It might be fun to track at least for a few weeks who made the better QB acquisition, Hamilton or Winnipeg. No don't say Ottawa.

 

Obviously the Blue won hands down this week but will it continue?

 

Would Willy have looked as bad behind Hammy's o-line?

 

Was Collaros totally at fault tonight or should play-calling be blamed for the turkey-shoot?

 

Anyone expecting an exact repeat in Week 2?

Yes

ZC has some pretty funky mechanics....which were amplified by the Riders pressure.....

ZC has some pretty funky mechanics....which were amplified by the Riders pressure.....

Big time... Bluto was right about the slow release.

The thing about Willy is that even with lots of time provided by our line, the ball in most cases was out pretty quick. Collaros on the other hand seemed (can't say for sure since you aren't him of course) to fail at making his pre snap reads when Sask was sending pressure. Ontop of that he held on to the ball way too long which magnified the problems. Had he gotten the ball out quickly like Willy, that at least would have made the problems seem not as bad.

 

All that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if the game against the Riders ends up being his worst of the season. While I'm not a Collaros fan he is better than what he showed today. The rain didn't help things (Durant's numbers were far from great as well). Collaros can make plays and he will perform better than he showed today, but in my opinion, Willy is and always has been the better quarterback.

 

The mechanics you could turn into a novel on Collaros. There are a lot of flaws there. In a way his mechanics remind me of Byron Leftwich. For those that recall Leftwich had a solid career at Marshall and his mechanical flaws were in large part over looked because he had a solid line in front of him at the school. Leftwich had a long wind up delivery that took much longer in terms of releasing the ball and getting it to its target than the average QB. Leftwich played behind poor offensive lines in the pros and DB's always jumped his passes because they are obviously much more skilled in the NFL.

 

The same thing to a degree plagues Collaros. His wind up and delivery takes a long time so that, coupled with hanging onto the ball too long and playing behind a much weaker O-Line than in Toronto, his play will continue to result in more sacks. The Rider DB's were also very good at jumping passes tonight. He gets happy feet against the blitz and really needs a coach that will help him remain focused on his fundamentals and settle down the happy feet under pressure.

Pretty much what Mr.P said. Collaros will be better for sure, though he's in for another tough one next Friday against the Eskies on the road. I just hope, for his sake, nature doesn't come calling for him or anyone else in the 'Cat's home opener in a few weeks...... that would be kinda embarrassing with no working washrooms at the facility

The thing about Willy is that even with lots of time provided by our line, the ball in most cases was out pretty quick. Collaros on the other hand seemed (can't say for sure since you aren't him of course) to fail at making his pre snap reads when Sask was sending pressure. Ontop of that he held on to the ball way too long which magnified the problems. Had he gotten the ball out quickly like Willy, that at least would have made the problems seem not as bad.

 

All that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if the game against the Riders ends up being his worst of the season. While I'm not a Collaros fan he is better than what he showed today. The rain didn't help things (Durant's numbers were far from great as well). Collaros can make plays and he will perform better than he showed today, but in my opinion, Willy is and always has been the better quarterback.

 

The mechanics you could turn into a novel on Collaros. There are a lot of flaws there. In a way his mechanics remind me of Byron Leftwich. For those that recall Leftwich had a solid career at Marshall and his mechanical flaws were in large part over looked because he had a solid line in front of him at the school. Leftwich had a long wind up delivery that took much longer in terms of releasing the ball and getting it to its target than the average QB. Leftwich played behind poor offensive lines in the pros and DB's always jumped his passes because they are obviously much more skilled in the NFL.

 

The same thing to a degree plagues Collaros. His wind up and delivery takes a long time so that, coupled with hanging onto the ball too long and playing behind a much weaker O-Line than in Toronto, his play will continue to result in more sacks. The Rider DB's were also very good at jumping passes tonight. He gets happy feet against the blitz and really needs a coach that will help him remain focused on his fundamentals and settle down the happy feet under pressure.

