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Dan LeFevour has been around professional football long enough that his scouting report has already been written, typed up and chiselled into stone.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are his fourth Canadian Football League team and he’s had stints with five different National Football League squads since starring at Central Michigan.
He’s a big-bodied quarterback at 6-3, 230 pounds, moves around the pocket well, and can be tougher to drag down than a hard-charging rhino.
All that said, even a 30-year-old with that much pro experience understands how important his performance was in Saturday night’s 25-25 tie with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
For those of you who may have missed it – and that’s likely most everyone given TSN’s decision not to televise the opening of the new Mosaic Stadium – LeFevour’s efforts in just over seven minutes in the fourth quarter were among the highlights in the first dress rehearsal for the Bombers.
He completed seven of nine passes for 88 yards while throwing for two touchdowns and rushing once for nine yards – in just three offensive possessions.
Dan LeFevour (13) Saturday night in Regina. Picture: Arthur Ward.
So, how important was Saturday for LeFevour?
“I have a pretty decent body of work that they’ve already seen,” LeFevour told bluebombers.com in the bowels of the new Mosaic late Saturday night. “But to have them see me execute plays and do it in their system, I’m sure it helps.
“A lot of good stuff happened out on the field and I’m really proud of the young guys who were able to make the most out of their opportunities with me.”
LeFevour has had a steady camp for the Bombers, quickly gobbling up Paul LaPolice’s offence and – just like all the other pivots – showcasing his skill set.
Both he and Dom Davis were impressive in relief of Matt Nichols (five of eight for 32 yards), just further complicating the question as to which of the two would land the No. 2 gig behind the club’s starter.
LeFevour’s been-there/done-that experience clearly was a factor against the Roughriders. Working behind a second-string offensive line and in an offence minus Andrew Harris, Weston Dressler, Darvin Adams, Julian Feoli-Gudino – and with Clarence Denmark out of the game after getting early snaps – LeFevour connected with Ryan Lankford and Justice Liggins for touchdowns, hooked up with Larry Raper for a two-point conversion, and also hit Brendon Thera-Plamondon and Kendall Roberson for gains.
A star at Central Michigan – he and Texas star-turned-Roughrider Vince Young are the only QBs in NCAA history to throw for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 in a season – LeFevour joked last week about his first days in the CFL and throwing a ball out of bounds to stop the clock… on third down.
But all those starts and snaps in the CFL now serve him as a calming influence. Experience can mean a ton, but a guy still has to get it done physically, too.
“There was one time on second and five where I threw a fade route instead of a slant. Luckily, we were able to get it (convert) on third down… I probably could have used a little more experience in that situation,” said LeFevour with a chuckle. “But absolutely, having experience helped me get the guys in the huddle quickly and then have them understand we don’t have a lot of time out there.”
Dan LeFevour (13) on Saturday night in Regina. Photo: Arthur Ward.
What LeFevour and Davis did Saturday – more on Davis below – was give Bombers management confidence in their bullpen behind Nichols, even if it isn’t necessarily any clearer who would be the No. 2 on the depth chart.
And for LeFevour, the game did two things: 1. Prove to LaPolice he’s comfortable running the offence and can give this team a different look, and 2. Remind him how much he loves the game.
“It’s fun to play against a different jersey than the one you’ve been playing with every day for a couple of weeks,” LeFevour said. “It’s great to play in front of fans again… it gives it some purpose. It’s the reason we’re doing what we’re doing every day, living in a dorm and walking the same way back and forth for two weeks.”
More on the first preseason tilt as we dust off our weekly post-game collection of notes, quotes and anecdotes in the first 2017 installment of ‘Upon Further Review’:
DOM DAVIS MIGHT NOT HAVE POSTED… the juicy stats that LeFevour did when he was at the controls of the Bombers offence, but what screamed out was his poise in the pocket.
Let’s put it this way: He looked nothing like the quarterback whose first career start at the end of the 2015 season might best be described with one word – meh.
Davis finished five of eight for 90 yards and hit T.J. Lowder for a 39-yard score that was the longest play from scrimmage for the Bombers.
“I feel like I did pretty good,” Davis said Saturday night. “I’ve got to check the film and I’m pretty sure there’s some mistakes I’m going to need to get corrected, but overall I felt like I got out there, move the ball down the field and got it in the end zone.”
“I felt really comfortable, I was seeing everything clearly and I knew where to go with the ball before the snap. I was just trying to put the ball in our playmakers’ hands.”
Dom Davis (6) Saturday night in Regina. Photo: Arthur Ward.
