Unlike the losses to Clemson and VT, there were a good amount of "good" plays to go along with our typical kvetching after a loss.
With that in mind, this week we bring you a Wah-Wah (glass half empty, likes to complain a lot) vs. Rah-Rah (glass half full, views the world through Maroon and Gold glasses) recap of the Notre Dame game.
Now, Wesley and I are admittedly both "Rah-Rah" guys, if you must force us into one of these categories. For the sake of the piece, I'll be donning the Negative Nancy hat and be taking the Wah-Wah position today.
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1M) Five turnovers and no take-aways makes Jack a dull boy
I don't have access to Jeff Sagarin's computer, but if I did I'm pretty sure the stats on this would be pretty damning. Not just having a negative five delta in the turnover department, but specifically not getting even ONE on your side. I'm willing to bet that the percentage of teams that win games after going 0-5 in the turnover battle is around 2-3%.
Now, Notre Dame doesn't have a phenomenal team this year, but certainly they're good enough to win if you give them the ball five teams and never force one turnover yourself.
Particularly painful was Montel Harris' fumbles, the last of which was on the ND goal line and arguably cost the Eagles the game.
2W) Rich Gunnell
179 yards and a TD. Showed why he is the captain of the team.. Really liked his performance, and like him up in Clausen’s face at the end.. seriously, I woulda done the same thing
3M) Harris Heisman? Hardly.
Coming off of the best single game performance in the Boston College history, Montel Harris and the BC running game took this game off.
Montel rushed for 51 total yards, but it wasn't like he didn't have chances. He carried the rock 22 times for a 1.7 yard average. That's really pretty awful. I understand that the O-Line has a lot to do with this, as does the ND scheme; but at the end of the day a team that ran for nearly 300 yards last week and a rusher who personally put up 264 yards and 5 TD's the game before needs to provide more than 51 yards on the ground.
4W) Shinskie
Yes I am aware he threw some interceptions, but I really liked his poise as well, he had some great deep passes, even though he threw some picks, we were going to either win/ lose it on Shinskies arm, we couldn’t establish a run, so it was pass only, and ND knew that.
So Shinskie did well in my eyes, just wasn’t quite good enough.
5M) Shinskie's costly turnovers
While Shinskie made a couple of nice throws, a few of which were in the "what was he thinking throwing the ball into triple coverage???" variety, he also had some real bone-headed mistakes.
Despite how poorly the team had rushed the ball, the Eagles still had a chance to win this game late. BC had the ball on the 27 with just under two minutes to go. Plenty of time.
On second down, Shinskie rolls out and while under pressure, throws the ball five yards downfield directly into a linebacker's hands. He couldn't have hit him any better if he handed it to him. With that fifth and final turnover, BC lost the game and the streak.
Three picks on the day.
6W) Ryan Quigley
I have to give him the Player of the Game award, although not overly flashy, he forced Notre Dame to work with a long field ahead of them. With a couple that even landed inside the 10, and having a deep 56 yard long kick out of his own end zone. Twigley really helped us stay in the game..
7M) The dreaded 7-10 yard cushion
Bend but don't break, I get it. However when you have a QB who can hit those short passes 90% of the time, he's going to hurt you. Golden Tate abused BC for over a hundred yards as he was given the ball repeatedly by Claussen, with the DB's not really having much of a chance to stop the play from happening.
This allowed ND to have several long drives and eat up the clock. BC would have had a much better chance at forcing a turnover if they were within five yards of the receivers, let alone ten.
8W) O line U
O-line U showed great promise, especially on Pass Blocking, I don’t believe that they allowed a single sack on Shinskie, which is exactly what was needed.
9M) 0-3 on the road
While this game was obviously much closer than the beat downs BC was given at Death Valley and Lane Stadium, a loss is a loss, and this team is now winless on the road heading into November.
Sadly, even GDF can't schedule ALL of our games at home...and we're going to need to win a good couple more of them if we can to try to compete for the right to go to Tampa (which also isn't a home game, btw).
10W) Gause wearing number 6
Also, we had a good, consistent KO return game, something that I feel we haven't had all season. After seeing Legrande on the depth Chart, I was questioning who would actually back there, and in the back of my mind I was expecting #6, that just happened to be the other one, and it worked out well.
RECAP:
BCMike drafted: 5 turnovers 0 takeaways, No run game, Shinskie's TO's, dreaded cushion, Road Woes
Wesley drafted: Richie Gunns, Shinskie, Quigley, O-Line U's pass-blocking, Gause wearing 6
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