Three Up, Three Down: Boston College

The Ups

Defense. The defense wasn’t great in terms of yardage production. In fact, Boston College nearly was even with Wake Forest in terms of pure yardage, 305 to 309. Furthermore, BC had four more first downs than the Demon Deacons, 19 to 15. It’s worth noting, however, that Wake Forest was frequently working with a short field thanks to the awesome +4 turnover margin by the Deacs, including a pick 6 for Essang Bassey and a near pick 6 for Jessie Bates that ultimately became a touchdown a couple plays later. I’ve got to mention Jaboree Williams, who was an absolute monster at the linebacker position, but really the entire defensive front was wonderfully disruptive all day and helped set up the secondary to make those impact plays.

Game Management on Offense. The offense wasn’t really explosive, and there weren’t really any explosive scores, but the offense did pretty much exactly what they needed to do with how opportunistic the defense was. John Wolford was both our leading passer and leading rusher, 13/19 through the air for 151 yards and a TD (that TD was also a sick catch by Greg Dortch), and 20 carries for 92 yards, including a gorgeous 29 yard TD scamper. The playcalling was conservative, but with the game going how it was going, the offense didn’t need to do anything different, and honestly with a defense as solid as BC’s is, doing too much may have come back to bite the Deacs how it bit the Eagles.

85-17 Through Two Games. I don’t care who the competition was, that’s one hell of a margin, and it includes a road conference win and a +6 turnover margin, not to mention the Demon Deacons clearly having playmakers in every phase of the game this season. Good stuff.

The Downs

Shaky Run Game. 158 yards on 52 carries for 3.0 YPC. All I can say is woof. That said, I genuinely think Boston College’s front is probably one of the better we’ll face all year outside of say, Clemson and FSU.

Penalties. After a perfect game against Presbyterian, Wake Forest hurt themselves a bit with penalties this go around, 5 penalties for 40 yards. It’s hardly atrocious, but it definitely impacted a handful of drives in this contest. Hopefully the Deacs clean that up next week.

ESPN Streaming. Seriously ESPN, it was painful. And no, it was not my internet. I was checking rather constantly. Get your stuff together please. That was honestly the worst part of the day for me. That’s how you know it was a pretty strong game.

The Bottom Line

I anticipated a win, but I anticipated a bit of a nailbiter, not the relative domination that we got. I’m really not sure exactly how to peg Utah State or Appalachian State just yet, but I don’t know how much better than Boston College they are, and the truth is that we have two solid outings, one an offensive explosion and one a grit and grind win in the trenches that was turned into a domination thanks to a +4 turnover margin and shrewd red zone playcalling. Can’t say much better than that.

On to the next. Go Deacs.

—SF