Dickenson is Buono's 'complete' player
7/9/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Lions coach raves about quarterback, who has 73 completions in 104 tries
A week hardly passes without somebody mentioning Lions' quarterback Dave Dickenson's technique in medical terms. "He's like a surgeon out there," is head coach Wally's Buono's usual line.
It's true that Dickenson, who studied molecular biology at Montana, considered a career in medicine after collegiate football. He hit textbooks and playbooks hard and graduated at the top of the class, scholastically and athletically. You won't confuse him with the sort of football player who gets confused by a childproof bottle of Advil.
As a quarterback, Dickenson appears to have laser-like precision location with his surgical strikes. While 70.2 per cent isn't enough to qualify a guy for medical school, that percentage of completed passes -- 73 hits in 104 attempts -- is by far the best in the CFL, and a standard Buono believes Dickenson is capable of flirting with all season.
"The thing that you'd want is for Dave to be even more efficient than he already is," Buono says. "If you asked Dave, I think he would say to himself, 'Yes, I can be more efficient.' That might mean three more completions a game."
After watching Damon Allen complete less than 60 per cent of his passes in four of the seven years he played with B.C. [Allen averaged 54.9 per cent in his final two seasons with the Lions], football fans in Vancouver might agree that Buono is setting an especially high standard for Dickenson. But why not? He's operating with a dome-field advantage.
"I would be disappointed if Dave doesn't finish the year in the 63-64-65 per cent range," Buono says. "As the weather gets worse, throwing the football becomes more difficult. But because we play in the dome, that impact is minimized by half. He's probably a better dome quarterback because the environment does not affect the throwing game. I would expect that, and I think Dave would expect that."
From 1997-2000, when he was with the Stampeders, Dickenson completed 65.2 per cent of his passes, a success rate surpassing Jeff Garcia (61.7 per cent, 1994-98) and Doug Flutie (60.3 per cent, 1992-95) who went on to the NFL. Remarkably, he has a rather limited body of work for a 30-year-old quarterback. Dickenson spent an entire year on Calgary's practice roster, backed up Garcia for two seasons and had only 30 career starts by the end of the 2000 season when he, too, left for the NFL.
Two years in an environment where his career stalled left him physically stronger and quicker, if no wiser through the experience. "I'm a better athlete," Dickenson says. "If you don't take any pounding, as I did for two years, you can focus on becoming a better athlete and sharpen up your physical skills."
Last Friday's 30-27 win over Toronto represented the new and improved Dickenson's 33rd game as a starting quarterback, less than two full seasons' worth of games, but he appears to have taken up where he left off, despite two years' of relative inactivity.
After three starts, the CFL's most valuable player in 2000 leads all CFL quarterbacks in passing percentage (70.2), passing yards (912) and efficiency (107.5). Dickenson's seven touchdown passes tie him with Edmonton's Ricky Ray for the league, though the Eskimos have played one more game than the Lions.
"There'll be a game where some team will take us out of our rhythm, but, offensively, we've been doing a fairly good job, especially with all our new guys," Dickenson says.
As all 5-11 of him stands patiently in the pocket against high-velocity defenders, Dickenson assumes a gigantic presence. And you get the feeling his impact, still at the getting-to-know-you stage, will only continue to grow.
A week hardly passes without somebody mentioning Lions' quarterback Dave Dickenson's technique in medical terms. "He's like a surgeon out there," is head coach Wally's Buono's usual line.
It's true that Dickenson, who studied molecular biology at Montana, considered a career in medicine after collegiate football. He hit textbooks and playbooks hard and graduated at the top of the class, scholastically and athletically. You won't confuse him with the sort of football player who gets confused by a childproof bottle of Advil.
As a quarterback, Dickenson appears to have laser-like precision location with his surgical strikes. While 70.2 per cent isn't enough to qualify a guy for medical school, that percentage of completed passes -- 73 hits in 104 attempts -- is by far the best in the CFL, and a standard Buono believes Dickenson is capable of flirting with all season.
"The thing that you'd want is for Dave to be even more efficient than he already is," Buono says. "If you asked Dave, I think he would say to himself, 'Yes, I can be more efficient.' That might mean three more completions a game."
After watching Damon Allen complete less than 60 per cent of his passes in four of the seven years he played with B.C. [Allen averaged 54.9 per cent in his final two seasons with the Lions], football fans in Vancouver might agree that Buono is setting an especially high standard for Dickenson. But why not? He's operating with a dome-field advantage.
"I would be disappointed if Dave doesn't finish the year in the 63-64-65 per cent range," Buono says. "As the weather gets worse, throwing the football becomes more difficult. But because we play in the dome, that impact is minimized by half. He's probably a better dome quarterback because the environment does not affect the throwing game. I would expect that, and I think Dave would expect that."
From 1997-2000, when he was with the Stampeders, Dickenson completed 65.2 per cent of his passes, a success rate surpassing Jeff Garcia (61.7 per cent, 1994-98) and Doug Flutie (60.3 per cent, 1992-95) who went on to the NFL. Remarkably, he has a rather limited body of work for a 30-year-old quarterback. Dickenson spent an entire year on Calgary's practice roster, backed up Garcia for two seasons and had only 30 career starts by the end of the 2000 season when he, too, left for the NFL.
Two years in an environment where his career stalled left him physically stronger and quicker, if no wiser through the experience. "I'm a better athlete," Dickenson says. "If you don't take any pounding, as I did for two years, you can focus on becoming a better athlete and sharpen up your physical skills."
Last Friday's 30-27 win over Toronto represented the new and improved Dickenson's 33rd game as a starting quarterback, less than two full seasons' worth of games, but he appears to have taken up where he left off, despite two years' of relative inactivity.
After three starts, the CFL's most valuable player in 2000 leads all CFL quarterbacks in passing percentage (70.2), passing yards (912) and efficiency (107.5). Dickenson's seven touchdown passes tie him with Edmonton's Ricky Ray for the league, though the Eskimos have played one more game than the Lions.
"There'll be a game where some team will take us out of our rhythm, but, offensively, we've been doing a fairly good job, especially with all our new guys," Dickenson says.
As all 5-11 of him stands patiently in the pocket against high-velocity defenders, Dickenson assumes a gigantic presence. And you get the feeling his impact, still at the getting-to-know-you stage, will only continue to grow.
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