Does Decker injury quiet the "Fire Brewster" crowd?

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StPaulHawkeye

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For all of the talk about "team identity" on this site, the identityof the team is embodied in Eric Decker. He is without question the leader of the team. The Gophers still might band together and overcome and finish the season with some quality wins. But if they don't, can you really blame Coach Brewster?

I don't know; I'm asking.
 

Well, the fire Brewster crowd has completely jumped the gun so I doubt this will impact most of them one way or the other.
 

If we look lost without Decker the rest of the year they may have a reason to feel that way........
 

StPaulHawkeye said:
For all of the talk about "team identity" on this site, the identityof the team is embodied in Eric Decker. He is without question the leader of the team. The Gophers still might band together and overcome and finish the season with some quality wins. But if they don't, can you really blame Coach Brewster?

I don't know; I'm asking.
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Uhhhhhhhhhhhh, yes. His supposed great recruits should be able to step up. It'll also be a window into what to expect next year. If he can't win now without Decker it sure as hell isn't going to get any easier next year.
 

FireCosgroveGuy said:
Uhhhhhhhhhhhh, yes. His supposed great recruits should be able to step up. It'll also be a window into what to expect next year. If he can't win now without Decker it sure as hell isn't going to get any easier next year.
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^^^THIS
 


This is a bit of a stretch comparison I realize, but Twins rallied to win the Central when Morneau got knocked out for the remainder of the year. All it took was guys stepping up and seizing the opportunity. A Decker injury should not be a death sentence for this team.
 

FireCosgroveGuy said:
Uhhhhhhhhhhhh, yes. His supposed great recruits should be able to step up. It'll also be a window into what to expect next year. If he can't win now without Decker it sure as hell isn't going to get any easier next year.
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Uhhhhhhhhh, it won't get easier after spring ball and a fall camp of practices where Decker is no longer on the team? Versus now when he accounts for approximately 50% of the offense?

Brew's recruits should be able to step in here. But to suggest it'll somehow be easier now than next year is asinine.
 

The Decker injury is absolutely crushing to a team with an already struggling offense. However, the injury probably won't stop the "Fire Brewster" camp.

On the other hand, it might finally resolve the question of whether Weber is a serviceable QB. Due to the injury, Weber's 1st, 2nd and 3rd options are gone (if you can't figure it out, Decker is options 1 through 3). Now let's see if Weber can see the whole field. I'm hoping Tow-Arnett, Green and others step up.
 

neut41 said:
The Decker injury is absolutely crushing to a team with an already struggling offense. However, the injury probably won't stop the "Fire Brewster" camp.

On the other hand, it might finally resolve the question of whether Weber is a serviceable QB. Due to the injury, Weber's 1st, 2nd and 3rd options are gone (if you can't figure it out, Decker is options 1 through 3). Now let's see if Weber can see the whole field. I'm hoping Tow-Arnett, Green and others step up.
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???????

His 2nd Option has the 2nd highest number of receptions next to Decker though.......
 



The fact that so much of our identity is based off a WR (great one) is a severe problem. I am a Brewster supporter but if this team completely folds without Decker, Brewster should feel some heat for that. He has not brought Gray along enough. The fact that Weber took all but 1 series in the second halves vs. tOSU and Penn St., is crazy. We have talented WR's who should be able to step in and contribute. They won't dominate the way Decker dominates, but we should still have ok WR play. I guess i'll some up my position like this, if the team comes out with Weber playing 80% of the snaps and the same lethargic offense they have the last two games, Brew should get some heat. If the team comes out, shows some life without Decker, and gets the young guys going, the wins and losses shouldn't be that important. I guessed we'd be 5-7 before the season started, 6-6 is a strong possibility, and 7-5 isn't outside the realm of possibility. So I would be much less annoyed with HOW they lose certain games than IF they lose certain games.
 

Call me crazy or insensitive, but I don't think losing an intermittently healthy Decker makes us a worse team.
 


He has not brought Gray along enough. The fact that Weber took all but 1 series in the second halves vs. tOSU and Penn St. said:
I agree Bob. I used to complain about similar things with Mason when the starter would be in when the game was out of hand in either direction and I want to be fair and criticize Brewster when the same thing happens. Gray should have definitely been in earlier last Saturday. It never got to three scores at Penn State (although the offense was playing worse), so I can understand why Brewster stuck with Weber, although I didn't agree with it.
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Brew has never won a game without Decker in the lineup. The fire Brew crowd, me included, will not be convinced one way or the other regarding an injury. It's game planning, discipline, adjustments, decision making that count. neither Brew nor Chilly are good with those factors.
 

As good as Eric Decker is, if he's the margin in us beating Illinois and SDSU then Brew has bigger problems. As long as we win those two games, he's not going anywhere. Does losing Decker hurt whatever chances we had against MSU and Iowa? Sadly yes. Significantly. But we should still be able to take care of Illinois and SDSU.
 

Weber running the ball was a big chunk of our offense in 2007. When we got away from that, the offense suffered. I think a credible running threat is needed at QB to give some life back into this offense. Maybe that involves more planned runs, or more roll out passes, with the QB running if the opportunity presents itself.
 

RodentRampage said:
Weber running the ball was a big chunk of our offense in 2007. When we got away from that, the offense suffered. I think a credible running threat is needed at QB to give some life back into this offense. Maybe that involves more planned runs, or more roll out passes, with the QB running if the opportunity presents itself.
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I agree. That seemed to vanish when he got hurt against Indiana last year and never returned. Last year I understood it somewhat since we didn't have a credible back-up. Now that we do, fear of Weber getting injured need not get in the way. Even if Brewster wants to keep using both guys, letting Weber run more and Gray throw more would help keep the defense off guard.
 

You've got to take some chances. Yes, your QB might get hurt. But taking a big tool away from your offense doesn't help you win games. And our offense needed some help last season. If we had kept running Weber, maybe we wouldn't have had such a big slide at the end of the year. Play Weber or Gray, but running the QB has to be part of the toolkit.
 

To the original post, our melt down last year after Decker was injured did not help Brew, I doubt it would now.

and...the last I checked Decker getting injured didn't suddenly turn freshmen into sophmores and sophmores into juniors and juniors into seniors. Brewsters big recruits were underclassmen before Decker was injured and still are after.
 

Schnoodler said:
To the original post, our melt down last year after Decker was injured did not help Brew, I doubt it would now.

and...the last I checked Decker getting injured didn't suddenly turn freshmen into sophmores and sophmores into juniors and juniors into seniors. Brewsters big recruits were underclassmen before Decker was injured and still are after.
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There's also not a clear demarcation between a sophmore receiver and a junior receiver beyond the arbitrary. What I mean by that is it's not as if a player who is supposed to contribute as a junior goes from 0 to 60 between his second and third year. They should all be able to contribute to some degree now, as they should have almost the moment they stepped on to campus. The question is to what degree. By the time a player is half way through his second season with the team he should be able to play at a reasonable level should the bell toll for them.
 

I'm not sure the past history has supported that contention khaliq. Ouside of the occasional superstar, they do progress pretty remarkably year to year. It might be the opportunity as upperclassmen in their way are no longer in their way, but generally there is a lot to learn. fine points make a bigger difference the higher the level, things they never even had to consider until they showed up on campus. So while for a reciever physical development isn't as big an issue since their success isn't as dependent of the physical contact aspect, the finer points of the game are. For every decker, there are a dozen Wheelwright's who have the physical ability but lack the experience and fine tuning to execute at a high level until a junior or senior.

The good news, is that unlike last year we go pretty deep with options.
 

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