Boston College Wins Big on Parents Weekend
by Kyle Maslan
It was an ugly day weather wise at Alumni Stadium. Rainy, cloudy in the mid 50’s all game long. Ugly weather like that tends to lead to ugly football. Lots of running the ball, dropped passes and loose balls. We did see our fair share of that during the game.
Both teams started off very slowly with the first six drives (three by each team) combining for 29 yards and six punts. There were dropped passes on both sides, and running plays went nowhere with defenses stacking the box.
The big play that changed all of that was a play action on Boston College’s fourth drive of the day in which Patrick Towles threw the ball 44 yards downfield to redshirt freshman Chris Garrison. It set Boston College up at the Buffalo 11 yard line, but it did come at a cost. The ball was underthrown and on the way down Garrison fell awkwardly and fractured his tibia. Boston College seemed galvanized by seeing their teammate and friend go down, and RB Davon Jones punched the ball in for his first career score four plays later.
That seemed to really get Boston College going as they then forced another three and out from the Bulls offense, and took 11 plays to march down the field and score another touchdown, this time from Towles to Charlie Callinan.
After another good defensive sequence, Boston College got a little sloppy. Towles saw the pocket collapse on him and fumbled the ball. Buffalo took over at the Boston College 11, but the defense did not allow them to get any yards. Due to good defensive plays, and help from a dropped ball (back to the wet conditions), Buffalo setting for a field goal on that drive, and those three points were the only ones they would put up on the scoreboard today.
BC bounced back and marched 84 yards in the next drive to take a 21-3 lead on a TD pass from Towles to Michael Walker. The drive was highlighted by a 38 yard pass to Jones, who had a big day for the Eagles. This score took the team into the half.
The third quarter looked an awful lot like the first, neither offense was doing much until the end of the quarter. Once BC got a drive going, however, at the end of the quarter, Towles was sacked and fumbled the ball again, giving Buffalo the ball near midfield. The Eagles defense continued to hold their own, and dominate the game.
In the fourth quarter there was little doubt who was going to win the game as the yardage difference was immense between the two teams. Towles led one more scoring drive, highlighted by a pass to Jeff Smith in the flat who ran the ball 43 yards and made multiple defenders look silly while doing it. After that, BC started putting in their backups to get some work and they lead BC on one short drive, and another scoring one. They punched the ball into the end zone with 14 seconds left in the game to give us the final score of Boston College 35 and Buffalo 3.
When looking at the key parts of the game, a few stand out. First is that the defensive line looked like they were men playing against boys. Harold Landry dominated the game getting multiple pressures on the QB Jackson, as well as a sack and forced fumble. The secondary held up very well, too. There were a few dropped interception opportunities from a secondary that was draped over the Bulls receivers most of the time. This goes back to the wet weather, but the dropped picks were balanced out by a few dropped passes by Buffalo wide outs. In general the defense looked like the well oiled machine that played on Alumni a year ago, holding Buffalo to 67 yards and a 1 for 11 showing on third downs. They even got pressure on special teams where Matt Milano blocked a punt in the first quarter. Overall, today is a feather in the cap of new defensive coordinator Jim Reid.
Offensively, entering the game the book on Buffalo was that they could not stop the run. The Bulls did a solid job of that today, holding BC to 2.5 yards per rush. That is very low for a Steve Addazio offense. They could run the ball effectively in the fourth quarter and short yardage but most of the damage was done through the air, even though they handed the ball off 57 times to the myriad of backs. One thing to look at in the running game is the increased productivity from Davon Jones who looked explosive, and the lack of big runs from starter Jon Hilliman. Jones averaged a whole yard extra per carry today, and had productivity as a receiver as well. The rise of Jones has also limited Myles Willis and Tyler Rouse to mainly punt and kick returns. The other big issue from a pretty good day offensively (putting up 400 yards) was the fumble issue from Patrick Towles. He put the ball on the ground three times today, losing two. When playing Buffalo that is a mistake that the defense and the rest of the day’s performance can make up for, but against better competition those types of mistakes could be the nail in the coffin.
The Eagles have a short week this week as they host Clemson on Friday, who is currently ranked 5th in the nation (could change depending on their game tonight vs. Louisville). That game is the annual Red Bandana game, where Boston College celebrates the life of Welles Crowther, a BC alum who saved multiple lives on 9/11 by carrying people he worked with in the World Trade Center to safety. It will be a 7:30 kickoff and will be broadcasted on WZBC Newton 90.3 FM, as well as ESPN.