The Canadian Press
Midway through the third quarter of last week’s game at BC Place, Winnipeg Blue Bomber quarterback Zach Collaros looked like a zebra surrounded by a pack of hungry Lions.
On a second-and-short play the pocket broke down around Collaros. With his team already up 16 points he easily could have eaten the ball and settled for a field goal attempt. Instead, the 33-year-old rolled to his right, managed to leave a couple of would-be tacklers grabbing at air and flung an eight-yard pass to rookie receiver Dalton Schoen for a first down.
The play left BC Lions head coach Rick Campbell shaking his head.
“I think their quarterback was Houdini tonight,” said Campbell. “He made some key plays when we did our job on defence, but then he scrambled around and made a couple of key first downs.”
Two plays later Collaros would hit Schoen on a 39-yard pass-and-run play. That would lead to a four-yard touchdown pass to Schoen, a key part in the Bombers’ 43-22 win that saw them improve to 5-0.
RELATED
» Power Rankings: The Blue and Gold support group
» Buy Tickets now for the 2022 season
» Ferguson: Week 5 QB deep dive
» Weekly Predictor: Confidence in the Tiger-Cats
Earlier in the same quarter Collaros couldn’t find a man open so he pulled the ball down and took off like a gazelle on an eight-yard run for a first down.
“You can’t go out there and half-ass stuff,” Collaros said. “It’s just every game is the biggest game and that’s how we treated it all week.”
Collaros finished the night completing 23 of 30 passes for 288 yards and three touchdown passes, two of them to Schoen. Along with Schoen, he was named one of the CFL’s Top Performers of Week 5.
“He was cooking,” said Willie Jefferson, Winnipeg’s skyscraper of a defensive end who collected a sack. “I enjoyed watching every part of it.”
The win established Winnipeg as the only 5-0 team in the CFL and set up a showdown Friday night when the 4-0 Calgary Stampeders come to IG Field. Along with Collaros’ dominating play, it also helped silence some whispers that the two-time defending Grey Cup champion Bombers weren’t hitting on all cylinders offensively.
The Bombers scored an average 21 points in their first four wins of the season against East Division teams with a combined 1-10 record.
Former Bomber Marcus Sayles, now a defensive half back with the Lions, went as far as to call the Winnipeg offensive “vanilla.”
Typically, Collaros preferred to let his performance speak for him.
“People can say whatever they want to say,” said the league’s Most Outstanding Player in 2021. “For us, it comes down to execution.
“We know who we have got, we know what we do, we know who we have in that locker room. We believe in each other. We don’t need any other motivation except for the guy sitting next to you in the locker room.”
Bomber head coach Mike O’Shea shrugged when asked if the criticism directed at the team spurred Collaros to turn in his best performance of the year.
“I don’t think so,” said O’Shea, who appeared relatively subdued after the big win. “We’re not listening when you guys (media) think we’re bad and we’re certainly not listening to whether you think we’re good.
“Our guys know exactly who they are.”
Zach Collaros has the second most passing attempts league-wide with 141, and has thrown just three interceptions. Boasting the second best completion percentage and efficiency rating (The Canadian Press).
O’Shea had a simple explanation for why the Bombers suddenly managed to score 43 points against a very good Lions defence after managing 87 points in their first four games.
“It’s Week 5,” he said. “When you look back on our previous years, this is probably about the time guys feel comfortable. So, we know who we are.”
Collaros is ranked second among CFL quarterbacks having completed 102 of 141 passes for 1,221 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions.
O’Shea liked what he saw from Collaros.
“I thought he was spot on,” he said. “He’s still very elusive. He made some big plays with his legs and kept drives going.
“He’s a fantastic leader.”
As a team, Winnipeg is ranked fourth in average points scored (26.0); fifth in net offence (330 yards a game) and second last in passing yards (254.5 yards).
Schoen said the win over the Lions was a preview of how good the Bombers can be.
“We knew we hadn’t played our best football,” he said. “We’ve made plays when we needed to, when it really mattered, but at the end of the day you want to play good all the time.
“I think we went out there and showed some of that. There’s obviously always going to be corrections and we still can get better.”
Schoen’s 10 catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns was his best performance at as Bomber.
Nothing has come easy for the 25-year-old from Overland Park, Ks. He was a walk-on at Kansas State who climbed up the depth chart to eventually start as a sophomore.
Undrafted by the NFL, he spent time with the Los Angeles Chargers, Kansas City and Washington before signing with Winnipeg in April.
“My dad told me when I was young, be a street dog, you’re not going to be given anything, you have to take it,” said Schoen. “I take that mentality every day.
“It’s hard to come to this league and get a starting spot and go out there and make plays. I keep that street dog mentality and try to take it into every single day.”
Schoen’s sure hands and ability to make plays in traffic has helped him earn Collaros’ trust.
“I think Dalton is starting to really understand the CFL game and I think he’s going to continue to grow and get better,” said Collaros. “He’s fast, he runs great routes.
“The more he plays this game, the more he’s going to understand and feel the different zones and those kinds of things.”