That last statement couldn’t be more vital. Quarterbacks too often try to make things happen on their own, forcing throws or taking off before a play has a chance to develop. Davis looked like a point guard against the Riders, connecting twice with University of Manitoba/Elmwood High School product Derek Yachison, Quinshad Davis, Lowder for the TD and Ryan Lankford.
“We all have nerves going in, but as soon as I got in and after that first play they went away,” said Davis. “Those butterflies in your stomach, they go away quick.”
And, as he has stated periodically since re-signing with the Bombers in January and through training camp, Davis spoke again Saturday about his own growth since that 2015 start.
“It’s night and day,” said Davis. “I just feel comfortable in this offence and I’m going to keep letting this staff mould me into a great quarterback.”
WE TOLD YOU LAST WEEK OF RYAN LANKFORD’S STORY… and how he had to plunk down $100 bucks to attend a Bombers free agent camp in Miami over the winter. Well, Saturday in Regina – and against the team that cut him last October, no less – Lankford was one of the Bombers who stepped up to make noise, in a good way.
A lanky wideout with nine games of experience with the Riders under his belt, Lankford fumbled his first punt-return attempt of the night – a gaffe that was recovered by Saskatchewan and converted into a score – and then had a spectacular 70-yard punt-return TD wiped out by an offside call.
He finished the night leading all Bomber receivers with four catches for 47 yards, including the 18-yard TD strike from LeFevour.
“It was very exciting,” said Lankford. “These are a lot of guys that I played with last year (with the Riders) and I remember all the coaches and all the teammates. It was nice to come back to the stadium that I thought I was going to be able to play first in and, in the grand scheme of things, I really was able to play first.
“I think I helped myself. I did some good things and I did some bad things. It wasn’t a perfect game… there were a lot of things I could have done better and there’s a lot of things I did do great. What you do is enjoy it, check the tape and then move on to the next week.”
Finding a place for Lankford in a veteran receiving corps that features Dressler, Denmark, Adams, Stafford and Feoli-Gudino will be a tough call for the Bombers. But what helped him – even though it was wiped out by penalty call – was the punt-return TD. With T.J. Thorpe still nursing a lower-body injury, Lankford moved himself into the returner discussion and could be a valuable piece for the Bombers to keep around.
After all, the club lost 39 man games to injury among their receiving corps last year (Adams, 10; Ryan Smith, seven; Gerrard Sheppard and Addison Richards, six; Dressler four and Denmark one).
“That would have been really nice,” said Lankford of the one called back. “I’ve always been told that the way to make a team is through special teams and I’m just trying to do my best and make the team in any way I can.”
BOMBERS BOSS MIKE O’SHEA… spoke earlier in the week about the importance of winning – even in the preseason – as a validation for the work put in during training camp.
And so it was of little surprise that he opened his post-game comments by stating how much he hates ties – there is not overtime in the preseason.
His entire interview can be seen below, but two of the most newsworthy items were his thoughts on the quarterbacks and whether or not there might be some roster moves before next Thursday’s home date against the Edmonton Eskimos in their final preseason game.
Here’s O’Shea on the QBs:
“I thought Dom looked comfortable throwing the ball and reading. Dan had a spark and he certainly moved the offence and created some points for us. Austin (Apodaca)… honestly, I’ll have to take a better look (at the film) and I don’t know if we really had any sustained drives for Matt to feel good. That’s why we kept him in a little longer than we wanted, to get a little more drive action out of him.”
The Bombers don’t have to make their first cuts until June 17th, but with over 80 bodies in camp, O’Shea was asked if he wanted to thin the herd a bit this week to make for easier evaluation.
“We’ll make a better decision on that, in terms of whether we should or shouldn’t, based on the effort we see on film. You’d like to keep as many as you can, but in the second exhibition game you need to get guys in their spots so they can get some good work in.”
AND, FINALLY…
A quick take on the new Mosaic Stadium: it is spectacular and two thumbs way up for the Roughrider organization for getting it done. We’ll leave the comparisons to Investors Group Field aside – both have their plusses – and instead speak about what a boon this is for the Canadian Football League.
And this comes from someone who saw every leak and flaw in Winnipeg/Canad Inns Stadium, has been in the dank and crowded visitor’s dressing room at old Ivor Wynne in Hamilton, saw players lose skin off their knees and elbows on the old sand-based turf at Taylor Field in Regina, has covered games in a near-empty Rogers Centre in Toronto and Olympic Stadium in Montreal – buildings too cavernous for the CFL – and watched as the jewel that was Lansdowne Park in Ottawa deteriorate over the years.
The new buildings or makeovers in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Regina, B.C. and Edmonton are significant additions to this grand old loop.
