Boston College

Comfortable. Hanging out on your couch on a rare Saturday of the college football season and watching the top of the polls just implode. It is what Alabama fans feel every week as they just roll over the worst conference in the South. In the crucible that is the modern day ACC schedule (wink), and as common as Haley's comet, it is what you felt Friday night.  In the post Jameis era, we simply have not enjoyed a conference 4th quarter, but this week on a bizarro Senior Night, we were able to play young men from so deep on the offensive depth chart that only their parents knew they were Seminoles.

Barring a decision to go pro during practice this week, Dalvin will become the all time leading rusher in Nole history in front of Paul, Debbie and 50 other garnet & gold parents who think that Upstate NY in November is a can't miss proposition. BC is fairly horrible all around, but their run defense was 8th in the country coming into this game, and in 3 years, Dalvin had never had found the end zone or broken 100. He did both this week, but it took three full quarters and as much as we all selfishly wanted to recognize him in Doak, pulling him when they did was the right decision. Similarly happy to be watching the game from the sideline was Deondre who gave the universal WWE pull me signal after a particularly vicious late hit (which miraculously drew an actual penalty flag - which is illustrative of just how bad it must have been). Jimbo knew that the back half of the Eagle defensive was only slightly more athletic that I am, and decided early that Francois needed to be the answer and it never hurts when you have an Auden Tate on the other end of the line. Back shoulder, front shoulder, 50/50, whatever you want to call it, get it in his zip code and Tate can make that terrible toss into Kate Upton on Holiday. The most exciting thing to ponder in the post Dalvin apocalypse is the thought of moving Travis Rudolph inside as the slot and highlighting Auden and Noonie on the edges. When your seemingly best is now the 3rd option for the right reasons, that makes defensive coordinators very nervous.  Ahem, umm, however, this would be predicated on young Deondre surviving the season and having time in this mythical, magical future to actually throw the ball more than 6 inches downfield.

The turnstile that is our RT was just a mess on Friday evening. Poor Brock Ruble was as overmatched as Ariana Grande in heels taking on Shaq in a dunk contest.  I know he left injured, but I think his pride was hurt more than his groin. So, we turned back to Rick Leonard, who could not stop the legendary BC pass rush either, and got Francois put on the shelf. I actually think the line is improving as the competition goes in the opposite direction, but we have to find a way during the week to experiment with some of the more athletic lineman like Kelly and Leonard and coach them up to prepare for the quick outside rush that have been so problematic. It was not a coincidence that our RPO runs that we brought back this week after a 4 week vacation was almost universally behind the left side with Are and Rojo.

That was possibly the worst offense I have seen enter the friendly confines of Doak Campbell in a long time. I mean these Eagles were two broken wings and a bad beak bad. They had one 39 yard run on a broken play and then gained 37 yards with the next 38 plays. They had got 2 first downs (one by penalty) in the first drive and had 3 total when we emptied the bench in the middle of the 4th quarter.  In an homage to our new President, much of the second half, BC had a completely caucasian backfield.  Does our defense deserve some credit. Absolutely. Matthew Thomas continues to figure out how to employ his incredible gifts within the framework of this defense, and our young DB's got another week of tutorial before facing a quick strike tempo offense next week. AJ Wesstbrook and Kyle Myers both flashed this week as BC avoided our corners again after a near Tavarus pick early.

Derek Nnadi is just destroying whatever poor sap has to snap the ball for the opposition, but it was the decision to actually leave big 91 in the game on 3rd downs this week that had me finding a diamond in my crackerjack box. DeMarcus was noticeably limping for much of the game, and we needed to have our best personnel on the field on 3rd down, and that means Nnadi. Brian Burns will be a special player one day; especially when he discovers the joy of free college food, and Josh Sweat is just starting to play without thinking about his unwieldy lower half. But Nnadi and Christmas make this line scary.

It was great to see us go to Logan for the 53 yard FG, and watching warmups all season, that is an obvious call. Ricky consistently seems to top out at about the 45 yard mark with his attempts pre game, and Logan mishit his only attempt and still easily cleared the uprights. I would still like to see more effort at a real punt return, but the special teams was not memorable and for all the right reasons, our KO return unit spent the game waving towels on the bench backs.

Boston College is a mess. They have won 1 conference game in football and basketball combined in the last 16 months. They have better facilities at the prep schools all over Beantown than they do on campus. The greater Massachusetts, Hartford metro is not exactly a universally known recruiting hotbed. Their last successful coach left there for NC State. Yeah, let that swirl in your pumpkin spiced latte for a second. I'm just glad they are on our side of the ACC.

See you in Syracuse…or maybe not...