Upon Further Review | Wpg 55 Edm 27

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There’s a spot reserved for him already in the Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Fame. And likely the Ring of Honour, too.

The Zach Collaros story is already legend in Bomberland, what with him having led the team to four consecutive Grey Cup appearances and two championships.

He continues to rocket up most of the franchise’s Top 10 lists, now ranking third in wins (47), fourth in touchdown passes (107) and fifth in yardage (15,396) while sporting a gaudy 47-14 won-lost record in blue and gold.

We open with that Collaros resumé refresher as the backdrop to what the veteran quarterback accomplished Friday night in a 55-27 spanking of the Edmonton Elks that secured a playoff spot for an eighth consecutive season because, in many ways, his handiwork could be seen of the most-important development for the Blue Bombers as they now enter October and November.

Collaros, simply put, was brilliant in completing 21-of-26 passes for 432 yards — just seven shy of tying his personal best, set in 2018 during his days with Hamilton — and a whopping six TDs. The six passing scores, FYI, ties him with Jack Jacobs and Sean Salisbury for the second-most in a single game in Blue Bomber history, one shy of Jim Van Pelt’s seven thrown in a game in 1959.

And it was Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea summed up the Collaros performance perfectly after the win.

“It was fun to watch,” he said with a smile. “He was just so on and the guys around him were right and were on, too. That was pretty cool to see.

“It’s exciting to watch. You get caught up… as a coaching staff — me, in particular — you’ve got to stay focussed, too, because you get watching it as a fan and going, ‘Oh, my goodness!’ Yeah, Zach was on fire.”

What made his night so critical because it was a snapshot of the skills he flashed so often from 2019-23, but just sporadically this season as the offence introduced new faces up front and in the receiving corps and struggled to find consistency in its execution.

A reminder: heading into Friday night the Blue Bombers offence had been averaging a league-low 21.4 points per game, was last in touchdowns with 24 and in explosion plays (30-plus yards) with just 13.

So, yeah, seeing all those numbers spinning like a slot machine on the scoreboard and on the statistical sheet on Friday is absolutely an elixir for the Bombers and their faithful.

Collaros completed passes to seven different receivers, had six explosion plays and connected for two scores each to Nic Demski and Kenny Lawler along with strikes to Brady Oliveira and Keric Wheatfall.

“It was a great game,” said Lawler. “We definitely all clicked tonight. Have we arrived? I don’t think so. I think we’ve got even better ball to play. We set out at the beginning of the season to be the best offence in the league — the best offence ever — so that’s the standard. I don’t feel like we’ve arrived, but it was good to be able to play like this.”

No doubt. The passing yardage was the highest of the season and the most since Collaros and Dru Brown combined for 447 yards in a win over B.C. last August, but it also showcased the burgeoning talents of Wheatfall, Pokey Wilson and Kevens Clercius in a receiving corps already featuring Lawler, Demski and Lucky Whitehead and with vets Dalton Schoen and Drew Wolitarsky on the injured list.

And in the middle of it all was Collaros.

“He was doing what Zach Collaros can do,” said Demski. “It was amazing to be a part of it. Our receivers and O-line did a great job. But 8-ball, he was dialled in the whole night.”

Added Lawler when asked if Friday’s performance was the best of Collaros’ career: “I’ll let y’all be the judge of that. There’s been many a great game. At the end of the day I know Zach’s got a lot more in the tank. So if it’s his best game it’s his best game, but I know we’re going to see a lot more.”

ICYMI, here is our game recap from Friday night:

Game Recap | EDM 27 WPG 55

And what follows is the rest of this week’s UPON FURTHER REVIEW…

A TALKING POINT REPEATED FREQUENTLY DURING… this seven-game win streak that has helped this club go from 0-4 and 2-6 to 9-6 and atop the West Division has been the club’s resiliency through it all and how critical the vets were in keeping the room focussed.

“It has to help. It has to help,” said O’Shea of the early-season lessons learned. “I mean, you can’t let that be wasted. We have a tremendous coaching staff and a great core of veterans that won’t let those lessons just fall by the way side and be repeated.

“Now, we’ve still got a ways to go, so we have to make sure we don’t slip like that again.”

It’s something Oliveira has said throughout this recent run and echoed again post game.

“We’re not done yet,” he said. “You look at the last two seasons, there’s a lot of work yet to be done. Losing early in the season was probably the best thing that could have happened to this team. We learned a lot about each other, and we got even closer as a team. No one was pointing fingers.

“You’re starting to see some glimpses. We’re going to peak at the right time, and it’s going to be a thing of beauty.”

THREE NUMBERS WHICH STOOD OUT… after a second glance at the stats package, which can be found here:

1 A couple of stats which speak of the Blue Bombers offensive dominance on Friday night. First, the attack averaged a whopping 13.4 yards on its 21 second-down plays. Worth noting: four of the six touchdown passes came on second down. And, second, Winnipeg was 16-of-22 (73%) in second-down conversions.

2 Lawler’s night — eight catches for 130 yards and two scores — was his first 100-yard game since the Banjo Bowl of last year and this TD again flashed his game-breaking abilities. The Blue Bombers need that consistently from #89 in the final three-regular season games and the playoffs.

3 Repeated often in this space but being spit out again: time of possession is always a telling stat in a game because it can be misleading. But it has been a revealing number for the Blue Bombers this season.

Case in point: in their four-game stumble to start the season Winnipeg’s time of possession was lower than each of its opponents. Since then, the club has had a superior TOP in nine of 11 games — including 31 minutes and 37 seconds in Friday’s win over Edmonton.

AND, FINALLY… for those of you weary of all these words — once again thanks for making it this far — and here is a video recap of Friday’s ‘W’:

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