Timing is everything

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/07/2009 (5936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Week 2 in Stefan LeFors’ 18-week quarterback exam is upon him and the lefty Bombers pivot says studies have been going well after last week’s medium grades.

LeFors went 14-for-31 for 174 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions in a 19-17 loss to the Eskimos. While his numbers were less than impressive, he guided a new offence on a soggy field to within a missed field goal of overtime.

Excuses aside, the defending Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders won’t be interested in anything but what is thrown at them Friday night. But a learning curve has to be expected with LeFors, a fourth-year pro with just six starts on his resumé.

“You want to get better each and every week and be peaking in Week 18,” said LeFors, a 28-year-old who play played college football at Louisville and was a fourth-round pick of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. “We don’t want to repeat the mistakes we made last week and we want to improve on the things we did well. We have a lot of work to do with a good team coming in here. I wouldn’t call last week a confidence-builder or a confidence-breaker. I could have done some things better.”

Both LeFors and his receivers say the one area they need to improve on is timing. The offence installed by head coach Mike Kelly is fairly intricate and the first step for both the quarterback and the receivers is to make the right reads and select the proper passing routes. From there, it’s a matter of LeFors getting the ball away at the correct time and the pass catchers making their breaks at the right moment.

“It’s a collective thing. I take a lot of it on me. One guy missing a thing at one point can result in losing a big play,” said LeFors. “Timing is huge for us. Conceptually, everyone has to have a feel for what everyone is doing so we can have the right spacing and all that stuff. We’re still learning that and every week it should get better. The receivers are starting to understand on certain drops that when I get to my back foot and am ready to throw, they need to be at their depths and in the hole I’m expecting them to be in. We can be one step off and it can wreck the whole thing.”

Wideout Brock Ralph says togetherness is beginning to have an effect on the Bombers offence.

“Running these plays over and over again, we’re getting to be on the same page. I think we’ll benefit from another week and I think next week we’ll be saying the same thing,” said Ralph. “We were told from the time we started meeting that this offence would take some time. After a while, we want to be able to look at the defence and then look at the quarterback and have everyone know what we’re thinking. We’re not there yet but we’re working on it.”

Ralph says LeFors can only improve with more reps.

“That’s Stefan’s game. That nice little quick release, getting the ball out to you quick,” said Ralph. “Once we know when to come out of a cut and we know when to get our eyes around, it’ll all be better.”

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca