Jennings faces daunting challenge
Team likely has to win last five games of regular season to make the playoffs
This is the way Travis Lulay explains it.
When a quarterback is in harmony with his surroundings and has confidence in his abilities he doesn’t think. He just reacts.
He trusts his first read. If that isn’t there, he knows when to check down and when to throw it away; when to escape and when to step up in the pocket. There have been times in his career Lulay has had that feeling, when he’s commanded the time and space of the quarterback position.
But he’s also known the other side and this is how he explains that feeling.
“You either trust the throw or you think ‘Should I throw it?’ ” the Lions’ injured quarterback said as he leaned on crutches at the team’s Surrey practice facility. “But by then, it’s too late. And I mean it’s milliseconds. That’s the difference. Milliseconds.”
So are those milliseconds the difference between the Jonathon Jennings of 2016 and 2017? Maybe it’s that simple for the Lions and their young quarterback and this is all part of the learning curve for someone trying to master the most difficult position to play in team sports.
At least it had better be because the alternative for the player and the team will be a lot harder to explain.
The Lions, as you may be aware, are confronting more than a few problems as they prepare for their final five games of the CFL regular season. For starters, it’s likely the 6-7 Leos have to win all five of those games if they hope to make the playoffs and keep intact the team’s streak of 20 straight years in the post-season.
There’s also the small matter of the sale of the franchise, the selection of a new president and the ongoing questions over the future of GM and head coach Wally Buono. You know, little things like that.
But it’s funny. For all the uncertainty facing the Lions, a healthy and productive Jennings goes a long way toward answering a lot of their questions.
The team’s position is Jennings’ struggles this year are the natural order of things for a young quarterback; that, in offensive co-ordinator Khari Jones’ words, he still has, “the mindset, work ethic and the skills to be a very good player in this league for a long time.”
Following his first full year as a starter, that seemed like a relatively safe bet. Now? Well, a lot of things have changed for Jennings and the Lions this year.
The kid from Columbus is coming off a relatively commendable performance against Hamilton two weeks ago but it says a lot about his season that a close loss to a 3-10 team quarterbacked by Jeremiah Masoli registers as a good thing.
In that outing, Jennings threw for 345 yards and directed an offence that produced 480 total yards yet, inexplicably, produced just one touchdown in a crushing 24-23 loss to the Tabbies.
Unfortunately for the Lions, the larger picture provided by Jennings on the season isn’t nearly as flattering. In the games where he’s taken the bulk of the snaps, the Lions are 3-6. Jennings also has the lowest efficiency rating of any starting quarterback, the second-lowest overall rating and he’s thrown 12 interceptions against just six touchdown passes.
True, a shoulder injury in Week 4 didn’t help but, since he’s returned, Jennings has looked hesitant and indecisive. In short, he’s looked like a rookie, which is part of the confusing thing here because, in his first full season as a starter, he
seldom looked like a rookie.
“When you see a guy look hesitant it’s a bit of a confidence issue,” Lulay said before adding, “It’s funny because (Jennings) skipped some steps, right? From the outside, it might look funny but it’s part of playing the position.”
Ah yes. The confidence issue. Lulay and Jennings, it should be noted, are close friends and it’s likely they’ve had this conversation several times in private. But, while maintaining Jennings’ upside is still “through the roof,” the veteran still suggested the younger player’s travails start with that vexing confidence thing.
“You injure your shoulder and it affects your throwing and your rhythm; all the things you built through training camp,” Lulay said. “And there’s the confidence thing. Seeing four picks on paper (Jennings threw four interceptions in his first game back from injury in Regina) is a challenge mentally.
“You see four picks on paper and it’s, ‘Man, what happened? We were we so good last week. Is it all me?’ ”
Jennings, for his part, admitted he’s taken on too much of the responsibility for this Lions’ season.
“I’ve learned I can’t do everything,” he said. “I can only do what I can do. Past that, my teammates have to do their job and we all have to trust each other.”
That’s also one of the many lessons he’s absorbed in 2017. Last year, when he had the look of a franchise quarterback in the making, it appeared he would be that rare bird who had arrived as a finished product.
He’s since found out differently but, whatever else he is, Jennings is also 25 and has been granted all the physical gifts to be a great quarterback.
We’re about to find out if he has the intangibles to go with them.
“I feel good,” said Jennings, who has one more year on his deal with the Lions. “I will never lack confidence. I know what I can do. Just because some things don’t go your way it’s not the end of the world for you. You’ve just got to fight through it.”
And he’s fighting now, fighting for this season and so many things that lie ahead.