BC UMASS Preview

After a crushing loss to Georgia Tech last week, BC needs to bounce back against UMASS.  This game means little to BC, but it is the Minutemen’s super bowl.  With that being said, BC is clearly the more talented team.

When BC has the ball: The offense looked much improved over last year.  However, they still have a lot of room for improvement.  The offensive line played well last weekend, much better than they did all of last year.  However, outside of Hilliman’s 73 yard touchdown, there were very few long runs.  There was only 1 other 10+ yards.  This inability to pick of chunks of yards in the rushing game led to good drives eventually being stopped at around the 30 yard line.  With that being said, the line was able to constant move GT defense, allowing easy 3-4 yard pickups on most down.  If they can improve that big play ability, the run game will be something to watch out for.  In the passing game, Towles came out looking very hesitant.  He missed on his first few throws, and when he completed passes, they were not on target.  In the second half, his accuracy improved greatly.  He threw an excellent wheel route to Chris Garrison with touch that was right on the money.  Towles also showed an ability to touch the ball down and run when there was room.  Look for him to air it out more and throw more deep balls this week.  One area that BC needs to look to is getting their playmakers the ball more through screens and reverses.  They did this once or twice with both Jeff Smith and Michael Walker, with it being successful, but they were unable to break a big gain.  Myles Willis only got 6 touches against Georgia Tech, so look for him to be more involved this weekend.  The UMASS defense played well last weekend against Florida, holding them to only 24 points.  However, BC has a huge advantage on the offensive line, and should be able to push them around on the ground.

When UMASS has the ball: BC last week was able to absolutely stuff out the Georgia Tech option.  Unfortunately, that will be the only time BC will play that type of offense all season.  This will allow BC to be more aggressive, and be able to blitz more often.  BC last weekend used a mix of 3 and 4 man fronts.  This may have been due to the offense Georgia Tech was running, and injuries to star defense end Harold Landry.  The 3 man fronts worked very well, as BC has strong depth at linebacker, and DE Zach Allen fits more naturally into a 3-4 defense end role.  However, only time will tell if BC continues to use that scheme.  In the secondary, BC played very well against the run.  The corners and safeties were able to come up and make plays around the line of scrimmage.   However, they let up big plays in the passing game and were unable to get off the field on third and fourth down.  This may have been due to Georgia Tech’s offense, where so much focus is put into stopping the run, which allows receivers and backs to run open.  This week should give us a better idea on the quality of this unit, which returns everyone but Justin Simmons from last season.

Overall:  BC has a huge advantage on the offensive and defensive lines.  They should be able to push UMASS around, and give up few to no rushing yards.  The return or Harold Landry should help the Eagles emerge with pressure every time UMASS drops back to pass.  This will help the secondary which got exposed last week.  On offense, they should be able to run all over UMASS, and hit some deep play action passes for big gains.  The Eagles are too talented to lose this one.

Prediction: BC 31 UMASS 6