New year, new hope for Bombers quarterback

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/01/2016 (3557 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Drew Willy is the first to admit there’s a certain amount of nerdiness at play here. Actually, there’s a lot of nerdiness at play here.

But when a quarterback gets his mitts on a new playbook — pages and pages of X’s and O’s, passing routes and protection schemes — it’s a little like that scene from The Jerk where Steve Martin’s character absolutely loses it when the new phone book arrives. Thrilled to see his name in print, Martin looks into the camera and, with steely-eyed conviction, declares: “Things are going to start happening to me now.”

All of which brings us to Willy — the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ No. 1 quarterback and a man who ended last year beaten down physically (season-ending knee injury Aug. 9) and mentally after watching another CFL campaign get flushed from the sidelines. Since then, offensive co-ordinator Marcel Bellefeuille was whacked (he landed Wednesday in B.C. as part of Lions general manager-coach Wally Buono’s new staff) and in came a familiar face: Paul LaPolice.

Clearly, the Bombers definitely need things to start happening — good things — for their QB1. They need to protect him better. They need to surround him with more talent. But most of all, they need to put him at the controls of an offence that isn’t so predictable it leaves observers wondering if the plan was scribbled in crayon.

Now, if you’re expecting the next few paragraphs to be filled with Willy blowtorching Bellefeuille and his offensive scheme, sorry to disappoint. We tried to go there, but Willy is too classy: “I just won’t do that. I’d rather take the blame than put it on someone else.”

But during a 30-minute phone conversation, it’s also clear Willy — who is throwing and has been given the green light to work out by the Bombers medical staff — is eager to slip behind the wheel of LaPolice’s attack. Willy insisted the Bombers’ old playbook included most of the same concepts and ideas every CFL team employs. That’s this game, this league, where coaches are forever copycatting each other.

But while he won’t say it, we will.

Where the Bombers were lacking in 2015 — and, yes, talent was an issue — was the ability to adapt and adjust in-game or during the course of the week, or to come up with any kind of wrinkle that might pose a problem for a defence. Case in point: after a Bombers loss early in the season, the victorious rival coach was asked about the Winnipeg offence. His answer? There was absolutely nothing the Bombers did that caught his side off guard.

‘Predictable’ is the most damning of all descriptions for a CFL offence.

To that end, it’s not so much the X’s and O’s that has Willy intrigued about the new playbook (though there are some things he’s admittedly not seen before), it’s how those theories are put into play when the lights are on and the enemy is trying to rearrange his spine.

“Where the really good co-ordinators get going is they learn different ways to get matchups on the field, to get their best guys involved,” said Willy. “They find ways to move guys around, so that while you might run the same play, it looks totally different because you’re lining up in different ways.

“When you get to that level, it’s tough for a defence because they just can’t predict what’s going to happen. I’m a big proponent of feeding the hot guy and taking advantage of where the best matchup is. A lot of times, you’ve got to throw at what you think is the weakest link out there.

“Hey,” said the New Jersey native who is entering his fifth CFL season, “any way we can win, I’m all for it. Some days, it might be running the ball. Some days, it might mean throwing it 50 times. Every week is different and the really good coaches out there play to their personnel. I think (LaPolice) will do a good job of feeding the guys he thinks will make us successful.”

We know what some of you are thinking — especially with so much cynicism and negativity having engulfed the Bombers over the last few years.

After all, with the Bombers (5-13 in 2015, 7-11 in 2014, 3-15 in 2013, 6-12 in 2012) it’s not what is said in January — or even done in July and August — that matters. It’s whether the new offence can have any impact and create meaningful games in November.

But if the quarterback is excited to get to work, that’s got to at least count for something. Even if it’s just January.

“My goal is to have us pick this up quickly as an offence and for all of us to get to that master’s level quickly,” said Willy. “This is a big year coming up. I’m putting everything I can into it.

“Training camp can’t get here fast enough.”