Zach Injury Watch - Calgary pre-game thread

[TecnoGenius]

In the live game it looked like the big guy landing on Zach and bending his neck to the side messed up Zach's neck, i.e. neck muscle injury (good?).  But some speculated it could be a concussion (bad, very bad).

I didn't see any hard brain-scrambling contact either from the defender, or the turf.  But I'll need to rewatch and study tomorrow.  I'll be praying it's not concussion.

It isn't a good sign that he lay on the field for a minute or two looking like he was dazed, though.  You wouldn't necessarily do that just for a neck booboo.  But it is a good sign the trainers were instantly focussing on his neck and not doing the "how many fingers do you see" thing.

Post any Zach updates here and pray for our #1, regardless of how good our #2 played!

(P.S. I think it wasn't RTP nor UR.  If the league wants to prevent this, they'll need a new rule.  Also, Zach should take a course at the Matty Ice School of Throwing Into The Stands.)

[TecnoGenius]

On rewatch/study of the play:

I'm nearly positive this is a head/neck muscle/tendon issue (or maybe vertebrae...).  Not a concussion.  There was no whack or contact with anything hard or any big head jerk.

I think the final swipe of the D guy's lower body took his already twisted-around head and twisted it even farther than is natural.  The other parts of the D guy were holding Zach's torso slightly in place, so while the head twisted more the body couldn't also twist to compensate.

So an overextended twist of the head relative to the shoulders.  What does that mean?  I can't really remember this happening to another CFL QB.  So someone else will have to spell out the possibilities here.

I suppose the worst case is some sort of disc/vertebrae thing if something got pushed out of whack.  Best case just a pulled muscle?

The "I see stars and my hands are tingling" response he showed on the turf is a bit weird, like a concussion, but any neck wonkiness can do that.

He was also jogging shortly after the hit, and came back on field (unusual if concussion).  He didn't show any weird hold-my-neck-still posture after the fact.  That furthers the mystery.

Is it possible MOS pulled him even if he seemed good to go just for precaution or because he was getting mauled out there?  That might be a first for MOS.

My money is on some neck tweak (I've had similar, but not from a 300 lb DT haha) and they can linger, and might be aggravated by a throwing motion, let alone a sack.  So maybe at best it's a couple of weeks.  SSK fans already salivating at the prospect of a 4-game Zach IR stint...  "BB" won't mean banjo bowl, it'll mean Backup Battle.

[Lincoln Locomotive]

In the live game it looked like the big guy landing on Zach and bending his neck to the side messed up Zach's neck, i.e. neck muscle injury (good?).  But some speculated it could be a concussion (bad, very bad).

I didn't see any hard brain-scrambling contact either from the defender, or the turf.  But I'll need to rewatch and study tomorrow.  I'll be praying it's not concussion.

It isn't a good sign that he lay on the field for a minute or two looking like he was dazed, though.  You wouldn't necessarily do that just for a neck booboo.  But it is a good sign the trainers were instantly focussing on his neck and not doing the "how many fingers do you see" thing.

Post any Zach updates here and pray for our #1, regardless of how good our #2 played!

(P.S. I think it wasn't RTP nor UR.  If the league wants to prevent this, they'll need a new rule.  Also, Zach should take a course at the Matty Ice School of Throwing Into The Stands.)

Agreed.....the play he made for the pick 6 was completely avoidable....the desperation lunge he made and flipping the ball forward was something you might expect from a raw rookie.    Don't get me wrong , I love Zach, however he has thrown a number of uncharacteristic pick sixes this season.   This last one and resulting injury didn't need to happen if he just throws it out of bounds....being down 22 points early in the game could have really snowballed however we fought back and clawed our way back into it with Dru and Buck executing the game plan and continuing to pound the rock and spread the ball around.    Sheed had a great game as did most of our receivers.....hoping Woli is ok

[pjrocksmb]

Agree on the neck. Tecno, sounds like people like your deep analysis on the GDT and it's welcome here too.