Good points.  Fact is Collaros played with a very good offence last year in T.O. which helped make him look much better than he probably was.  I was impressed with both Harris and Gale in the Argos first pre-season game against the Bombers they both moved the ball effectively.  That dink and dunk offence designed for Ray seems to make any QB look good.

Collaros always had issues with his mechanics but he always made up for it with his legs & imagination. The Riders & the weather took that away from Zackthis afternoon. When Collaros throws he has a big windup. He brings the ball down & back up in a circular motion so the release is much slower. Also, when qbs do that they have different release points on every throw. Sometimes it'll be high, sometimes low which affects accuracy because the release point is never the same. Certainly his release is slower than Willy's.

I'll give Collaros a bit of a pass because of a wet ball today but he showed a lack of arm strength on that late pick in the end zone. It looked like the same play twice in a row. The first pass was behind the receiver in the end zone & like Peter King said, Austin should have thrown the challenge flag for PI. The next throw a play later was badly underthrown & intercepted.

Willy was under pretty significant pressure from the 2nd quarter on. Burke sent a ton of HB/SAM blitzes and Grigsby wasn't that great in pass protection. Willy handled it very well, got rid of the ball quick or bought himself time.

Collaros needs an offence that uses tons of misdirection and moves the pocket to give him a chance to deliver the ball. He's not going to do anything dropping straight back and standing in the pocket.

Willy was under pretty significant pressure from the 2nd quarter on. Burke sent a ton of HB/SAM blitzes and Grigsby wasn't that great in pass protection. Willy handled it very well, got rid of the ball quick or bought himself time.

Collaros needs an offence that uses tons of misdirection and moves the pocket to give him a chance to deliver the ball. He's not going to do anything dropping straight back and standing in the pocket.

One thing, with his height Collaros is not a pocket passer. Like you say, he needs to move around to  be successful like Doug Flutie. Let his athletic ability take  over & make plays.  That's what he did in Toronto last year. And did you notice Austin ragging on the guy? There are times when a head coach should back off. Today was one of those days. How yelling at Collaros will give him confidence is beyond me. I just remember Austin always unhappy with Hank & he put up big number for him but Austin was never satisfied. If I was a coach, I'd be yelling at my OL for playing like a bunch of overpaid pylons the entire game.

Willy would have done just as poorly behind that OL today. They were absolutely awful.

Willy would have done just as poorly behind that OL today. They were absolutely awful.

No he wouldn't have. Compare how long Collaros hangs on to the ball versus Willy. It's night and day. Yes Willy would have struggled, but his ability to get rid of the ball as quick as he does would have masked the issues Hamilton has up front to a degree.

 

Willy was under pretty significant pressure from the 2nd quarter on. Burke sent a ton of HB/SAM blitzes and Grigsby wasn't that great in pass protection. Willy handled it very well, got rid of the ball quick or bought himself time.

Collaros needs an offence that uses tons of misdirection and moves the pocket to give him a chance to deliver the ball. He's not going to do anything dropping straight back and standing in the pocket.

One thing, with his height Collaros is not a pocket passer. Like you say, he needs to move around to  be successful like Doug Flutie. Let his athletic ability take  over & make plays.  That's what he did in Toronto last year. And did you notice Austin ragging on the guy? There are times when a head coach should back off. Today was one of those days. How yelling at Collaros will give him confidence is beyond me. I just remember Austin always unhappy with Hank & he put up big number for him but Austin was never satisfied. If I was a coach, I'd be yelling at my OL for playing like a bunch of overpaid pylons the entire game.

 

And that is why it is so important for coaches to be positive. It's also why O'Shea answers questions the way he does about player or team performance - sometimes it may sound a little redundant as to how positive he is, but there is a reason for it (even though those who don't understand football don't get it). Ragging on the guy (or a team) either in the game or media really doesn't accomplish a whole lot. Look at the way Berry handled his kickers and the performances they had. You're going to tell me it's a coincidence Serna has a career year when Kelly and Harris gave him as much support as you can possibly give a kicker? Coaches need to be very careful with how they handle struggling players. Austin piling on Collaros will do a lot more harm than good.

