The only argument I’ve seen for not playing Kramer more is that “teams will know that we’re running”. Well, teams can be pretty damn confident that we’re running regardless of who’s at QB. At least Kramer adds the possibility of the QB keeping the ball. Plus he’s proven he can throw the ball when called upon. If Sanford wants to call plays like we’re a service academy, might as well go all-in.
I haven’t seen Kramer throw a long, downfield pass (Tanner has thrown many). But Kramer is 3 for 3 passing this season. Kramer has two TD passes in only 3 passing attempts. Heck, let other teams think that Kramer in the game means a run play. If they they don’t defend the pass as well, he will find a TE or WR. I fear that actually starting Kramer means we might give up the ability (little used this year) to take the top off a defense with a long bomb. Haven’t seen him cut loose yet. Situational substitution is probably best at this juncture.
We probably just finish this season with TM2 taking virtually all the snaps, hopefully beating Indiana and maybe winning a bowl game. Start fresh on offense in 2022. PJ’s worst passing game year was 2017 (Rhoda; Croft). But 2021 and 2020 are close behind 2017 as futile, non-productive passing game years—all well below PJ’s historical passing game production.
If 2022’s passing game is a repeat of 2020 and 2021, it will mean that PJ has fundamentally changed, that he has abandoned the balanced offense—with a robust passing element—that made his teams so exciting and successful, esp. in 2016 and 2019.
You can win a lot of games against inferior and middling opponents by running the ball 70% of the time, deploying your WRs principally as blockers and decoys. But you can’t win the big games against the better opponents with an intentionally atrophied passing game. Not even tOSU tries to do that. Football rules favor the passing game; elite teams don’t turn their nose up at that opportunity.