Ferguson: Collaros-Rourke a very revealing debate

It might be a couple weeks too soon for this article, but it is THE discussion of the 2022 CFL season. With CFL All-Star fan voting underway and media voting to follow quickly behind to determine All-Star nods and major award winners, I wanted to tackle the biggest challenge to both fans and media alike.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.cfl.ca/2022/10/14/ferguson-collaros-rourke-a-very-revealing-debate/

sorry Fergs, but the head to head stat is moot. qbs don’t play against each other, they play against defences. for “outstanding” the data here:

and here are what’s relevant:

also regarding games played, there is precedent- Ricky Ray won CFL Allstar and east division MOP (over Burris) with 10 games started in 2013.

Question here. Rourke is almost guaranteed to win the CFL's Top Performers list that we see updated here every week. Is this a recognized honour at the CFL awards ceremony?

the weekly passing stats, as well as the eye-popping 79.2% completion percentage and 125.2 efficiency are what stand out to me and no one has gotten anywhere close to those numbers this year. for example, take any 9-game stretch for anyone else and there is no comparison. Rourke’s 9-game averages are absurd.

Yes there is precedent of Ray/Burris in 2013 - but Burris that year had huge volume (yards, attempts, completions) but not much else. Ray's TD/INT (21/2) ratio blew away Burris (25/19) and as did efficiency (126.4 vs 93.8). Burris's efficiency was 6th and his TD ratio 7th.

Rourke's efficiency is only a little better than Zach (125.1 vs 114.6) and Zach's TD ratio is slightly better (35/13 vs 25/10). Zach is 2nd in efficiency, and has 10 more TD passes than anyone else, and has the best TD/INT ratio. All that, combined with the body of work of an entire season, should point to this being Zach's.

that’s actually not only a little.

if it was the same numbers but for the last nine games of the season instead of the first, this conversation would likely be over.

Rourke had a great year, no doubt. And with his numbers but only playing half the season might be enough for most years - I just don't think this is one of those years. That 2013 year of Ray and Burris is probably more like comparing Rourke to MacBeth, as opposed to Rourke and Zach. Burris' numbers from that year are quite similar to what MacBeth is doing right now and will end up with, and I don't think there's anybody that thinks MacBeth is in the running for MOP.

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