• The Zach Collaros Show was on full display: Collaros finished with an 87.0% adjusted completion rate on an average target depth of 13.9 yards. He made five big-time throws without any turnover-worthy plays, and his 93.6 passing grade was the highest of the week. He even picked up a first down with his legs on a scramble.
• Ottawa RB Devonte Williams balled out in a big way: Williams forced a ridiculous 12 missed tackles on his rushing attempts and gained 72.5% of his yards after contact. As a receiver, he caught all four passes thrown his way for 69 yards.
• HB Reggie Stubblefield comes up big for Alouettes' run defense: The halfback made a game-high eight tackles in the run game, four of which were defensive stops. He didn’t have a single negatively graded run-defense snap, and his 86.9 run-defense grade led the CFL.
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
Rematch weekend proved it’s hard to beat a team twice in a season, let alone in back-to-back weeks. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers shellacked the Saskatchewan Roughriders a week after losing to them, while the Edmonton Elks engineered a late comeback win against the Calgary Stampeders a week after Calgary did the same to them. It’s no surprise that 11 of the 27 players on the Week 14 Team of the Week came from those two teams.
Check out the full roster below along with some impressive performers who earned weekly awards.
OFFENSE
QB: Zach Collaros, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
RB: Brady Oliveira, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Outside WR: Kenny Lawler, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Slot WR: Tim White, Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Slot WR: Tommy Nield, Toronto Argonauts
Slot WR: Dalton Schoen, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Outside WR: Eugene Lewis, Edmonton Elks
LT: Martez Ivey, Edmonton Elks
LG: Pier-Olivier Lestage, Montreal Alouettes
C: Sean McEwen, Calgary Stampeders
RG: Tomas Jack-Kurdyla, Edmonton Elks
RT: Brett Boyko, Edmonton Elks
DEFENSE
DI: Blessman Ta’ala, Ottawa Redblacks
DI: Miles Brown, Saskatchewan Roughriders
Edge: Jackson Jeffcoat, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Edge: Lorenzo Mauldin IV, Ottawa Redblacks
LB: Cameron Judge, Calgary Stampeders
LB: Jovan Santos-Knox, Ottawa Redblacks
Cover LB: Adarius Pickett, Toronto Argonauts
CB: Jamal Peters, Toronto Argonauts
CB: Brandin Dandridge, Ottawa Redblacks
HB: Brad Muhammad, Calgary Stampeders
HB: Kobe Williams, Calgary Stampeders
S: Loucheiz Purifoy, Edmonton Elks
SPECIAL TEAMS
K: Sergio Castillo, Winnipeg Blue Bombers
P: Cody Grace, Calgary Stampeders
Returner: Tyreik McAllister, Hamilton Tiger-Cats
QUARTERBACK OF THE WEEK: QB ZACH COLLAROS, WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS
This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who watched this game. A week after struggling against the Roughriders, Collaros absolutely shredded their defense and had this game over by halftime. Collaros finished with an 87.0% adjusted completion rate on an average target depth of 13.9 yards. He made five big-time throws without any turnover-worthy plays. His 93.6 passing grade was the highest of the week, and he even picked up a first down with his feet on a scramble.
Collaros now has the highest big-time throw rate in the CFL (8.9%) while also sporting the second-lowest turnover-worthy play rate (2.9%). Collaros has had some down games this season, but as a whole, he is on track for a career-best season and has Winnipeg in the driver’s seat for a fourth straight Grey Cup appearance.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: RB DEVONTE WILLIAMS, OTTAWA REDBLACKS
While Winnipeg running back Brady Oliveira earned the Team of the Week spot, Williams had a game to remember and almost single-handedly dragged the Redblacks to a victory. Just looking at Williams’ rushing stats is impressive. Gaining 142 yards on 17 carries is wild. And that's despite one of his carries going for a loss of seven yards when he was swarmed by three defensive linemen as soon as he was handed the ball.
Williams forced a ridiculous 12 missed tackles on his rushing attempts and gained 72.5% of his yards after first contact. As a receiver, he caught all four passes thrown his way for 69 yards. All four went for first downs, and he forced two more missed tackles.
OFFENSIVE LINE OF THE WEEK: EDMONTON ELKS
Three of the Elks' linemen were named to the Team of the Week above. In a reverse from the previous week, Edmonton was able to engineer a comeback win over the Calgary Stampeders, and it was largely thanks to their strong offensive line play. The line was firing off the ball on run plays, evidenced by an impressive 44.2% of their rushing yards coming before first contact. That was the highest mark in the league.
The Elks were no slouches in pass protection either, as they did not allow a single sack. Not only that, but they surrendered just six total pressures on 31 dropbacks. Edmonton's offensive line has not allowed a sack since Tre Ford took over as quarterback.
PASS RUSHER OF THE WEEK: EDGE ANTHONY LANIER II, SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS
As has been the case for much of the season, no pass rusher was more disruptive than Lanier this past weekend. While he failed to record a sack, he tallied a league-high four quarterback hits and seven total pressures. He won 21.7% of his pass-rush snaps and recorded pressure on almost one-third of his pass rushes. Lanier is currently the CFL's highest-graded pass rusher this season (87.3) and is still the only player in the league to have a pass-rush win rate over 20% (21.4%).
RUN DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: HB REGGIE STUBBLEFIELD, MONTREAL ALOUETTES
While the Alouettes struggled to halt the Argonauts' vaunted rushing attack, it wasn’t due to a lack of trying by Stubblefield. The halfback made a game-high eight tackles in the run game, four of which constituted defensive stops. He didn’t have a single negatively graded run-defense snap, and his 86.9 run-defense grade led the CFL. Stubblefield showed remarkably good tackling, too, making a game-high 13 tackles while missing just one. His 80.7 season-long run-defense grade is one of the highest marks on a strong Alouettes defense.
COVERAGE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: CB JAMAL PETERS, TORONTO ARGONAUTS
Peters joined the Argonauts after the season had already begun and struggled a bit early on. That came to a head in Week 8 when he allowed eight catches for 144 yards. In four games since then, Peters has gotten back to his lockdown ways of last season. This week was more of the same. While Peters did allow five catches, the average depth of those receptions was a mere 4.7 yards. In all, he let up just 31 yards and zero first downs. He also had an impressive interception on the last pass of the game. Since that bad Week 8 game, Peters has allowed nine catches for 47 yards and two first downs while picking off two passes.
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