Better to be safe than sorry with Willy

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/07/2016 (3369 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If it’s possible to pick up on a trend three games into the regular season, we may be seeing the gradual exit of starting Blue Bombers quarterback Drew Willy from the home run derby of pro football. And when everything’s said and done, that’s probably a good thing for the team.

So far this season, when comparing passing numbers from 2015 to 2016, Willy’s averages are down on both passing yards per attempt (1 1/2 fewer yards) and passing yards per completion (three fewer yards) compared to what he accomplished in seven games in 2015.

Even though the team is coming off a win on the road in an area code that is akin to getting blood from a stone — with or without starting Hamilton QB Zach Collaros in the lineup — the post-game radio show last Thursday night had higher than usual percentage of callers less than euphoric with the play of their quarterback during the first sixth of the regular season.

Apart from the first drive of the Calgary game, and the Hamilton contest, Willy has struggled to find a groove or rhythm until late in the fourth when hope was all but lost.

Additionally, steadfast observers of the team have pointed out that the offence isn’t threatening teams vertically as much as it used to, and when it does, Willy’s downfield and deep ball accuracy isn’t where it needs to be. Whether any of this is true, and whether we even have a big enough sample size to start doing statistically significant comparisons, some of us will have fewer criticisms with the offence and more conservative style of play if it continues to keep him from playing the role of a swinging pinata like he seemingly did before the untimely end of his 2015 season.

As we all learned from Nike in the late 1990s in pro-baseball, “Chicks dig the long ball,” and much of the same can be said for the “home-run strike” in pro football.

Back in the day when long-ball records were seemingly being broken on a yearly basis — mainly because of an apparently poor job of screening for performance-enhancing drugs — Major League Baseball experienced unprecedented levels of popularity. There was something about the unpredictability and visceral explosiveness of those home-run hitters and the magic that flashed off their bats that shot ratings as high and deep as their centre-field bombs.

You don’t have to run a nationwide Angus Reid poll to conclude that stretching the field vertically in football and hitting for long explosive plays is more exciting than swing passes to Andrew Harris in the flat and wide receiver screens to Ryan Smith. Yet, just maybe, that is exactly what this team needs right now.

In my opinion, the biggest cause for optimism this season comes from the fact that not only did this team go on the road and win in Hamilton, but the body bag the team keeps on hand for Willy when they play the Ticats didn’t need to be unpacked.

So in other words, this offence and style of play has evolved from the mistakes made in the past that hung Willy out to dry.

While it might be a stretch to say the Blue and Gold beat the best team Hamilton is capable of fielding, it was a pretty reasonable facsimile to the black-and-yellow defence that knocked Willy out of 2015.

Willy’s average passing attempts and completions yardage are lower this year, thus far, but his completion percentage is about five points higher and his touchdown-to-interception ratio is also markedly improved.

It may be more exciting to watch Willy swing for the fences more frequently during the game and connect with a couple of long-distance dingers, but there is a strong argument for having him hit a higher percentage of singles and doubles consistently, especially when it means he is less vulnerable and exposed in the pocket.

Doug Brown, once a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears weekly in the Free Press.

Twitter: @DougBrown97