Willy returns to practice field

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This article was published 07/07/2015 (4083 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Drew Willy passed the toughness test over and over again last year, regularly pulling himself up off the turf during a season that saw the Winnipeg Blue Bombers surrender a club-record 71 quarterback sacks — most of which featured him at the bottom of the pile.

While his teammates were mighty impressed to see him in full gear at practice Monday morning — four days after a hellacious helmet-to-helmet blow knocked him out of last week’s loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats — he didn’t really need to tough it out again to win over anyone in the locker-room or in the coach’s offices.

“What did I say after the game?” Said Bomber coach Mike O’Shea. “He’s a tough guy. We all know that.”

All that macho-bravado stuff aside, clearly the most-important evaluation Willy has passed in the last little while was the concussion-protocol test he took immediately after being walloped upside the head by Ticat defensive lineman Adrian Tracy while he was being sacked by Taylor Reed last Thursday. Willy was motionless on the turf for a few minutes before exiting the game and not returning.

What’s known now after Monday’s press briefing was Willy not only passed all examinations after the hit but, sources say, was royally steamed he was not being allowed to re-enter the game. He watched the second quarter from the tunnel and was said to be visibly frustrated as the game unravelled without him on the field, before understanding the decision to prevent him to return.

Even with the thumbs up from team doctors, Bombers athletic therapist Al Couture opted not to green light Willy, wisely thinking beyond the final three quarters of the club’s first loss of the 2015 season and protecting the club’s most-important player for this week and beyond.

On Monday, following a weekend in which he didn’t touch a football, Willy was back on the practice field running the No. 1 offence in advance of Friday’s home date against the Montreal Alouettes.

“I feel good. I was glad to be out there today competing with my teammates,” said Willy after practice. “I processed everything fast out there today and I’m looking forward to looking at the practice film and keep working this week.

“I haven’t had any lingering affects.”

Willy confirmed he did not lose consciousness after the hit and remembers every nanosecond of it. He’s also watched it again on tape.

“Protection-wise we just had a miscommunication and Reed came off untouched and held me up and 93 (Tracy) got me,” said Willy. “You see it all over the league, the same kind of blitzes. They got a good shot on me.

“(The hit) doesn’t look good or anything. But it’s football and I know what I signed up for.”

The Bombers did submit tape of the shot to the league’s Vice President of Officiating, Glen Johnson, but all hits to the head are reviewed by the CFL. Any disciplinary action from the hit would be announced today.

Two issues remain in the aftermath of the Willy hit and his return to the field on Monday.

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First, given the QB injuries already across the league, could the Brian Brohm/Robert Marve combination give the club decent-enough quarterbacking if Willy were to miss significant playing time? That question won’t need to be immediately answered, given Willy’s return to practice, but Brohm struggled in relief last Thursday in completing 16 of 28 passes for 146 yards while being intercepted twice — both returned for touchdowns. Marve, the fan favourite, has a grand total of 22 attempts on his resumé.

And, second, the Bombers spent a ton of cash in the offseason to improve the talent in front of Willy and worked to surround him with more weapons. In Willy’s absence last Thursday the club sputtered to establish anything offensively, be it through the air or on the ground.

Making matters worse was the breakdown on special teams that led to a Brandon Banks punt-return touchdown right after Willy’s exit and the continuing struggles of the defence to find its mojo.

“In any game as situations change, you have to figure out ways to win,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “There’s that cliché, ‘Find a way to win’ that’s used in every sport. Obviously, we didn’t find a way to win that game. The three phases (offence, defence and special teams) have to play the game as it unfolds, not necessarily how you draw up a plan.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait