Jimmy Jeong/CFL.ca
BC Lions Head Coach Wally Buono doesn’t want to get too caught up in the return of one Zach Collaros.
“We’re not playing Zach just by himself, we’re playing the Tiger-Cats,” the CFL’s all-time winningest coach said this week. “They have a lot of weapons.”
That they do. As do the Lions on the side of the ball that will, on Saturday night in Vancouver, attempt to make the return of Collaros as miserable as possible.
What Buono says is true. The Ticats do possess a nice array of weaponry on their offence. He downplays the importance of focusing on Collaros but the truth of the matter is that Collaros is by far the most important member of that offence and that neutralizing him means you neutralize that offence and that is no small consideration.
The BC Lions’ defence will try to keep Zach Collaros at bay in his return to the field (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
The return of Collaros, the 27-year-old superstar pivot who was having an MOP worthy year in 2015 until he fell awkwardly to the Tim Hortons Field turf during a game against the Edmonton Eskimos, is the highlight of the CFL week (Well, it is along with Calgary quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell poking the Saskatchewan Roughriders with a stick ahead of their game in Regina).
There’s not much doubt that Collaros will return to his daring best after rehabbing a torn ACL but the big question is: Can he do it right away, against the Lions?
“Zach’s really competitive,” said BC defensive back Brandon Stewart, wary of his former teammate’s desire to have things go his way right away. That will mean the Lions can’t count on a feeling out process.
Collaros ain’t the kind of guy to stick his toe in the pool to test temperature. He’s more like the kind of guy to fling open the patio door and cannonball into the deep end before you can say, “Anyone wanna go for a swim?”
It’s a given that Collaros is a force when he is grooving but it’s hard to know just what he can accomplish right out of the gate after nearly a year away.
A lot of quarterbacks take a few games to get back into the rhythm of things, but this is Collaros, an audacious and talented pivot who’s had, seemingly, a natural affinity for Canadian football from the first time he was thrown into the fire and there is the chance that he might just step in and pick up where he left off. We know his psyche is built that way, anyway, and the Lions will need to be ready for it.
“We know he’s pretty sharp,” said Buono. “He knows what’s goin’ on around him. He’s always good at using his feet.”
The Lions possess one of the CFL’s best defences in 2016, ranking at or near the top of a number of important categories, so that’s good news for them; They have the stuff to potentially – potentially – keep a guy like Collaros at bay even if he’s in the swing of things.
The team has allowed just 288 passing yards a game this season, ranking them third in that category. They have allowed a league low eleven touchdowns so far and just 22.5 points per game, also a CFL best.
They’re tied at the top of the charts (with Hamilton) with 22 sacks, and defensive end Alex Bazzie is the premier quarterback hunter in the league right now, with six of his own. The Lions have you-know-who and you-know-who anchoring their linebacking corps and they have plenty of knowledge about what Collaros means to an offence.
“He can make almost every throw on the field,” said Stewart. “He’ll buy time and extend plays.”
This is going to be a pretty good chess match.
While the focus might be on Collaros and his return and what kind of challenge that will pose for the Lions’ defence, Hamilton’s defensive unit – at or near the top of many league categories along with the Lions – has a tall task ahead of it and the abilities needed to succeed in the mission. They’ll make their own adjustments, too.
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Soloman Elimimian and co. will look to keep their defence at the top of the league when the Lions take on the Ticats (CFL.ca)
Recall that the Lions used a lot of two-back looks in their 28-3 romp in Hamilton back in Week 3, helping to neutralize a vicious Ticats’ blitz package. Hamilton’s defensive coordinator Orlondo Steinauer will make his calculations and might rearrange the pressure points. Or, he may take a lesson from the Toronto Argonauts’ success against Jonathon Jennings in Week 3 and drop a bunch of guys back into coverage.
There may be similar defensive tendencies in this game. For Buono, ensuring Collaros can’t find the range will not necessarily mean sending the house against the rusty quarterback. Feeling too much pressure will allow Collaros to more easily make the decision to hit a relief man or escape and make a big play. Buono hints that it will be more about forcing Collaros to progress through reads and having a tough time finding an open guy.
“I’m not sure that the game plan changes,” Buono said of scheming against Collaros. “What you have to do is try to figure out what Hamilton likes with Zach because every quarterback has their likes and dislikes.”
Keying on the dislikes will be the job for the Lions’ defence. We’ll find out on Saturday just what their idea of that is when it comes to Collaros.
“The other thing we’ve gotta do is make sure that we don’t do anything that we’re not comfortable with,” said Buono, again referencing the notion that the return of Hamilton’s top flight quarterback must not mean losing the tangibles and intangibles that have made the BC defence one of the best in the CFL through the first third of this season.
But that’s the thing, you see. We’re not sure just what vintage of Collaros we’re going to get on Saturday night.
If he’s the one we’ve come to know so well, he is exactly the kind of quarterback who will, indeed, force defenders to do things they’re not comfortable with.
If you’re playing the usual odds on quarterbacks returning after a long dose of inactivity, they are that Collaros will not be his old self in this one. If that’s the case, the Lions get the benefit of that timing.
I’ll take those odds on a bet, however. Which means I think Collaros comes out swinging.
Which would mean two top shelf defences against two top shelf offences.
That sounds like fun.