Zach has always thrown some head scatching ints from time to time.  The one on the injury was real bad.  I don't expect it to be any more or any less of an issue going forward.  That said as he ages he needs to realize that throwing it away more should be the new normal because he is slower and also for self preservation.  It's his only real weakness, we all have them.

The nice thing is he doesn't throw a bunch of ducks in a row.  He sprinkles them in with his incredible amount of tds.  He will learn from yesterday.  My only concern about yesterday is injuries.  Woli is a big part of this club.  BOO looked fine.

[Blue In BC]

I don't think the injury will be a long term issue. He was taken out of the game as precaution. Yes he made a poor decision on that play and a few others this season but stuff happens.

The good news is how well Brown played after entering the game and of course we won.

[M.O.A.B.]

I think the Collaros injury was a blessing in disguise. Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy that Collaros got injured but if that did not happen I don't think we won that game. Elks borrowed the script from the Week 3 Lions win and that was happening early on. Enter Brown, who they didn't prepared for and who has quicker feet on scramble.

If Collaros goes to IR (hopefully just 1 game), I will not be surprised a Strevy comeback sooner rather than later. We need another QB body as we only have 2 (minus Collaros if he goes to IR) at the moment.

[TBURGESS]

I don't think it was just a neck injury. I've had a couple of big ones. They hurt like hell, then you can't move your neck as your body tries to lock down the injury. I had to turn at the waist to look at things instead of turning my neck.

Collaros laid on the field not moving much for several minutes. They took him straight to the locker room, where I suspect he went through concussion protocol & failed. Note that I'm not a Dr, nor do I play one on internet forums. My so called diagnosis is based on simple observation.

[bwiser]

I think I am almost more concerned about the injury to Woli than I am to the injury to Colleros. It looked like Colleros leaving the game was more precautionary. Woli had trouble with his ankle most of the season about two years ago. It appears to be a similar injury. I would like to look at it again but it appeared like the Elks defender was twisting Woli's ankle and thats how he got hurt.

[Waffler]

I think MOS said we need more evaluation on Zach in the post game. Which means it's short term. This is consistent with him running on the sidelines to the locker room. Guys with concussions are not allowed to do that by training staff. Also he was running smoothly so whatever hurt, how bad could it be? Standing on the sidelines after, he showed no issues and you know the cameras were looking for one the rest of the way.

Trainer on the field seemed to be looking at the collar bone, upper chest to me.

[pjrocksmb]

I think I am almost more concerned about the injury to Woli than I am to the injury to Colleros. It looked like Colleros leaving the game was more precautionary. Woli had trouble with his ankle most of the season about two years ago. It appears to be a similar injury. I would like to look at it again but it appeared like the Elks defender was twisting Woli's ankle and thats how he got hurt.

Agree

[Nic16]

Looking at the tv shot of Zach on the sidelines rolling & stretching his neck has me thinking he had a stinger in the area of his neck. I think it may have been why he stayed on the ground and moving his hands and arms very carefully.

IMO the hit he took was the result of an unnecessary play on his part and the tacklers part. Zach put himself in a very vulnerable position and the tackle had hints of over-aggressive recklessness.

[VictorRomano]

I don't think it's too serious, but if I'm Osh, Zach dresses and sits and DTDB gets the start against Calgary as a precaution.

[Jesse]

Once again, you can't diagnose anything from TV. We have no idea what happened inside his body - especially if there were any concussion symptoms.

On the sidelines, he looked ok. So we can be happy for real life Zach.

As for football Zach, we'll wait and see if he suits up for practice.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

No idea how anyone can make out the severity of the injury by watching the replay but we know a few things:

-- It's a head or neck injury (or both)

--He was healthy enough to watch the second half from the sidelines.

-- He won't be rushed back to play Calgary next week.

Hopefully it was mostly precautionary given his history. We're in a light part of the schedule. @Calgary, Vs Montreal, @Sask, Vs Sask. We're probably favourites in all of those games with or without Zach.

[Bomber Diehard]

This could be perfect timing to let Brown play the Calgary game and see if he is our QB of the future.
There could be a line-up for him next year.