Interception vexes Willy

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This article was published 08/09/2014 (4034 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

These are not the post-game scrums Drew Willy wants to get too accustomed to experiencing.

There was the Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback standing in front of a room full of media again Sunday, lamenting his mistakes and those of his teammates following a 30-24 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Banjo Bowl.

Just for the record, the session marked the fourth time in the last five weeks he’s faced that kind of cross examination.

“Any time you lose a game it stings,” said the Bomber pivot. “You lose by single digits to the same team each time, it stings for sure. But we know as a team we need to get better and try to win games. Whatever we can do to win them, whether it’s taking less penalties, whether it’s myself making better throws… right now it’s obviously tough.

“It’s tough to deal with the loss. But no one’s going to feel sorry for us. You got to keep playing.”

Willy finished the day 26-of-38 for 360 yards with TD strikes to Rory Kohlert and Aaron Kelly, but was also picked off twice in the final 90 seconds as the Bombers tried to steal another fourth-quarter win.

On the first he attempted to hit Romby Bryant deep, but was picked by Rod Williams. That was followed by a Tristan Jackson theft with 36 seconds left after the Bomber ‘D’ had forced a two and out.

“It was just a go route,” said Willy of the first pick. “I wish I could have got more on it. We had another combination to the field (side) and it’s my decision… I’ll have to look at the film. You could say either way that if I could get more on that one then at least it’s probably incomplete. It’s tough, for sure. Looking back at it, we had 1:36 there… plenty of time… it’s tough, for sure.”

Asked what it was going through his head after having lost four of the last five as a starter, Willy added:

“I wish I could have got more on that go route. That’s really what’s going through my head.”

The Bombers were owned at the line of scrimmage again as the Riders amassed close to 200 yards rushing and also sacked Willy five times. So, what separates the champs from the contenders?

“Turnovers and penalties,” said Willy. “They’ve played cleaned games and obviously ran the ball well. But our defence played really well. The defence only gave up 14 points… that’s winning football. The games are so close they can go either way. We just need to find ways to be on top at the end of the game.

“You can say they are the defending Grey Cup champions but we’ve been in every single game and we feel good about who we are as a team. We just need to keep working. It’s the only thing I know how to do: keep working, stay in the film room. Sometimes the ball bounces the other way.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait