TWO SIDES TO WILLIS
Plenty of sacks, plenty of penalties.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders have come to terms with the different sides of Odell Willis.
“Playing with Odell is like being with a big five-yearold,’’ Riders linebacker Mike McCullough said Friday in advance of today’s CFL game (8 p.m., TSN, CKRM) against the visiting B.C. Lions. “He bounces around and you wonder if he’s had too much chocolate. He has fit in well here and he’s running around and doing his thing. We accept him for what he is.’’
Willis is a ferocious pass rusher who leads the Riders with six of the team’s 27 sacks. The other side of that pass rush is the fact that the Riders lead the CFL with nine roughing-the-passer penalties. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were next with seven heading into last night’s game against the Montreal Alouettes. Willis has been flagged five times for roughing the passer, a number that exceeds the totals of six teams in the CFL.
“He just has to find more control and more balance, because Odell at this point should have about 13 or 14 sacks,’’ said Riders head coach Corey Chamblin. “But he’s going full speed, sometimes trying to kill the quarterback and it’s not about killing the quarterback. It’s just about having more awareness and knowing where the quarterback is, what his anticipated move is and making the plays without coming up with the penalties.’’
Willis and Chamblin have discussed his propensity for being flagged for roughing the passer.
“He doesn’t chew me completely out because he knows what type of player that I am,’’ said Willis, who was a 2011 CFL all-star with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers after sharing the league lead of 13 sacks with Justin Hickman of the Tiger-Cats.
“Personally, I would like to cut them down. There are some that I don’t feel were penalties, but if the flag is thrown, that’s the way (the officials) feel. I have to take it upon myself to cut them out because they don’t do anything but hurt the team. I will keep playing balls to the wall and hopefully it will be a sack instead of a 15-yard penalty.’’
The contrast in Willis’s contributions were evident late in Sunday’s 30-25 victory over the visiting Stampeders when Calgary was attempting to put together a late touchdown drive. The Riders appeared to have forced a third down when Chris McKenzie knocked down a Kevin Glenn pass. The play was wiped out when Willis was assessed a 15-yard penalty for roughing Glenn.
The Stampeders were then awarded the ball on Saskatchewan’s 51-yard-line with 51 seconds remaining. On the next play, Willis rushed Glenn again, forcing the Calgary quarterback to throw an interception. Glenn was also injured on the play after being slammed to the turf by Willis. The game ended two plays later when Tristan Jackson intercepted a Bo Levi Mitchell pass attempt. Willis felt he helped atone for his penalty by forcing Glenn to throw the incompletion.
“They threw the flag, but I just wanted to show them what a legal hit was instead of being flagged for a little love tap,’’ said Willis, who has 19 defensive tackles. “I don’t have anything against the officials. They throw the flag and that’s how they feel. We can’t do anything but play football.’’
Chamblin would like to see a balance between Willis’s all-out pursuit of the quarterback and reducing the roughing-the-passer penalties.
“You want him going 100 miles an hour,’’ Chamblin said. “He has to make sure that he’s anticipating what they’re going to do. It’s the same thing with his penalties ... But at the end of the day, there’s some times when Odell, just being a defensive end and an aggressive guy, tries to make a statement. That’s not the statement we want to make. He just has to make sure that he’s playing quality ball.’’
The Riders (6-6) will need Willis’s best today for a number of reasons. B.C. (93) is led by quarterback Travis Lulay, who poses threats with his passing accuracy and mobility. B.C. also leads the league with only 13 sacks allowed. Containing Lulay will be a challenge for the defensive line, which is missing three starters in defensive end Brent Hawkins (abdominal) and defensive tackles Keith Shologan (shoulder) and Mick Williams (knee).
“I would rank Lulay right behind (Saskatchewan’s) Darian Durant and (Hamilton’s) Henry Burris when it comes to mobility,’’ Willis said. “Once you get past their offensive line, you have to get to Lulay. He’s young, he has fresh legs and once he feels pressure, he takes off. He’s really the reason for them giving up the fewest number of sacks.’’
Willis would love to pad his sack totals at Lulay’s expense.
He marked his one sack against the Stampders with an imaginative celebration dance that included him whipping and shooting an imaginary horse.
“I don’t have anything planned because it’s just spur of the moment,’’ Willis said. “It’s whatever comes to my head. I don’t know if I’ll do it (today), I’m just focused on getting the win.’’