McD isn't running the offense, Daboll is. Before that it was Dennison.
Our team philosophy is to establish a running game, play mistake free and let the defense do their job which has frequently kept the opposition score down and meant we didn't need to abandon the run. There's part of your answer.
Josh being raw last year isn't revisionist history it's generally accepted opinion. You're on an island on this one. Most people thought he was raw coming into the draft. He looked very raw in camp and preseason, and it wasn't until after returning from injury that he started showing consistent ability as a passer, and even then he did a lot of his damage on the ground. It wasn't until this year, and really, post NE that he's started to look like a good NFL QB.
Clearly there's something about Peterman. McD got swindled and then Gruden did the same. McD has done so much else right. Pretty sure we can forgive him for missing on a 5th round pick.