We have analyzed this QB situation up and down. We all have our questions, solutions and arguments. This post is to look at the QB situation by looking at other QBs from other teams. You can't directly compare apples and oranges, but you can draw some conclusions by observing others.
Take for example the Indiana game. I think we can agree Cardale's performance wasn't horrible, but it wasn't spectacular either. Whatever is going on has changed him from a dump-truck running, cannon-armed highlight machine to a less-than-perfect game manager lacking self-confidence. Teams feared him; now they load the box because they don't respect him.
Indiana lost their starting QB and inserted a skinny and scrawny sophomore signal caller - Zander Diamont. Zander looked confident and led Indiana on two scoring drives almost pulling off the upset. He did it with his legs and had a decent game passing. All this with their star RB sidelined. Why is it that an 180 lb Qb with a horrible college record on a notoriously horrible college team can come in and effectively run his offense and we are stuck coming to 11W complaining about how our QB cant string together a sustainable drive, convert third downs, score in the red zone, or simply look comfortable? The offenses are similar, but the talent is not. Should Cardale (and/or JT) not be able to do the same? Didnt they in fact do the same last season?
No matter who I throw out in comparison one could rebuttle with a counter argument stating that it is not exactly the same, hence apples to oranges. For every successful QB there are ones that struggle. Many of them play on teams with arguably less talent than OSU and were able to move the ball and put points on the board against better competition. Looking at inexperienced QBs who played immediately or who were forced to play. Guys like Jared Goff a few years ago at Cal, Josh Rosen at UCLA, our own Cardale and JT last season, Seth Russel at Baylor, Kyle Allen at A&M, Greg Ward at Houston.
My initial hypothosis when I started this was have patience we'll hit our stride. Now its Cardale may never be Cardale from last season; the same goes for JT. Last season was special. It cant be duplicated. After typing this out I am beginning to conclude we may not have a QB as productive as the ones I mentioned above. That is fine. I dont mind having a game manager. That is an identity and a start. Cardale the game manager that occasionally runs over people or occasionally hits a deep ball can be effective on this team. The troublesome part is that we havent seen either of those things in the last 4 games or even the effort to do either of the two.
