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As I’ve said earlier this year, what do I know about football? If you told me coming in no Houston and Keelan Marion for three plays, I would have thought I’d be signing on tonight to talk about another loss. Instead, the headline is that bowl eligibility is a very real goal. I still am not ready to take anyone for granted — I have no doubt the coaches aren’t either — but we’re 14 points favorites, at home, to the worst team in FBS. If we get it done, we’re 5 and 5 and have two shots to get to 6. Liberty, which is substantially better than us, at home (where I expect to be 4-1 and riding a confidence wave), and then at a not good Army team that the computers seem to think has played better than us but for the life of me I don’t see why. Whatever happens, so long as we beat UMass, this year, to me, has been a terrific success EVEN BEFORE CONSIDERING THE LOSS OF SKILL PLAYERS WE’VE HAD TO LIVE WITH. I believe in the Revolution.
I pulled in at 10:15 and was utterly shocked. I was parked all the way at the back of the main (against the stadium) blue lot. As someone who almost alway tailgates, it has been years since I’ve been parked so far away from the stadium. And people, many of whom clearly don’t come all the time, were enthusiastically tailgating. And there were younger people than I’ve seen in years. Getting into the stadium, it was a little more full than Syracuse, but against Syracuse at least a third of the fans were wearing Orange. I would guess roughly 23k actual fans in the building (although the concourse behind the scoreboard was so constantly packed with people using the food trucks that it is not easy to tell. There were certainly BC fans there yesterday, but not nearly in that number. The weather held up nicely, more than warm enough for late October. The day was all set up for success.
And then the game started. No Houston, Marion starting but then disappearing, but no problem. The defensive effort was truly unbelievably good. There are still players left — I’m looking at you Swenson — who were on the worst defensive team in the history of college football. To yesterday. We’ll talk more about the defense in a moment. The offense scored on their first drive — 2003 deja ve — and then really wasn’t good for the rest of the game. In fact, was really poor when you realize how many times they were gifted field position to come away with just 6 more points. But it didn’t turn the ball over, and, since that was all the help the defense needed, fine. Let’s be honest — if you watched the game as a neutral, it must have been a hard watch. But you know what — I’M NOT A NEUTRAL AND I DON’T GIVE A DAMN. We won, and we won comfortably, and on this day — against a local rival whom we had never beaten and with a win needed to leave a realistic shot at a bowl — that was more than enough.
We’ll do offense, defense and special teams but defense obviously comes first. It was such a total team effort that it’s almost unfair to name names. The team took both Flowers and all their tailbacks out of the game from the start, and without them BC had no offense left. And don’t tell me that they lost their QB in the 3rd Quarter. Boo hoo. We’ve played all year without our QB, if you use your QB as your Tailback what do you think is going to happen and you only scored 3 points in 2 and a half quarters with him anyway. But you want names named, o.k. Yes, Jackson MItchell was everywhere, and was everyone’s player of the game, but not mine — I expect close to that out of him. Where did Pryce Yates come from? That was my player of the game. He totally dominated the first 20 minutes or so from DE when the tone of the game was set. Eric Watts stepped forward later in the game and was almost as good. Durante Jones made play after play in the secondary. But it’s unfair to name names, because the big guys up front, who aren’t supposed to make tackles made it easier for everyone else, and everyone who came off the bench to help helped. One example — what the heck is a Carter Hooper, and how in the world is a backup true frosh DL from Canada 25 yards downfield recovering fumbles. Hustling doesn’t mean you will make plays, but if you don’t hustle your butt off, you don’t make a play like that.
I’m not sure what the story was on Marion. Was he just a decoy at the beginning, or did he get hurt somehow? If anyone knows the story there, I’m glad to hear it. Without Houston, the running game struggled like I thought it would. Our success, both Carter and Houston, has largely come from just committing at full speed to small creases up the middle and hoping for the best. I’m not knocking Rosa — in no way was he supposed to be a starting TB this year, he was supposed to get a taste while they figured out his position — but he does what a lot of frosh RBs do — if he doesn’t see a hole, he wants to go outside and hit a HR. Against BC, where there weren’t big visible creases inside, that was a disaster. As for the passing game, I do wish I could understand how Jolly could make that play on the first drive and then no throw goes to him the rest of the game. Aaron Turner made one big catch and came up just short on two others, which if he made would have made the win easier (but, as I’ve said in other plays, they were not “drops,” either one would have been spectacular). But the offense didn’t stop us from winning and that is enough. They can beat UMass without reinforcements but I can’t tell you enough how important getting Houston back for Liberty and Army will be if we’re going to win either of those games. One last note. maybe those who watched on TV got an explanation, but it looked to me that most were on our receivers and they weren’t just beating the snap — it looked like they were consciously doing something that they thought was ok but the refs didn’t. It was strange.
special teams weren’t great, but we made 2 of 3 field goals and weren’t the team that fumbled 3 punts and shanked one, so like the offense not getting in the way of the defense was enough.
