Can the Tiger-Cats overcome their Week One struggles Friday against the Eskimos?

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats' season got off to a poor start last week thanks to a 31-10 loss to Saskatchewan, one where they were outplayed on most fronts and received a particularly bad performance from new starting quarterback Zach Collaros. Heading into Friday's game in Edmonton against the Eskimos (10 p.m. Eastern, TSN/ESPN3), they're under plenty of pressure to turn things around. That's not going to be easy, though, especially given that the Eskimos got off to a good start of their own last week with a 27-20 road win over the B.C. Lions. What will the Tiger-Cats need to change in order to get a better result?

The first and most important alteration may be improving the protection in front of Collaros. He was sacked 10 times last week in Regina, and was under pressure on countless other occasions. The line that will try and protect him this week looks a bit different from the one that didn't do so well last week, as left tackle Joel Figueroa is out with a lower-body injury; that's caused right tackle Brian Simmons to shift to the left side and rookie Dominic Alford to start at RT. However, the interior line (LG Steve Myddleton, C Tim O'Neill and RG Greg Wojt) remains the same, and those guys are going to have to step it up. As Hamilton head coach/general manager Kent Austin told Terry Koshan of The Toronto Sun this week, the Tiger-Cats need to give Collaros more time to make his throws:

There's improvement required from Collaros himself too, though. Yes, the continuous pressure didn't help, but he completed just 19 of 33 passes (57.5 per cent) for 159 yards with one touchdown and one interception last week. Those numbers will need to get better for the Tiger-Cats to have much of a chance. Of course, the injuries in the receiving corps won't help: Andy Fantuz, Greg Ellingson and Giovanni Aprile are all out Saturday, Still, Collaros needs to do better with the cast he's got. One area that might help is if he uses his legs more; he was great at scrambling to avoid pressure and either making throws or picking up yardage on the ground last year, but only ran three times for 18 yards against Saskatchewan. Collaros' mobility is an asset, and one he should use more.

Beyond that, the Tiger-Cats could definitely use more of a ground game too. Their rushing attack was almost non-existent against Saskatchewan, with Collaros leading the team with 18 rushing yards. Of course, part of that was thanks to falling so far behind so early (they trailed 12-0 after the first quarter and 24-1 at the half), but the team still could have run much more. They have a great back in C.J. Gable, but only gave him three carries last week. If they can establish the run more, that might take some pressure off Collaros and help get the offence back in gear. We'll see if that happens Friday against the Eskimos.