Huge fan of our offense, especially those games that we control TOP with demoralizing drives without throwing a single pass. We don't have to pass to win, nor should we.
However, for this offense to click on all cylinders, especially against good teams that put 9 in the box, we need to make them respect a legitimate passing threat. Right now we don't do that reliably, but it's not a scheme problem.
The problem is how do you answer the question of how to have a legitimate passing threat in this scheme? It does no good to say that in theory our scheme is fine if we can get x y and z, if in reality we can't get x,y, and z. I think most people will say something along the lines of "we just need the right QB". I have two issues with that. The first is that passing ability isn't just some innate thing. You have to practice it, and you have to have a QB get in rhythm during games. I think so many people look at missed passes and say, oh with just a better throw...., but don't stop to consider that perhaps the reason for the poor throw is that the QB has no rhythm passing. WHy do you think when back up QBs are put in, that they either hand it off, have called plays, or if you know they will play the rest of the way, try to get them easy passes? The second thing is I don't think QB is the biggest problem passing. I think pass blocking and WR separation are. Right now our passing game relies almost entirely on fooling defenses to get WRs open. If the defense isn't fooled, we don't get separation, and we also don't give our WRs time to get separation because of poor pass blocking. Occasionally we've had WRs good enough to make play without separation. The two big names in that regard are Bebe who wasn't recruited for this offense, and Smelter who was his own unique situation. While we've had a couple other good (Hill) and solid (Ricky) neither of those led to defenses really respecting the pass.
I think at the end of the day the scheme may not be the issue from a theoretical point when it comes to establishing a passing threat, but i think practically it is.
If we're moving the ball, scoring TDs and winning with the run, why should we pass more? But if running first isn't working, we should be good enough to complete passes.
So can you be good enough to pass when you need to if you never pass when you don't?