BC Wagner Preview

BC finally takes the field on Saturday after playing its first three games away from home.  They take on the Wagner Seahawks, an FCS school that finished 1-11 last season.  This one could get ugly quickly, and may be reminiscent of the Howard game last year.

What to Watch When BC has the Ball: BC should have a massive advantage on the offensive line.  They will be able to easily push Wagner around.  A key this week is for Hilliman to be able to read the holes the line is creating and to make someone miss.  Outside of 2 long touchdown runs this season, Hilliman is averaging 1.4 yards per carry.  That is awful.  That is someone who shouldn’t be getting the ball.  This needs to be a week where his yards per carry is approaches 5 or 6.  If it doesn’t someone else needs to take over his carries.  Through the air this week, Towles needs to get some of his confidence back.  He looked rattled last weekend against Virginia Tech, and Saturday he should be able to complete easy passes.  The receivers also dropped multiple passes last week, and need to do a better job of beating their man one on one.  Against a bad team like Wagner, these should all happen.

What to Watch When Wagner has the Ball:  Last week Virginia Tech was able to spread out BC and then pick them apart across the middle.  By spreading them out, BC was unable to blitz, and did not have linebackers there to drop into the throwing lanes of deep slants and posts.  This week, BC should be able to get pressure with their front four.  It will also be interesting to see how the secondary responds after last week.  Virginia Tech went right after the one on one coverage on the outside, and was able to pick multiple touchdowns on fade routes.  A key for this weekend is to make sure they do not have any breakdowns in coverage like they did against Umass and Georgia Tech.

Overall:  This one should not be close.  Wagner is a very bad FCS team.  BC should be able to win by 40+ easily.  The main thing that I will be watching closely on Saturday will be how the team approaches this game.  They just got embarrassed, and are now playing an uninspiring opponent that they could beat in their sleep.  Last year as the season started to go downhill, you could tell by the players body language that things weren’t going well.  It was clear the team that finished the season, wasn’t the same as the team that started it.  They cannot happen this year.  BC still have an easy path to a bowl game, and can begin to right the ship with an easy win this week, and a win the next week over Buffalo.