shelf for good after a couple erratic throws then.
The reason the blocking and execution looks bad is because the eratic throws throw the timing off the whole thing. Like tonigt on that 3rd and long screen to Newby. He had to turn and jump to cathch the ball. That extra .5-.75 second ruined the whole timing. Allowed the pursuit to get there. Make a good throw, and we had the blocks and the pursuit outflanked. Its this little things and its not a new revelation this season. Its just not something hes good at. Throws a great deep ball but cant throw it 5 yards. Its been his knock for 3 years now.

 

[NU jumper alum]

Tommy makes mistakes but he also needs to be put into position to succeed. He's at his best when he's commanding a strong rush attack and can use the run to setup the pass. He is not going to be effective throwing 30, 35, or 40 times a game. Limit his passes, dial up some shorter routes to bring up his confidence, and let him throw off of play-action and he will succeed. It's really not rocket science and I hope the coaches finally understand how to best use Tommy.

biggest difference was him not throwing off his back foot and into triple overage. That's on him, not the coaches.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Tommy makes mistakes but he also needs to be put into position to succeed. He's at his best when he's commanding a strong rush attack and can use the run to setup the pass. He is not going to be effective throwing 30, 35, or 40 times a game. Limit his passes, dial up some shorter routes to bring up his confidence, and let him throw off of play-action and he will succeed. It's really not rocket science and I hope the coaches finally understand how to best use Tommy.

biggest difference was him not throwing off his back foot and into triple overage. That's on him, not the coaches.

But it is on the coaches to ask him to do things that he doesn't excel in. Tommy needs to be involved in the running game and be used in a lot of play action passes. Also, focusing on the run game brings an extra defender out of pass coverage and makes it easier for him to read coverages. Having TA drop back to pass and read multiple coverages 40 times a game is just stupid.

 

[lo country]

Langs called the game to this teams strengths. It forced UCLA to account for our running game and TA's mobility. It allowed our receivers to have single coverage as the safeties were in the box to account for the run and TA's legs.... This made the throws "easier" for TA as he didn't have to make multiple reads, throw into double/triple coverage and appeared to be told to make a read and then run.

I truly hope that this is the O moving forward. I could care less about the "UCLA was weak against the run". We were able to put up over 300+ yards on the ground against a quality FBS program that was 8-4 coming into this game. Even when/if POB gets the keys, I would still run a power running game with zone read options to set up PA passing. Chip Kelly as Philly uses Bradford in the zone read, but instead of running, he uses the same cues to hand off or dump the pass.

Great win.

 

[HuskerInLostWages]

I compliment him for tonight. He talked. Then backed it up with solid play. Its no coincidence that playing one of the worst rush defenses in the nation that for whatever the hell decided to play with 6-7 in the box all night made him morecomfortable, but yeah.

He had some lapses. Still cant make solid throws on perfectly set up screens. Watching ucla gash us to death with bubbles makes me cry cuz we dont have a qb that is consistentky capable. But afew playscant change the narrative that he played a damn good overall game. Tommy is what he is. And he was good tonight. Real good. But are we ready toexpect this on a consistent basis for 2016? Im not. Not yet. But the best part is is he still has another year to prove me wring. My issue is i now have 3 seasons worth the results to go off of. Imnot reasy to overreact and say hes turned the corner. Not yet.

They're better at bubble screens because they have a 6'4" WR blocking out wide, and our DBs weren't powering through to get to the ball carrier. We've defended that play well all year until tonight.

Conversely, we don't execute that play as well as UCLA because our perimeter blocking is often porous. Tommy usually delivers the ball well on that play. It's the blocking that makes or breaks it.

We dont normally have 2 blockers either. They would get the ball out and have 2 blockers knocking people off. We've had more than 1 a few times but normally it's just the first guy getting the initial coverage and then we have the the guy with the ball trying to break a tackle from the safety. UCLA runs that play to perfection, we run it pretty well but no where near UCLA.

 

[Hunter94]

Tommy makes mistakes but he also needs to be put into position to succeed. He's at his best when he's commanding a strong rush attack and can use the run to setup the pass. He is not going to be effective throwing 30, 35, or 40 times a game. Limit his passes, dial up some shorter routes to bring up his confidence, and let him throw off of play-action and he will succeed. It's really not rocket science and I hope the coaches finally understand how to best use Tommy.

biggest difference was him not throwing off his back foot and into triple overage. That's on him, not the coaches.

But it is on the coaches to ask him to do things that he doesn't excel in. Tommy needs to be involved in the running game and be used in a lot of play action passes. Also, focusing on the run game brings an extra defender out of pass coverage and makes it easier for him to read coverages. Having TA drop back to pass and read multiple coverages 40 times a game is just stupid.

exactly.......MR told a damn lie, he forced TA into a pro style passing role......yeah, its his dream, when POB gets here he will soon be the man, because MR wants to run that style......but why piss away a season, trying to get TA to be something he is not?.......

 

[PTPer]

What'd you do between Thanksgiving & Christmas? Likely you ate too much, did some shopping, got together with family & friends and generally were very busy.

Tommy Armstrong did all that, too. And...

He was disastrous against Iowa, kinda costing us the game.

He took the blame for the loss on his own shoulders, asked to be treated like a Freshman, and went back to work.

He did another 12 practices after Nebraska's season got a stay of execution & a bid to the Foster Farms bowl. Whatever that is.

He got engaged to his (now) fiancee, Husker soccer standout Jaylyn Odermann. For real.

He played in the Foster Farms bowl, where he was instrumental in the win.

And to cap it all off, he won the Offensive MVP award.

That's one hell of a busy Holiday Season for Mr. Armstrong.

Think what you will of Armstrong, compliment or criticize him however you want. But you can't question his work ethic. Yes, he's maddening at times, and yes, he's half incredible, half a disaster sometimes. But all things considered, I really like the guy. I'm glad he's our quarterback. And I'm firmly behind him taking all the snaps in 2016.

YOLO!

Funny how we Husker fans can remember the finest details of Tommie F's championship game in 1996-97 but tend to mis-remember Nov. 25th, 2015 for the current Tommy. Yeah, that's the day he was informed no charges would be filed for an alleged rape at his house. I wonder where that ranks in his "busy holiday schedule?"