After throwing 2 picks and for only 172 and 2 tds Brewer was benched late in the 4th for back up QB Mark Leal who handed the ball off for 35 yards and helped seal the win against WMU. When asked about the QB switch after the game Frank Beamer said "Leal was getting after the extremely short passing game in practice and we knew if Brewer struggled we could bring in Leal. We did and it worked out for the win today." \sarcasm
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Well my sister texted me at the game saying the announcers were calling for him to be benched. I guess Beamer bowed to pressure from the press. :)
Haha...didn't hear hear that just thought I would put a light hearted topic up
The man is playing like crap. His first pick into coverage nearly cost VT 6 points, and led to the defense starting on the 2 yard line. Last week it was a pick 6 that turned the momentum.
This is not a 3 year starter who is struggling, this is year one for him and it is not going well. If he doesn't lead the nation in picks, he is in the top 3.
He did have some balls dropped, but how long of a leash are we going with here? At what point do you give someone else a look. He is averaging 2+ picks a game.
Nope averaging exactly two picks a game I think.
Rather the man is making some poor decisions, but he is not playing like crap. Averaging over 60% completion, with this week being the first sub-50% game (though I probably saw him throw the ball away more times this game than in past games), and already throwing for 1200+ yards. He's in the top half with regards to completion percentage and top-30 in yards all while being 6th in attempts. Only the QBs from Penn State, ODU, Wazzu, Colorado, and Western Kentucky have more attempts than him. And yes, he is tied for the lead in interceptions, but that comes with throwing the ball more. With regards to this last weekend, his first pick, I couldn't tell who he was throwing to besides the other team. On the second one, I don't blame him as it was a jump ball in the endzone that was just barely off.
Its one thing if the INTs were just a series of good plays by the defense, which you'd kind of expect with an offense that is throwing the ball more often than we're used to. Brewer's problems are that the's legitimately throwing inexcusable passes that are being picked off and either costing us a scoring chance, or setting the opposition up with either a pick-6 or in prime position to put points on the board. He's literally throwing games away, which does completely overshadow all the yards and the completion % he's putting up, because its giving points to the opposition and, at the very least in regards to the GT game, its costing us wins.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not excusing all of his INTs, just the one in the endzone on a fade route. This game though, his mistakes only cost 6 points and not a win whereas that wasn't the case in other games. My point is just that he's throwing a high percentage of passes. When you throw more, you're going to see more INTs. 61% of his attemps go to our team, ~5% go to the other team. It's the stupid ones, like the GT pick 6 or INTs inside our own 30 that need to be cut back. He's had 7 INTs within our own 40 yard line. Regardless, stating he's playing like crap is false.
Truth be told, of Brewer's last 5 interceptions, all of them led directly to scores by the opponent (4 TDs and 1 FG if memory serves). Against Western Michigan, we overcame those 14 points. But those 17 points against Georgia Tech cost the game.
It almost seems like the offense plays better when Brewer has to throw less often. Gets toward that balance that Loeffler has been trying to achieve.
I forgot that the second interception led to a field goal, but the point is that I still don't blame him for that one given the circumstances. All I'm trying to say is that he needs to limit the bad decisions and that wasn't one of them.
Ok. Maybe 'crap' is a bit strong. He is playing well but making terrible game changing decisions. He is turning the ball over and putting the defense behind the 8-ball. Bring that into ACC play, and a bowl game could be the ceiling for this team. We are not good enough to overcome terrible turnovers on our half of the field. That DB was just in a simple zone coverage, nothing special he was doing and Brewer hit him in the chest. Same side of the field as the the GT INT to lead to the go ahead score. He might be blind in one eye and can't see the left side of the field.
The INT in the endzone will happen, I'll let that one go. And he did have a TD throw dropped by Cam that was a beautiful ball.
But he is Brett Favre 2.0. And not the MVP Brett, the late-in-his-career-gunslinging-and-making-poor-decisions Brett.
We can beat WMU teams by having 2 picks, but are you confident that we can do the same against the rest of the ACC with the way this team has played the last 3 weeks?
I think Brewer is a microcosm of the whole team. Playing reasonably well, but screwing up at big moments. Look at the defense against ECU and GT. Shut down ECU for 45 minutes but couldn't hold on. Gave up a tying TD to GT after a bust in coverage and Kendall falling down. Look at the O-line. Getting it done after wearing the opponent down, but not consistently. Look at the receivers - good downfield blocking skills, making plays, but also dropping big passes and occasionally not fighting hard enough for the ball. It's just how this team is. Brewer is the focus because the QB is always the focus. I was really frustrated with his first INT, and I hope he's going to shed the INT habit he's got. But I don't think that Brewer is playing any better or worse than the entire team around him.
And few teams are really. That's my point though. Those mistakes need to be drastically reduced. I'm glad we agree on the 2nd INT though. I don't want him averaging 2 INTs per game unless we are putting together more scoring drives and can manage it. Right now, we can't. The throw to Cam though killed me. That could have been a statement for the kid had he caught it. Ugh, so close and really, he should have had it as it looked like he had his hands in the right place.
At the risk of sounding like John Madden, he reminds me a lot of Brett Favre. I even made that comparison to my roommate after the OSU game, when he made a number of questionable decisions. The kid can play, he definitely has an accurate arm, and he's developed a decent rapport with our receivers in only a couple months. He also has a lot of confidence in his arm and is willing to take chances that some of us might not like.
I think my biggest complaint with this whole discussion about whether he should be benched revolves around the comments about how he played so well against Ohio State and so poorly since. I know against aOSU he had at least 3 throws where as soon as I saw where the ball was headed I was cringing, because it was thrown right into double- or triple-coverage, but the ball was placed literally the only place where his man could get it and the receiver made a play to bring it in. Those decisions were very risky but they worked out. Now, there may be a few mistakes he's made that are a lot worse than those, but it's not like he suddenly started forcing throws in week 3, it's just started to catch up with him.
I have to agree with this. You can't average 2 INTs a game over any serious length of time and remain entrenched as starter. Its getting to the point where Brewer is putting us seriously behind the 8ball defensively with these INTs and its routinely costing us momentum and giving the other team points. I think I read over the weekend that his INTs have accounted for 27 points scored by the opposition over the past 2 games. That's not a trend any team can afford to keep up over the course of the long haul.
If the competition was seriously that close between Leal, Motley, and Brewer this offseason, with the way Brewer has been hurting us with these costly INTs, we might not have a choice but to see what either Leal or Motley have in the coming weeks. Give them both 1st team reps in practice this week, and send the message that these kinds of decisions by Brewer is just simply not acceptable. I'm not saying outright bench him, but it might not be the worst thing to put a little bit of the fear of God in him about his starting spot.
I noticed a lot of the D got 'benched' late also
They allowed a positive net rushing yardage total. Clearly a change needed to be made.
And they allowed WMU to score their first points against us ever
Hard not to allow points when they get the ball on the 3 yard line, especially with that RB they have...he's pretty beastly.
Yeah it was odd, they seemed to get benched almost half the time. Foster must have been really disappointed in them.
Tommy Bowden is the last guy who should be commenting on replacing QB starters seeing as his decision to bench his senior starter, Cullen Harper, with freshman Wille Korn after consecutive losses was the final straw in his mid-season dismissal at Clemson.
Not to mention several other QB controversies he played a large role in creating during his less than spectacular tenure at Clemson.
Don't you miss the Bowden Bowl
Given Trey Edmunds' performance on that final drive, WMU must've put in their second string defense to handle our back-ups.
Joel Caleb, possibly? I didn't see Trey Edmunds in on the final offensive drive.
Ehh, 14 vs. 15. I was close.
This is a funny post and I think benching brewer was not the answer, but the reality of the situation is the for the second week in a row, Michael Brewer made some stupid and costly decisions that put the team in a bad situation going into the locker room at half. I am glad we stopped putting so much of the the game in his hands in the second half.
It was actually shockingly similar to what FSU did pretty much all of last year. For whatever reason, Jimbo decided to put way too much on Jameis before realizing his running game was spectacular and would open up the passing game immensely. That NC game shouldn't have even been close.
I would certainly be pleased to see McKenzie and Williams rip off 25 yard runs for the rest of the year. That was like a dream. An awesome dream.
But now that W.Michigan is in the rearview mirror...I dunno.
Maybe we have seen the end of RB's running into the back of the OL 2 yards deep in the backfield, anyway.
#babysteps
You mean EDMUNDS and Williams, no?
Shai had 11, 12, 14, an 16 yarders. They were so glorious, I guess I got carried away.
And damn sorry to read the latest news.
Wake up Alice, you're in wonderland with this post. Haha. Our Texas QB makes great plays on third down and makes plays leaving us scratching our heads Sling , 'what was he thinking or seeing out there'. This is Brewers first full time playing I quite some time. He's going make mistakes, he's going to make big plays. We have to enjoy the ride. This young team is building invaluable experience for the future.