So that’s where we are. i won’t be talking about the season as a whole again until after our trip to the Hudson. It’s no longer important how much progress we’re making or where and how further improvement has to come. What’s important is we get at least 2 of the last 3. And if that comes from a pair of 3-0 wins sandwiched around a bad loss, I’ll be cheering, not complaining. See everyone in the parking lot in about 116 hours. And yes, I will be counting them.
I pulled in at 10:15 and was utterly shocked. I was parked all the way at the back of the main (against the stadium) blue lot. As someone who almost alway tailgates, it has been years since I’ve been parked so far away from the stadium. And people, many of whom clearly don’t come all the time, were enthusiastically tailgating. And there were younger people than I’ve seen in years. Getting into the stadium, it was a little more full than Syracuse, but against Syracuse at least a third of the fans were wearing Orange. I would guess roughly 23k actual fans in the building (although the concourse behind the scoreboard was so constantly packed with people using the food trucks that it is not easy to tell. There were certainly BC fans there yesterday, but not nearly in that number. The weather held up nicely, more than warm enough for late October. The day was all set up for success.
And then the game started. No Houston, Marion starting but then disappearing, but no problem. The defensive effort was truly unbelievably good. There are still players left — I’m looking at you Swenson — who were on the worst defensive team in the history of college football. To yesterday. We’ll talk more about the defense in a moment. The offense scored on their first drive — 2003 deja ve — and then really wasn’t good for the rest of the game. In fact, was really poor when you realize how many times they were gifted field position to come away with just 6 more points. But it didn’t turn the ball over, and, since that was all the help the defense needed, fine. Let’s be honest — if you watched the game as a neutral, it must have been a hard watch. But you know what — I’M NOT A NEUTRAL AND I DON’T GIVE A DAMN. We won, and we won comfortably, and on this day — against a local rival whom we had never beaten and with a win needed to leave a realistic shot at a bowl — that was more than enough.
We’ll do offense, defense and special teams but defense obviously comes first. It was such a total team effort that it’s almost unfair to name names. The team took both Flowers and all their tailbacks out of the game from the start, and without them BC had no offense left. And don’t tell me that they lost their QB in the 3rd Quarter. Boo hoo. We’ve played all year without our QB, if you use your QB as your Tailback what do you think is going to happen and you only scored 3 points in 2 and a half quarters with him anyway. But you want names named, o.k. Yes, Jackson MItchell was everywhere, and was everyone’s player of the game, but not mine — I expect close to that out of him. Where did Pryce Yates come from? That was my player of the game. He totally dominated the first 20 minutes or so from DE when the tone of the game was set. Eric Watts stepped forward later in the game and was almost as good. Durante Jones made play after play in the secondary. But it’s unfair to name names, because the big guys up front, who aren’t supposed to make tackles made it easier for everyone else, and everyone who came off the bench to help helped. One example — what the heck is a Carter Hooper, and how in the world is a backup true frosh DL from Canada 25 yards downfield recovering fumbles. Hustling doesn’t mean you will make plays, but if you don’t hustle your butt off, you don’t make a play like that.
I’m not sure what the story was on Marion. Was he just a decoy at the beginning, or did he get hurt somehow? If anyone knows the story there, I’m glad to hear it. Without Houston, the running game struggled like I thought it would. Our success, both Carter and Houston, has largely come from just committing at full speed to small creases up the middle and hoping for the best. I’m not knocking Rosa — in no way was he supposed to be a starting TB this year, he was supposed to get a taste while they figured out his position — but he does what a lot of frosh RBs do — if he doesn’t see a hole, he wants to go outside and hit a HR. Against BC, where there weren’t big visible creases inside, that was a disaster. As for the passing game, I do wish I could understand how Jolly could make that play on the first drive and then no throw goes to him the rest of the game. Aaron Turner made one big catch and came up just short on two others, which if he made would have made the win easier (but, as I’ve said in other plays, they were not “drops,” either one would have been spectacular). But the offense didn’t stop us from winning and that is enough. They can beat UMass without reinforcements but I can’t tell you enough how important getting Houston back for Liberty and Army will be if we’re going to win either of those games. One last note. maybe those who watched on TV got an explanation, but it looked to me that most were on our receivers and they weren’t just beating the snap — it looked like they were consciously doing something that they thought was ok but the refs didn’t. It was strange.
special teams weren’t great, but we made 2 of 3 field goals and weren’t the team that fumbled 3 punts and shanked one, so like the offense not getting in the way of the defense was enough.
So that’s where we are. i won’t be talking about the season as a whole again until after our trip to the Hudson. It’s no longer important how much progress we’re making or where and how further improvement has to come. What’s important is we get at least 2 of the last 3. And if that comes from a pair of 3-0 wins sandwiched around a bad loss, I’ll be cheering, not complaining. See everyone in the parking lot in about 116 hours. And yes, I will be counting them.
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