The stat that mattered against the UTSA Roadrunners
After their 37-20 win on Saturday night against UTSA, the Baylor Bears have more wins than they did during their entire 2017 campaign. While many fans might be disappointed in how the Bears played overall, there was a certain player that fans should be ecstatic about after his performance against UTSA.
That player is Charlie Brewer. After Jalan McClendon seemed to outplay Brewer in the first game of the season, it was clear after that Brewer had a chip on his shoulder on Saturday night.
Brewer threw for 328 yards and three touchdowns while completing 23 of his 34 passes. Given that he split snaps with McClendon in the first half of the game, it’s not ridiculous to say that Brewer could’ve had even more exceptional numbers if he had played from start to finish. In fact, his stats most defintely would have been better barring an interception or fumble.
The specific stat that mattered was Brewer’s quarterback rating of 85.4 out of 100. The QBR is a statistic that doesn’t only consider completion percentage, yards, and touchdowns. It uses the context of each individual throw and its contribution to the outcome of the game. To put it simply, it generally shows how well a quarterback played in a game.
Brewer’s QBR against UTSA was his highest QBR of his career when throwing more than 13 passes outside of his performance against Kansas last season. Brewer posted a 91.3 QBR while throwing for 315 yards and three touchdowns while completing 23 of his 29 passes.
Aside from the Kansas game and Saturday night against UTSA, Brewer has averaged a 43.6 QBR rating when throwing more than 13 passes. In other words, Brewer has put up plenty of numbers, but hasn't always met the criteria to get credit for elite performances based on the QBR.
By playing incredibly well on Saturday night and almost doubling his average QBR, Brewer showed signs of a quarterback that the Bears can trust going forward. However, he needs to continue to play well to prove that he can be consistently reliable.
With his performance Saturday, it will be interesting to see if the Bears plan to no longer split snaps between their quarterbacks. Finding their man at the position is a must and they will need to move away from splitting the snaps if they want to compete with the tough competition that they have ahead of them. It’s incredibly difficult for quarterbacks to get a rhythm and gain trust and respect from their teammates when they’re removed from the lineup too often.
Going forward, I would expect Brewer to take over the quarterback job for the Bears.