If at first you don’t succeed, Troy, Troy again… he’ll improve

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/10/2009 (5818 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VETERAN punter Troy Westwood made his return to action after missing the better part of two seasons and did a serviceable job for the Blue Bombers on Saturday. Westwood finished with five punts for an average of 38.2 and a long of 53 yards.

“It felt good. There’s a great group of guys in this locker-room,” said Westwood following the 41-24 win over the Montreal Alouettes. “I felt really calm. It was just the game-speed thing… the ball coming back to you, you’ve got 1.3 seconds to touch it and put it where you want. Two of the kicks I was really disappointed in, but other than that it was fairly passable.”

Westwood says there are things to work on.

“Just my game-speed timing and that whole catching the ball and getting it down where it needs to get faster,” said the kicker, now in his 18th season with the Bombers. “I know I can kick considerably better than that and I expect greater improvement as each day goes by here.”

Bombers coach Mike Kelly said Westwood gave him a certain comfort level in the kicking game after a shaky performance from Alex Serna in a loss two weeks ago, where the young pro handled both the punting and place kicking.

“It was good to have Troy out there,” offered Kelly. “The guy knows what he’s doing. Remember ‘Mumbles’ from Dick Tracy? That’s what he sounds like coming off the field. I can’t make it all out, but he was mumbling the whole time. He did a nice job for us.”

— Gary Lawless