 

Willy would have done just as poorly behind that OL today. They were absolutely awful.

No he wouldn't have. Compare how long Collaros hangs on to the ball versus Willy. It's night and day. Yes Willy would have struggled, but his ability to get rid of the ball as quick as he does would have masked the issues Hamilton has up front to a degree.

 

The Argos were blitzing all game & Willy killed them as he got rid of the ball quickly.

Its fine and dandy to feel good about your QB, But Willy played against a very basic Argo Defense. I really liked what I saw from him, but we certainly cant expect that performance week in and week out.

 

He does have a very quick release, and he can also buy some time with his legs. But I don't think his pre-snap reads or reads in general will be so quick against teams like Calgary and Saskatchewan.

There were many times Collara could have dumped the ball quickly and avoided the pressure but he just stood there doing a jig.

Ken brought a team that was totally unprepared for a pro football game. Edmonton will hammer them as well.

There were many times Collara could have dumped the ball quickly and avoided the pressure but he just stood there doing a jig.

Ken brought a team that was totally unprepared for a pro football game. Edmonton will hammer them as well.

There were many times Collara could have dumped the ball quickly and avoided the pressure but he just stood there doing a jig.

Ken brought a team that was totally unprepared for a pro football game. Edmonton will hammer them as well.

But, but... he told them to have fun before the game yesterday. 

But, but... he told them to have fun before the game yesterday.

Several times in fact.

watched most of that game last night, nothing else to do with the monsoon. Noticed collaros hangs on to the ball too long, yes hamilton gave up 10 sacks but not all were just on the oline, i'd say at least 4 were because collaros panicked and hung on to the ball too long. He's a good quarterback but i think he may be a bit over rated due to playing in Milos offence last season. Like another poster mentioned, harris and gale looked pretty good in the pre-season for the argos so i think maybe the system last year was a little bit better for a guy with collaros' skill set. Not sure what hamilton was doing last night though, gable only had 3 carries. Guess when you have no threat at running the ball, the D can just pin back and go all out and go after the qb, kind of like what calgary did to montreal too. No running game = no passing game really. 

 

Part of the reason the bombers looked so good thursday was because basically it was a 50/50 split on how many times they ran vs how many times they passed the ball. Kept toronto guessing all night long, hamilton became obvious, so did montreal, you knew they weren't gonna run the ball and in those conditions, i think you needed to run the ball, look at sask, their rb had like 25 carries, gable had 3. 

The offensive line is only partially responsible when you have a QB like Collaros.

Weird part was, even though sask got 10 sacks and 4 were on collaros at least, it looked to me like sask was for the most part only sending like 4 guys on the rush. That oline was brutal and probably will be brutal all season, they were the worst oline last season too, gave up the most sacks at least, collaros needs to make quicker decisions, i'm not sure that is something he can do. 

I was curious why Austin didn't send in LeFevour or Masoli at some point.

I was curious why Austin didn't send in LeFevour or Masoli at some point.

That would be because Austin probably would have to admit he made a mistake signing collaros, would have loved to see it, imagine if lefevour or masoli went in and actually moved the ball? not saying signing collaros is a mistake but if you were austin and stubborn like he appears to be, would you want to pull your prized free agent in the first game and see the guys you decided to not go with as starter do better than he did? 

I was curious why Austin didn't send in LeFevour or Masoli at some point.

That would be because Austin probably would have to admit he made a mistake signing collaros, would have loved to see it, imagine if lefevour or masoli went in and actually moved the ball? not saying signing collaros is a mistake but if you were austin and stubborn like he appears to be, would you want to pull your prized free agent in the first game and see the guys you decided to not go with as starter do better than he did?

Ya good point. I'd think Collaros gets at least a half season no matter how much he struggles.

Ya good point. I'd think Collaros gets at least a half season no matter how much he struggles.

If he has to endure the glares and screaming in his ear hole every game from Austin he may not even make it that long, he'll just quit.