As the Alouettes prepare for B.C., the key question is if Troy Smith can improve his accuracy

While there are 24 players on the field at any given time, the CFL is still a quarterback-focused league. With only three downs, a strong passing game is critical to an offence's success, and accuracy is perhaps the most vital part of a CFL passing game; incomplete passes really hurt in this league. Those incomplete passes were a huge part of the Montreal Alouettes' offensive struggles in a 29-8 loss to Calgary in Week One, and unless quarterback Troy Smith is able to improve his accuracy substantially, they may hurt the Alouettes again in their clash with the B.C. Lions Friday (7 p.m. Eastern, TSN/ESPN3).

Smith attempted 41 passes against the Stampeders, but completed just 18 of them. That's a completion mark of 43.9 per cent, which simply isn't good enough in the CFL. It's below what Smith did last year, too; his 52.6 per cent mark then was still well below the CFL average, but it wasn't bad for a guy in his first CFL season. Instead of building off of that, though, Smith appears to have regressed so far, and he isn't even picking up good yardage totals; he collected just 154 passing yards against Calgary, with no touchdowns and an interception, and many of those came in garbage time after the game had been decided.

There's no dispute that Smith has talent. After all, he won the Heisman Trophy at Ohio State, impressed at times in the NFL and showed lots of potential last year despite being thrown into the fire. He has terrific arm strength and impressive mobility, and he can evade pressure and throw on the run or pick up yardage with his legs. However, so far this season at least, the accuracy just hasn't been there. He's only played one regular-season game, sure, so this is a small sample size, but he didn't impress in the preseason either, completing just 50 per cent of his passes in a 26-10 loss to Ottawa. (He didn't play in the Alouettes' first preseason game thanks to injury.) Unless Smith can turn around his completion percentage, Montreal's offence may continue to struggle.

That's not all on Smith, though. Some of the accuracy issues have come about because of poor offensive design on the Alouettes' part. Keep in mind that this is a team with a new head coach (Tom Higgins) and one that fired its offensive coordinator (Rick Worman) before the preseason, choosing to elevate quarterbacks coach Ryan Dinwiddie. Dinwiddie spent plenty of time as a CFL quarterback, so he's at least familiar with how to run an offence in this league (unlike the Dan Hawkins/Mike Miller tandem last year), but he hasn't had time to fully implement his plans yet. So far, the offence has relied far too much on long bombs, and Smith hasn't been able to accurately connect with receivers on those. He has a tremendous receiving corps and a great pass-catching RB in Brandon Whitaker, so why not design and call some more short routes to boost his accuracy, give him some confidence and keep moving the chains? That simple change might go a long way to solving Montreal's problems.

The Alouettes don't have an easy opponent Saturday either, however. The Lions didn't look great in a 27-20 loss to Edmonton in their first game, but there's a lot of talent on B.C.'s squad. Quarterback Kevin Glenn, acquired only in May as a replacement while Travis Lulay continues to recover from injury, is still adjusting to his offensive coordinator, receivers, and offensive line, but he's an old CFL hand who should be able to figure it out before too long, and the Lions have a great RB tandem in Andrew Harris and Stefan Logan. It's the B.C. defence that may cause the most issues for the Alouettes, though; proven CFL DBs like Dante Marsh and Ryan Phillips may feast on an inaccurate quarterback like Smith, and the Lions' ferocious linebackers like Adam Bighill and Solomon Elimimian have proven both great at stopping the run and at rushing the passer when called upon. If the Alouettes can retool their offensive game plan and focus on short passes, and if Smith can improve his accuracy, they'll have a good chance of winning Saturday, especially given that they're at home. If not, though, Montreal's poor start may continue.