EDMONTON — Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Zach Collaros is eager to get back on the horse.
In another way, so are his teammates.
Collaros is slated to start when the Roughriders face the Edmonton Eskimos in CFL action Thursday at Commonwealth Stadium (8 p.m., CKRM, TSN). It’ll be his first game action since June 21, when he left Saskatchewan’s contest against the host Ottawa Redblacks in the second quarter with a concussion.
Collaros was put on the six-game injured list with head and neck issues following that contest and missed four games before being activated on Monday. After two full practices — and almost six weeks of inactivity — Collaros once again will be behind centre.
“After the first play, you get the anxiety out of you and the jitters and it’s just football again,” he said Wednesday. “It’s just like any practice or any rep you get in a live 12-on-12 situation. As long as I approach it that way, I’ll be OK and we’ll be OK offensively.”
The Roughriders hope their recent offensive struggles will dissipate with Collaros’ return. Backups Brandon Bridge and David Watford took turns at the controls, but the unit never clicked perfectly.
That was evident in Saturday’s 34-22 loss to the visiting Calgary Stampeders. The offence didn’t score a touchdown — the only major came via defensive end Tobi Antigha’s interception return — and had to settle for five Brett Lauther field goals.
The Stamps capitalized on several Saskatchewan miscues (including a pair of fumbles in Roughriders territory) to jump into a 24-0 first-quarter lead. Saskatchewan hung around but couldn’t fully recover.
“Coach (Chris) Jones always talks about trying to win the turnover battle and you can’t start off with two fumbles in your end,” slotback Naaman Roosevelt said. “We gave them points doing that and we can’t do that.
“As an offence, we’ve got to understand that there were a lot of things we could have done right that didn’t go our way. We know that we can definitely bounce back from that.”
Collaros may have won the starting QB job in training camp, but Jones — the Roughriders’ head coach and general manager — isn’t expecting the veteran pivot to turn things around immediately.
“He’s not going to be Superman,” Jones said. “He’s going to make mistakes also but (the hope is that he’ll) just come in and be Zach.”
That may be the goal, but Collaros has higher hopes for the offence.
“We put together a good game plan every week and it’s on the players to execute it,” he said. “We have the guys to do it, regardless of what people outside of the locker room might say. We know we’ve got the guys to do it and we’re just excited for a new challenge.”
The overriding challenge is getting back on the beam after the loss to Calgary.
After that contest, Bridge said the game “left a bad taste in our mouth.” Playing again just five days later, Bridge added, is an opportunity to “spit it out and definitely get after it” before the Roughriders go into their second bye week of the regular season.
“It’s really important for us to handle business as a defence, as an offence and as a team,” defensive end Willie Jefferson said. “We’re going on this bye week and we don’t want to go into this long bye week with a loss.
“Like Brandon said, we’re going to try to hurry up and get this game going, get this bad taste out of our mouth, get a win back under our belt and go into this bye week fresh.”
After facing the Eskimos, Saskatchewan is idle until it plays host to the Stampeders on Aug. 19.
The Roughriders’ offence could get a shot in the arm with the return of Duron Carter to receiver. Carter started the past five games at cornerback and saw only spot duty at receiver.
Carter, who has five catches for 52 yards this season, takes the place of Caleb Holley in the starting lineup. Holley has been placed on the one-game injured list.
There’s only one thing that Jones wants to see from Carter.
“I told Duron: ‘Do what’s asked of you. If you’re required to block on a run play, well, guess what? We need you to block,’ ” Jones said. “That’s 
all. We just want Duron to play his game.”
“It’s another opportunity for me to try to help us win the game,” Carter noted earlier this week when asked about potentially returning to receiver. “That’s what I’m doing every play. Being on offence, I definitely have more opportunities to get the ball — and I love that.”
Carter’s shift to the offence was made possible by the activation Wednesday of cornerback Nick Marshall. The CFL rookie had been on the six-game injured list since hurting a hand in Saskatchewan’s first regular-season game.
Marshall’s addition to the defence comes at a good time for the Roughriders, since the Eskimos have one of the CFL’s top passing offences.
Edmonton is tied for the league lead in passing touchdowns (13) and leads the loop outright in such passing statistics as yards (343.8 per game), average gain (9.6 yards) and completion percentage (68.7).
Saskatchewan’s defence is only fifth in the league in passing yards allowed (256.5), so Marshall could help in that area.
Collaros and Marshall haven’t played in a game since June, so they may have to overcome some rust Thursday. Meanwhile, their teammates who played Saturday face the strain (and pain) associated with a quick turnaround between games.
“You’re getting back at it right away,” defensive end Charleston Hughes said. “But the game has got to get played. Whether you’re sore or not sore, you’ve still got to show up and play winning football.”
