Beam redux

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:06 am

I think it's time to move on from Mr. Sheehan. The offense is obviously being limited by the staff with him in there. This offense has 3 elements - the short dinky-dunk stuff, the deeper throws we got spoiled on with connections like Omar to Sanders, and then the QB runs and read-options that we saw with Harris. In order for the offense to be truly effective, I think you need a QB that can do at least 2 of the 3. Tyler obviously only has command of the shorter throws, and now that the rest of the league knows that, they're taking even that away. When Tyler's first option isn't there, he consistently loses his footwork and holds the ball too long. At that point he either takes a bad sack, or runs as fast as he can to his right to throw the ball away. It is absolutely killing any flow our offense may have had.

At this point in his career, I have a hard time believing he'll improve much going forward, and he's not good enough in his current state to take us to a championship IMO. I think the coaches were aware of this, or else they wouldn't have brought a guy like Beam in. I think it's time to pull the trigger and see what we have. What else do we have to lose at this point?

I hate to call out certain players, but a change needs to be made, both in personnel and philosophy. I'm tired of seeing tiny playbooks when we all know what the spread offense should be capable of.

And for God's sake, ditch the dual-coordinator system. I've never heard of a more poorly conceived idea, and we're seeing it play out in an offense that just feels dysfunctional. Another example of a lack of leadership in the staff.

zeket10 · Post by **zeket10** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:16 am

interesting

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:39 am

I'm not ready to give up on Sheehan at all because one, I still have faith in him, and two, because we still don't know exactly what Beam can even give us with his arm. I think Beam looks quicker on his feet, but we know nothing in terms of his arm in game situations.

What I will say about Beam is, the way we’ve used him thus far in the Boise State and Wyoming games reminds me very much the way we used Anthony Turner in 2005 and I don’t like it and here’s why. In 2005, Turner came in during the third quarter of our 70-7 win over Temple and threw one pass. It was picked off and he didn’t attempt another pass the rest of the game. Now I’m not saying he should have been out there airing the ball out downfield, but when we got up 56-7, I was like at least let him attempt a pass when it’s third and long. What’s the worst thing that could happen, Temple picks it off and scores a TD and they cut it to 56-14? Well, what ended up happening was a few weeks later, Omar Jacobs got hurt against WMU and Turner was thrust right into the #1 spot and we went on to lose back-to-back home games against Western Michigan and Akron. Now I’m not blaming anything on Turner in losing those two games and he did okay in spots and not so good in others, but I couldn’t help but look back at the Temple game and think what better of an opportunity was there to give him some game action in to attempt a few more passes instead of just handing it off or running with it?

So when I saw Beam come in against Boise State, we used him to run a little and I was okay with it all things considered. But when we were up 45-10 late against Wyoming and he came in, I really wanted to see him attempt a pass or two. So this brings me back to - we don’t really know what we have in Beam. We’ve heard what he’s done in practice, and he looks like a better runner than Sheehan, but we have no idea what he can do in a game with his arm. My thought was we’d see him vs. EMU this past weekend after we built a big lead and that obviously never happened. But I will say this, if Sheehan goes down and we’re forced to use him, he’s attempted as many passes in a game for BG as many of us on this board.

moneymaker02 · Post by **moneymaker02** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:49 am

it seems as though the coaching staff had more faith in anthony glaud than they do in beam. every time glaud came in last year they let him throw the ball and he performed pretty well as a result.

FortWayneFalcon · Post by **FortWayneFalcon** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 6:13 am

I'd give Beam the first quarter of the next game and let's see what he can do. Sheehan has been folding under the pressure of the home crowd, and that's about as bad of a situation as you can have.

Globetrotter · Post by **Globetrotter** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:14 am

I didnt see the game but 27-34 for almost 300 yards and 2 scores sounds pretty good to me.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:34 am

Globetrotter wrote:I didnt see the game but 27-34 for almost 300 yards and 2 scores sounds pretty good to me.

This is a case of the stats not bearing out how well the game was played. Of those 27 completions I would venture to guess at least 15 of them were either WR bubble screens or halfback screens. We hit a couple of real long passes as well, but we don't work the intermediate depths at all. Every throw is either a bomb or something within 5 yards of the LOS. We need a QB that can work in the 5-20 yards downfield, and do so with accuracy to allow his WRs to make plays after the catch. These were the passes that racked up all the yards for Harris/Jacobs...downfield but not bombs, and hitting in stride to allow the WRs to make plays.

Tyler is just not the right fit for this offense. I said it last year, and I still continue to think it's the case. He just doesn't offer the skillset that allows this offense to flow at its best. He's not a real rushing threat, and he doesn't throw a particularly good deep pass. This has allowed teams to move up and try to take away the shorter stuff. This also results in our RBs getting bottled up. Our inability to work the entire field forced us into a LOT of 3rd & long situations on Saturday. Then, to really exemplify the lack of faith the coaching staff has in Tyler's intermediate game they ran a lot of screen passes in those 3rd & long situations.

When they did try to throw the ball downfield, there were multiple occasions Saturday where Sheehan had happy feet and missed very open WRs downfield, instead dumping it off for a short gain or scrambling around.

The most telling thing to me is how the coaches act in the redzone. Seems like we are as likely to let Turner/Barnes play QB down there as we are to let our QB play. That says a lot to me about what the coaching staff thinks of Tyler.

I think Tyler is a great kid, and he has some skills. I just don't think he has the right mix of skills to make this offense the scoring machine that it can be. I have no idea if Beam does either, but I'm curious to find out.

NWLB · Post by **NWLB** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:48 am

I don't think this is Sheehan. I was tempted to say during the game, that he seemed as if he was turning into another Ryan Henry. But keeping to my new policy of not responding to games for 48 hours....or so, I think something else.

This team has the horses to win, on defense and offense. I'm going to point right back to the coaching staff overall.

Sheehan had numerous times, when there was a WR open, one, dead in the middle of the end zone, and Sheehan looked like he froze. He looked skittish our there. I think there is a confidence issue on some level.

He was statistically efficient, but look at the offense that was called. It looked like a gametape from UT. UT's QB used to look good with high completion percentages, low INTs, by running that bubble screen crap.

BG does it, and EMU pretty much played it well. Much as how the rest of the league does against UT now. And running that offense against a west division team that does go up against it more often than anybody in the east does, was not good planning.

It seemed like there wasn't any clear offensive plan out there. The defense seemed alright, but when EMU changed it up about halftime, the coaches didn't make any adjustments. EMU was able to walk past the defense.

Bad juju my friends.

Flipper · Post by **Flipper** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:17 am

Tyler has a nice arm...he can throw a 15 yard out on a rope. He isn't as accurate throwing downfield, he tends to hold the ball too long and his presence in the pocket leaves something to be desired. He flat out fails to see open WR's too often. And there are times when he sees them, but he sees them after the window of opportunity has closed.

He's frustrating to watch because there are times when he seems to overcome those issues and he plays well...only to slip back into the jittery, indecisve, short arm the 3rd and 6 pass to the TE kind of guy.

BillyLP · Post by **BillyLP** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:50 am

It definitely seems as if Sheehan is having some confidence issues when it comes to throwing it across the middle or over 20 yards at all, which doesn't make sense because I saw Barnes open across the middle at least 4 times during the EMU game with room to run. And with Beam, I heard from another player that he has an incredible arm, accurate and powerful. I saw him throwing the ball 45 yards on a line during warm-ups off of his back foot, but I also hear that he a lot of times lacks the confidence on pass plays and just decides to run instead. Although I think Beam has the talent, it doesn't sound like the composure is there that is needed to run the offense.

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:54 am

I'm fully aware of the "grass is greener" mentality, and I have no doubt the staff feels Tyler gives us the best chance to win football games.

Having said that, I'm confident at this point that we're not going to win a MACC with Tyler at the helm. Whether that's because he lacks the ability, or the coaching staff won't let him run the whole playbook is irrelevant. Beam may not be any better, but I'd like to find out. I'm the type of guy that would rather see us pull out all the stops and do whatever we can to win a championship as opposed to riding mediocrity to another 5-3 MAC record.

At least give Beam one game to see what he can do in game conditions when the huddle is his. What's the worst that can happen? We already lost to EMU.

cw08 · Post by **cw08** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:12 pm

Sheehan's earned more than one MAC game before being pulled, period. Let's not jump ship just yet.

60yearsofsicsic · Post by **60yearsofsicsic** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:23 pm

IMO... I think he has a lot of trouble seeing over the line... He missed one wide open touchdown to Chris Bullock on a wheel route that a grandma sitting next to me said I can not belive he did not see him... and he under throws WR on anything long then 15 yards. This really also allows the D to put alomst everyone on the line and leave their corners on an island knowing that we cannot go deep. An excellent example is the fact that EMU had a corner that look 5'9-5'10 175 soaking wet and for some reason we never ran Kelly or Wright out there and took avantage of the mismatch the only reason I can imagine is that they do not trust him to throw anything over 15 yards. That being said this game was lost on coaching HORRIFIC Clock Management and having undiscplined players those things fall on coaching. I have never been in the fire Brandon Club, but this was a terrible coaching performance during the game and preparing his players.

daspollak · Post by **daspollak** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:57 pm

I am never one who wants to see wholesale changes in the middle of a season. It can really do a lot of damage for years to come. Let Brandon finish the season and see where we stand then. Last year we were 4-4 before we went on a 4 game tear. As far as the QB situation goes open up the competition in practice and have a starter named for the game on Saturday. Let him know that he is the man for that game and the competition will resume in practice the next week. If a QB plays like he is afraid to make a mistake, he will never take chances that can lead to big plays. I don't know who is the answer, Beam or Sheehan, but BG needs to open their playbook. I am going to wait till the end of the season before I begin to pass judgement.

NWLB · Post by **NWLB** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:58 pm

It seems hard to believe, but I have to think he has some kind of issue looking over the top. I recall the exact plays where I had time enough to see the WR open, look back to him, and he seemed at times to look right towards their direction, but then start trying to run to the sides, like somebody trying to see around a guy sitting in front of him.

The game went perfectly for EMU. They kicked off, were able to score just before the half, again right after, and BG totally screwed its clock management in the last five minutes. Throwing incomplete on third down, stopping the clock?