Battered Willy had no business playing B.C.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/10/2014 (4053 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

During the post-game show of your football club’s most recent heartbreaking loss, Bob “The Voice” Irving asserted that had I still been a player on this team, there was no way I would have wanted anyone starting the do-or-die playoff-elimination game other than Drew Willy — the pivot who had started 16 of 17 games for the Bombers — and he had a solid point.

As good as Brian Brohm may have looked in two-and-a-half quarters against Calgary, he was out of commission with a hand injury incurred in that game, his first CFL start. That left Robert Marve — the formerly third-string quarterback with even less professional experience — and additionally, less regard from the coaching staff, as suggested by his position on the depth chart.

So if you were a player on the team, how could you have wanted anyone other than the most experienced pivot under centre, the man who had a hand in every single win? It sounds like a foolish proposition to debate over the airwaves, let alone consider if you had a vested interest in how the regular season played out.

It is one thing to write about — like last week — how Saturday’s game vs. B.C. was an opportunity to see what else was in the QB coffers — for future trade considerations — but if you had the perspective of an active player, you couldn’t want experimentation night to happen when all remaining hope was on the line, could you?

Well, yes, actually, you could.

Willy showed the public and media many things this season, and most likely showed his coaching staff and players even more. For a first-year starter, he won one-third of his games, posted very respectable statistics for his experience level and, early in the season, showed he could win games in a two-minute drill, and rally the troops in come-from-behind fashion. With his toughness and grit alone, he earned the right to be the No.1 quarterback this season, and to take that title going into training camp next year, too.

Yet, the singular reason — from any perspective — to have gambled with an even greener rookie at the controls of the season’s most important game, and now, into the final week of the schedule, was the fact many of us had suspected for some time Willy was no longer himself and damaged beyond repair for the year.

He had a hurt thumb, a bad shoulder, a twisted ankle and surely countless other injuries that never leaked out of the training room. Damaged because he was sacked more this season than any other Bombers quarterback ever has been. He was also in the deep water of the final third of the season, a period where rookie CFL starters often fade dramatically because their bodies have never been exposed to the grind that accompanies an 18-game schedule.

Yet, even more impacting than the physical carnage, it has been evident Willy was also beat up mentally, as bad, if not worse, than from the pounding he took. The close losses, the blowout losses, the championship drought, the expectations of a 5-1 start, the changes and things defences took away from him once they had a catalogue of film on him, and of course, how his play, confidence and decisiveness regressed as he got pummeled in every conceivable fashion.

It wasn’t just the game against Calgary — where the offence came alive with two backup quarterbacks at the helm, or a QB with the ability to escape a never-ending pass rush and extend plays with his feet behind a porous offensive line — that was the argument for change. It was always about a fresh mind and body relieving the starting pitcher in the late innings, a changeup reliever to catch teams unprepared and introduce new dimensions and attributes — not unlike what the team achieved by replacing once dynamic and worthy rookie running back Nic Grigsby, with underutilized rookie Paris Cotton.

For some time now Willy has been shell-shocked and withdrawn on the field, not unlike the fallout of an abusive relationship. He had nothing left to learn or be taught by a football season where his last two starts were blowout losses and the team hadn’t won in over two months. It’s disappointing it took 10 more sacks and a chorus of boos from frustrated fans for this conclusion to become the near consensus on his playing status.

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

Twitter: @DougBrown97