This is a joke
I'm not going to enjoy the ride....why would anyone enjoy this? Especially after watching the OSU game and seeing the potential we have when we've got our heads screwed on tight. It's a lack of mental toughness. And it starts with the coaches. If we didn't have the talent I wouldn't be complaining because I would understand. But that's not the case. Getting your boys ready to execute on the weekend is the job of a coach. I'm tired of everyone coming up with excuses to justify how this team looks. It's time to stop telling yourself lies and look in the mirror because if something doesn't change with this team we could be looking at a horrible season. I haven't been this scared to play UVA since 'nam. And that's saying something
We did get another "Illegal Substitution" penalty...
Brewer did not play well. His numbers were bad and he threw some more bad picks.
He gave them the first touchdown.
Thankfully we got the running game going in the 2nd half. I think we need to adjust the play calling and cut down the turnovers and penalties and we will be much better.
I do think the coaches need to take responsibility on some of this also.
I believe we will continue to improve. We can beat anyone....but we can LOSE to anyone right now also.
We can enjoy the ride without the bonehead mistakes. Brewer looks like a great gunslinger one moment, and then the next he throws it into coverage and doesn't even see the D-back sitting in zone waiting for the pick.
At least he was better in the second half.
I will enjoy the ride much more without the turnovers...
That being said, I would still keep him in there however.
I didn't down vote you, but the more time that passes, the more we will appreciate the anOSU win, IMO.
We all wanted to believe that we were really good, but we have a whole lot of weaknesses. That's just the reality of the situation, from where I sit. I also think the coaches put a TON of effort/planning into winning that game, and it paid off beautifully. It also seems to be paying dividends on the recruiting trail, as I had hoped. And I am thankful for it. Still ecstatic, really. It's in the books, and..."they can't take that away from me".
As for LOLUVA...Frank has never really had any of that nonsense. That's job #1.
Its an okay message to send that if he continues to make these bad decisions that are so costly that we can and will bench him. Something our coaches have had trouble doing recently.
It's not going to hurt his confidence, it will just make him think twice before throwing the ball up for grabs.
I honestly would have been ok with Leal or Motley getting the 2nd half start this past weekend even if only for a series, just to try and hammer home the message that you simply cannot keep putting the ball into the opponent's hands.
I've said this before, but that's how you end up with a UVA QB situation. It annihilates any confidence the QB has in himself and the rest of the team has in him. Very, very very rarely do you see a mid-game change at QB end up working out for a team (and off the top of my head, I can't even think of any). The only message the coaches would send there is one of a lack of trust in the starter. That's how you get a team to implode.
Tyrod vs Duke in '08 (I think) threw a bunch of picks in the first half. They benched him for Sean. We won 14-3 iirc. Ty was the starter again the next week.
Brewer will be the first one to tell you he is not playing great right now. He seems to be trying his best to get over that slump and not let it affect his play. He is a descent QB when he is not throwing pick 6s , but when he is, he is tied in the nation for INTs.
I applaud that, and I can respect a guy giving his all. I am not questioning his heart or his effort, he is probably doing his best.
But, maybe it's time for the good of the team, to see if someone else's best is better than what Brewer is doing right now.
The blueprint is in on VT's QB. Keep everything underneath, try to keep him dinking and dunking his way down the field, eventually he is going to throw a pick at a rate of 2 per game. If defenses can limit his damage to short gainers, he will turn it over. Sometimes deep in his own zone when you drop a DB into zone coverage.
he doesnt have to be "great" though thats the whole thing. this team is built to win when we take care of the football. we are a field position oppurtonistic team. if brewer plays good and eliminates the TOs we are an undefeated football team. even with his picks we should still be 5-0 right now, but if he throws those in the dirt or even takes a sack there is no doubt in my mind we are 5-0 right now. even if he cuts the TO #s in 1/2 i believe we are 5-0 right now. im not putting it all on him. but he has to understand what VT is and what kind of football we play here and what has made us so succesful over the years. we ARE NOT a gun slinging its okay if the other team scores because we are going to come right back and sling it some more till we have more points than the other team type of team that i think hes used to playing with.
Brewer did not cost us the ECU game. That one was all on our defense.
Again, I don't think we can discount Brewer's period of inactivity for over a year, leading to some of these mistakes. He's the most natural passing QB we've seen at VT in quite some time, but he is also hampered by shaking off some rust. I think he'll really impress late in the season, thus setting up for a good 2015.
This is a really good point. He didn't go through spring practice for anyone, and has been tasked with picking up and executing Loeffler's offense in a very short amount of time. A few mistakes here and there are to be expected, and that's largely what we've seen of him (although said few mistakes have been pretty big ones).
This is going to start more pro-anti rants than the open letter