Where there’s a Willy, there may be a way

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This article was published 24/09/2014 (4087 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Only two days after the head coach said they would proceed as if Drew Willy wouldn’t be in Saturday’s plan, the Bombers starting pivot was throwing hard again.

He started gently at first in Tuesday’s practice. Quick, low darts gave way to longer throws, one of them an interception, but what really stood out is he was taking first-team reps. That doesn’t mean his sprained right shoulder will be ready to face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Investors Group Field Saturday. It does mean there’s a greater chance.

Because he’s still injured, Willy didn’t speak to the media on Tuesday. But head coach Mike O’Shea did, and he was, as ever, cautious. “He threw pretty well,” O’Shea said. “We’ll wait and see tomorrow, see how he feels. With these types of injuries, it depends on how sore he wakes up and whether he can repeat the performance. That’s really what it comes down to.”

Oh, it must be a tantalizing prospect, this possible timely return of the No.1 pivot, especially in a game where a win is so ripe for the picking. The Bombers plan to leave it as a game-time decision. “We’ll check in with him (Wednesday),” O’Shea said. “See if he can come to practice and still feel good. Keep that process going on right up until the last-ditch minute.”

Of course, that leaves back-up quarterback Brian Brohm in an odd spot, all at once expecting to start and yet at the same time… not. He still took more than his usual share of reps on Tuesday, and O’Shea wasn’t worried about that — “Brian’s been prepared all season,” he said — and the quarterback himself kept on an even keel, as the media peppered him with questions after practice.

Sure, Brohm shrugged, maybe he’d want most of the first-team reps if they knew for a fact that he was going to start. “But that’s not the situation,” he said. “We got to deal with the situation at hand, so I’m going do to the best that I can with whatever situation we’re in. It’s my job to be ready to go no matter what, so I’m going to take it upon myself to be ready.”

 

HERE COMES JOHNNY: While the offence plays the Willy-or-won’t-he game, the defence is getting set to welcome back a familiar face in Saturday’s game.

It’s been over two months since Johnny Sears last played, ever since he hurt his leg in a game against Edmonton on July 17. Truth be told, he admitted on Tuesday, that injury healed up in a matter of weeks. But while he was out, he lost his starting spot on the defence — where he’d played at SAM linebacker and safety this season — and settled in for a long, anxious wait.

Well, with halfback Bruce Johnson and his wounded heel looking doubtful for this weekend, Sears is likely to get another chance. And you won’t meet too many players more openly thankful for that. “I have to make the most of it,” Sears said, after taking first-team reps in Tuesday’s practice. “I think any player who wants to play, it’s hard to sit and watch. But the nature of the game, you gotta wait your turn, next man in line.

“I don’t try and downgrade anybody that’s in front of me,” Sears added. “I just politely wait my turn, make sure I help my guys get better, and don’t withhold anything from them, and make the competition that much stronger to help me get better.”

It’s not yet 100 per cent certain Sears will play — as with Willy, O’Shea said they don’t plan to make final roster until they have to — but the coach was quick to credit how Sears handled the last two months away.

“He flies around, he loves to play the game, and he’s been waiting patiently to get back in,” the coach said. “Keeping his spirits up, figuring that out for these guys can be tough sometimes because they want to be out there so badly. I’m excited for him.”

It hasn’t been an easy ride for Sears, now in his fifth year with the Bombers. He’s one of their most versatile players, and has danced all over the defence. In 2013 he was slammed with an injury, and missed all but six games. This year, bad luck again, an injury he said happened when he tried to avoid “friendly fire” of hurting a teammate.

“It’s been things I couldn’t really control… it’s just the nature of the game, I can’t really get mad about it,” he said. “If you firefight sometimes, you may get burned. It is what it is, so I just gotta make sure I come back and stay healthy as long as possible.”

And yeah, sometimes he cried out to the football gods, asking them why. “All the time,” he laughed. “But they don’t answer back.”

 

INFIRMARY REPORT: Linebacker and long-snapper Ian Wild won’t be able to play on Saturday, though O’Shea said they’ll try again next week. Right tackle Cordaro Howard didn’t practise on Tuesday with “various whatnots,” O’Shea said, and international OL Devin Tyler — who is normally on the practice roster — took the top reps in his place.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca