After taking immense amounts of flack the past few weeks for his play, Michael Brewer played a hell of a game on Saturday. Sure, he missed a few passes that he should've hit but I'll take 31-48 (65%) for 345 yards and TD's any day. Also showed some serious toughness and grit in the second half. Hopefully he can keep this up and continue to improve throughout next offseason.
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I'm not the first to say this but Michael Brewer is one tough human being both mentally and physically. He may not be a great player but dammit I love that kid. He also saves a ton of sacks and keeps plays alive with that awesome spin move of his (the play were he spun of out of sack and threw it up to Rogers was sick.)
His future after college may not be in football, but I can just tell that whatever he does he will be successful at.
Agreed 100% I was at the game and the offense went as Brewer went. I gained a lot of respect for this kid over the season keeping his head up threw the up and downs and the love-hate relationship with the fan base. That 40 yard pass to Ford was such a beauty and got me cheering again because being down 13 in the fourth with a sore throat from cheering all game had me quiet at that point.
Agreed, he's making much smarter decisions with the ball. If he can find that consistency and continue developing with our young play makers I know he can be solid.
He is not a threat downfield with his feet and that allowed him to get some yards yesterday with his feet. But his ability to move and escape in the pocket is awesome. Not sure I have ever seen a QB spin out of as many sure sacks as he has this year.
not since Tyrod at least
Looking deep, HAS A MAN OPEN
Rolling left, now comes back to his right...
AND IT IS CAUGHT
"TYROD! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!"
*10 seconds later*
"OMG I LOVE YOU TYROD"
- Me circa 2010
2007-2010: The year Tyrod went out there and made things happen in spite of it all.
After having some time to mentally settle down from 3 straight losses, I feel better tonight. I think Brewer will continue to improve, as will the rest of this team. Will we win the needed games for a bowl appearance? I'm not sure about that, but I think next year we'll be a much improved team. A lot of young guys have gotten quality experience this year. Losing Chase Williams really hurt us the last two weeks, but Motuapuaka has gotten quality experience and looked pretty good in the process. That will certainly serve us well next year since Chase is a senior. Plus, most of our players are back on both sides of the ball. Losing stinks but I think we have a lot to look forward to. BTW, the Austin Clark commitment is some much needed good news!
One thing that got me pumped up was seeing AMot shuffling guys around and getting his teammates lined up properly a few times on Saturday. For a guy who Foster said needs to be a more vocal leader, that was awesome to see in only his second start.
I noticed that too.
Agreed. It sucks losing 3 straight, but THE TEAM HAS NOT QUIT and both offense and defense are playing with major injury losses. I am not at all sure if we'll make a bowl this year, but I do believe we will beat LOLUVA and we will be a MUCH better team next year. The Austin Clark commitment was indeed a ray of sunshine in a dark week!
He finally heard we were donating if he didn't throw any INTs
Ok, 3rd time I had to break rules and post a lol.
While that is a very nice thing on the stat sheet, when Brewer does NOT throw an interception, VT loses....
At this point, I'm just looking for any superstitious reason out there...
Brewer throws TWO interceptions, VT beats ranked opponent...
This is an idea I can get behind
Duke is ranked... we may need this bit of unluck for us next week.
Agreed. His decision making has improved. He has been throwing the ball away rather than forcing a throw. Now he heeds to work on getting through more reads before throwing it away, but the OL needs to get him a little more time to make those reads.
I don't know guys.....these interception-less games are losses.
3 turnovers against ohio state and we win
that's evidence right there
I'm glad to see a pro-Brewer post this morning.
I've been critical of the guy for the first half of this season after the Ohio State love fest we all gave him, and I've made the point a few times that the turnovers and lack of accuracy and consistency have been factors in my criticism. No one questions his toughness or desire to win, but it's purely a reaction to his effectiveness in some cases. The hail mary out of the end zone might be the best example of this, but inaccuracy on some short passes also came into play.
However, I've also made the point in the past that the turnovers bothered me enough to force me to wait until after the four game stretch we just went through with GT, BC, UNC, and Miami prior to really judging him. After each game, I saw a little bit of reinforcement of my (not altogether positive) opinion of the guy as our starting QB. Now that all four games can be viewed in totality, my opinion of him has improved a bit.
I do think we know what we have in Brewer. He's a good quarterback without the best arm strength and who struggles with consistency. He's a little bit of a gunslinger who is willing to tuck it and run, but should learn to slide. He can make plays when they're needed, but seems to need a sense of urgency to kick him into gear. He'll run the offense efficiently when we turn plays around quickly but I feel like he struggles a little when we slow the tempo. He's not going to take us to the promised land, but we weren't expecting that this year anyway, so again, not on him.
But as far as placing the blame on him for some of the losses, I'd say it isn't Brewer and that we'd have this problem with whoever was in the game. There seems to be some problems at a level above him, meaning staff and/or department. I don't think we're setting the current QB up for success, regardless of who that is. Young players all over the offense and injuries aplenty have put him in a tough spot. I don't think we, as fans, are really helping him a lot (pointing the finger at myself here for the criticisms I've levied at him over the last few weeks).
All in all, I like Brewer, and I still don't like the fact that we're not investing game time into the QB of 2016, but Brewer's my buddy. At this point, I think we can forget about just about any of the goals we had on the season, and I'm hoping that we continue to improve to the point that we can go to and win a lower-tier bowl game. I'm cooled off of many criticisms for now, but the remainder of the season will determine whether I think Brewer should start next year or whether we should be all-in on whoever is next.
I have to wonder if Brewer starts to second guess his initial reads when we slow the offense down. He is definitely more comfortable going fast and so is the offensive line scarily enough.
As for his arm strength, he pushed the ball downfield more on Saturday than in the past 3-4 games.
Agreed, looks a lot more fluid and comfortable in the more up beat offense than the "normal" offense
I think Brewer is a much better QB than people give him credit for and the current record indicate. I compared Brewer's current season stats to Tyrod and Logan's first 9 starts and found the results pretty interesting.
First 9 Starts: (I used 2009 for Tyrod since he was "The Guy" and not splitting time)
2009:Tyrod completed 56%, averaging 161 passing yds/game, & 3 INTs - ended season 56%, 5 INTs ave 178 yds/gm
2011: Logan completed 61%, averaging 214 passing yds/game, & 7 INTs - ended season 60%, 10 INTs ave 215 yds/gm
2014: Brewer completing 62%, averaging 233 passing yds/game, & 11 INTs
I tried to look at some different things team wise that contributed to the win/loss column and one big factor in the success of Tyrod and Logan was their teams ability to run the ball. In Tyrod's 2009 season through the first 9 games VT averaged 196 rushing yds/game and 200 rushing yds/game during Logan's 2011 season. This year we are averaging 139 rushing yds per game which means we have to throw the ball more, which means more chances for the ball to be intercepted. Brewer has thrown the ball 333 times through 9 games and that is 162 more times than Tyrod and 80 more times than Logan at the same points in their '09 and '11 seasons. Concerning wins and losses honestly the defense hasn't played as well this year as Tyrod and Logan's teams did. We have given up 24 total TD's and average giving up 345 yds per game so far this year and at this point in '09 only 15 TD's were given at 312 yds/gm and 18 at 298 yds/gm the same point in '11. The defense couldn't come through when needed in 3 of our 4 losses this year. ECU made big play after big play on their final drive to walk in with nearly no time left on the clock, Georgia Tech converted a 4th and California to set up the game winning field goal as time ran out and after our offense scored 2 TD's to take a 1 point lead against BC the defense gave up a 57 yd TD run by the QB on a 3rd down and 10. In years past the defense has more times than not made a play when needed if the game was on the line and they haven't been able to do that this year. I would love to know what our record and Brewer's stats would look like had we been able to average around 200 rushing yds/game this year and a little better defensive play at key moments. Having 11 INTs through 9 games is A LOT, but had we been able to run the ball as in years past I would bet Brewer wouldn't have near as many INTs as the majority of those have been on forced throws because we can't move the ball effectively any other way. I'm not trying to be a Brewer cheerleader and say he hasn't done any wrong because he has made some costly mistakes. Heck, the '11 season was by FAR Logan's best year and in '12 and '13 he totaled 29 INTs also with little to no running game ('12-ave 145 yds/game, '13-ave 119 yds/game). Anyway that is my 2 cents.
Leg for all the research that went into this
Seemed to play a lot looser, with nothing to lose. Definitely plays better when he does.
Michael Brewer played a very good game on Saturday. When the coaches allowed him to speed it up, and play an offense more like what he was used to at TT with the no huddle, allowing him to make a quick adjustment or 2 at the LOS, he took control of this team and we drove the field. We need to allow this to happen more often, because I truly believe this kid can thrive in that kind of offense (and when we run it, we do it very well, leading me to believe this is a team built to run that kind of offense).
He did everything he could to win the game this past weekend. Its a shame we were let down as badly as we were by the defense and special teams.
This Brewer will terrorize the supposed "orange crush defense" on Black Friday.
Guys lets take a quick step back here, yes in the 4th quarter he really got us rolling, and he was actually awesome on that first drive, but the 2nd and 3rd quarters were horrendous, while BC was builing their lead, I can think of 3 or 4 throws (i was at the game) where guys were WIDE open and he didnt get the ball within 5 yards of them. In the 3rd quarter we started around the 5 or 10 and Ford ran a slant that would have gone for at least 20 yards and brewer short hopped the ball (he was only 10 yards away from Ford). Then on 3rd down of that drive he rolled a little to the right and had malleck just chilling in the middle of the field wouldve gone for at least 20 yards and a first down and he threw the ball so high Malleck couldnt even get a finger on it.
There were also a couple of other times that he took the snap and was so focused on the right side of the field he missed guys just sitting wide open in the middle, it was really frustrating to watch it unfold, and while the 4th quarter was great I am not sure he should get a free pass.
I was happy with the 4th quarter but I just dont get why he plays so tight the rest of the game. I really wish we could see that 4th quarter Brewer that we saw in the 2nd half of ECU, the 4th quarter of BC and even the 4th quarter of Pitt (other than than sack) for a whole game. We would score 40+ points every week if he could just come up with a 3 drives like this a half. I do love the promise, but the 2nd and 3rd were BRUTAL.
I thought he did pretty well considering he ended up on his rear after every. single. throw. My best guess is that the coaches limited his reads to one side of the field in order to get the ball out quicker, and still after just about every dropback, he's on the ground. It's really hard to set your feet and deliver a confident ball when you're getting wrecked on every snap.
That and you only go through your progressions until you find the guy you are going to go to.
If you find a guy that looks good, you stay with him until the action happens that lets you throw to him.
Manning or Brady might do more than that but, we're talking first year starter with new WRs here.