BC Uconn Recap

Boston College finished up their home slate in 2016 with an easy win over Connecticut.  The Eagles won 30-0 and Uconn only threatened to score once.  While the Eagles started the game slow, they took over in the second quarter and score 10 points in each of the last 3 quarters.  With the win, BC moves to one game away from bowl eligibility, and can still make a bowl even with a loss.

When BC had the ball:  The 30 points BC scored in this game does not tell the whole story for the Eagles offensively.  Once again, they started slow in the first quarter, coming away with no points, and no real scoring opportunities.  However, they played better as they game went on.  BC finished with 337 yards of offense, and was able to move the ball through the air.  Patrick Towles played his best game as an Eagle, hitting on 14 of 19 passes for 183 yards and 1 touchdown.  Towles made good decisions, and didn’t hesitate to take off running.  Towles hit Jeff Smith and Michael Walker each four times, with Walker having a terrific catch for the only throwing touchdown.  Jeff Smith had a 54 yard catch, and lead the Eagles with 87 yards receiving.  On the ground, BC was not very efficient.  They ended up with 154 rushing yards, but need 52 carries in order to do so.  Starting runningback Jon Hilliman rushed for just 8 yards on 9 carries.  With him struggling, the Eagles adjusted, and gave more carries to Davon Jones, and used Jeff Smith out of the wildcat.  Davon Jones wasn’t spectacular, finishing with 11 carries for 40 yards, but was able to punch the ball in on the first touchdown and provided BC with a decent rushing attack through the tackles.  BC used the wildacat with Smith more often in this game than they had all year.  While Smith averaged almost 5 yards a carry, BC needs to adjust when they use this, and provide more fakes and plays out of it.  So far, the Eagles only use Smith rushing forward, or a jet sweep to Michael Walker.  They must let Smith through it, and provide more fakes. If they are waiting to do this until an ACC game, they it is a good job by Loffler for not using it until it is needed.  However, without these adjustments, the wildcat will cease to work. 

When Uconn had the ball:  The Boston College defense absolutely dominated Uconn.  The huskies finished with just 121 yards and only 8 first downs.  Uconn only threatened to score once, after a long pass, and BC close the door as soon as Uconn entered the red zone.  That drive ended with a fake field goal that BC was not fooled about.  BC’s defensive line could do what they wanted against Uconn’s.  The huskies finished with negative rushing yards, and their runningbacks had 6 carries for just 6 yards. BC also had 4 sacks and 7 tackles for loss.  Through the air Uconn was not much better. Donavan Williams finished 13 for 30, with 127 yards and 3 interceptions.  He did hit 2 pass plays of more than 20 yards, but Uconn was unable to build off of this.  The BC secondary played very well, and was aggressive, knowing that Williams would not have much time to pass.  There are 2 stats that show how dominate BC was in this game.  The BC defense outscored the Uconn offense and had Uconn decided to spike the ball on every play, they would have more equally or more successful than they were on over half of their plays. 

Overall: BC dominated a team that they needed to dominate.  They have shown this season, that no matter how bad they have played against the top half of the ACC, their talent hasn’t dropped far enough to lose a bad non-conference game.  The Eagles have also shown that they have not given up on the season, and want to play in a bowl game.  BC has a winnable game next Saturday against Wake Forest for bowl eligibility.