Monday, October 31, 2011

Best of the Best vs. Maryland


As we stated in the last post, if its a best of the best, it will probably get out there a bit earlier than a worst of the worst.. and well we didn't have to be held accountable for that , it was an easy one for BCMike and I.
so without further ado, here... we .... go!!!


1M) We won

Call it a cop-out, I don't care. We finally won a game vs. a d-1 (FBS) opponent and I'm flying sky high.

I'll have specific points later, but to me the best part about this win is that WE FINALLY FUCKING WON A GAME.

2W) Run blocking
Call it a weak Maryland d line, but it was exactly what we needed and called for in the keys to thegame, now ifthey would just involve the tight ends in the game outside of blocking

3M) Deuce going for double-deuce

Deuce Finch was apparently just slow playing us all. We all liked the kid, but I don’t think anyone had in mind his 243 yard, 2 TD performance. As Eagle in Atlanta pointed out, it wasn’t a couple of big runs that inflated the stats but rather a constant grind of 7, 8, 9 yard carries with a 20 yarder sprinkled in here and there. Yes, he had a couple fumbles—both in the red zone (one in ours, the other in theirs) which hurt us and could have let us get a blowout, but the weather was tough on all parties Saturday.

4W) Duggan stepping up

With kpl out for now with an injury I thought Duggan did a good job filling in and gave a glimpse into the future. And as he gets bigger, I feel we are going to have a great player. Solid tackler and good instincts, a lot like another player that came from st x

5M) Amidon end-around

Alex once again had another team under-estimating his speed as he took the pitchfrom Chase and turned the corner. Great blocking by all, but terrific job by Alex turning on the jets and zooming past all of the defenders into the endzone.

6W) Getting to actually watch the game

On Saturday I was actually in Pittsburgh, as some of you know I travel frequently. Well the duke tech game was running over and I started watching the game on my phone, the guy running bettis sports bar saw me trying to watch, came by and put the BC game on for me, I knew it was going to be a good day then

7M) Keeks INT

Keeks of course turned in another stellar performance racking up tackles and diagnosing plays faster than a half-hour special of HOUSE, but getting a turnover is always great. Keeks was WAY back in zone coverage and easily picked off O’Brien who was trying to force the issue. I thought for a second he was going to find his way into the endzone for a pick-6, but the INT wasgreat itself. Four turnovers on the day for BC, this one was the prettiest.

8W) Sylvia INT

To balance out the Keeks INT, The Sylvia INT was what I thought put MO on our side. Sylvia not only made an athletic move to get the ball, but was able to bring the ball back so the Eagle would be able to make a move with the Ball on Offense. Not too shabby for a Freshman, Redshirted or not.

9M) The Maryland Footballs

Honestly, this game could have been different if Maryland hadn’t dropped so many passes. Yes, I know it’s bad weather and you need to run to win, but numerous Terps dropped multiple balls vs. our Eagles. Conservatively I think there were 10 drops, but the real total is likely closer to 15. I don’t know if the Maryland balls were some sort of new Under Armour Hyper-Suck model or what, but the Terps had an unbelievably hard time holding onto the ball Saturday…which is just fine by me.

10W)Ability to do the Best of the Best

First and foremost , I am a BC fan, I hope that is 100% understood. So When BC loses I don't enjoy being clever on the worst of the worst.. I would 1000x more rather to do the best of the best, and frankly its easier, my kind of memory is more agreeable with the wins, rather than the losses. So I tend to remember the big plays of BC a lot better than the ones against them.



Week 10 Ballot






Friday, October 28, 2011

Keys to the Game vs. Maryland


It's another gameweek, so its another chance to chase that W RIGHT?
Here are the keys to victory against the Terps of Maryland!

1W) Play a full 60 minutes

We seemed to play a great first half last week AT Tech, if we can
stretch the game play for thefull 60 minutes, we will have no
problem beating the Terps. Let's see if our Eagles have it in them
to do so.

2M) Focus on the dream

By the numbers, BC is still bowl eligible. I¹m sure the Coaches are
tired of listening to the haters, the fans, the blogs, the media,
etcŠbut what about the players? Want to shut everyone up? Focus on
the prize:
if BC wins out‹a tall goal by any measurement‹BC will go bowling.
Keep
the dream alive and play THROUGH Maryland. They¹re what stands
between you and your goal.

This is your Superbowl. Every game from here out is. Make it count.

3W) Deep threat
You know mike you are right, if we somehow put together a win streak
and go bowling.. Wow.. I may just have to go lol.
We do have the talent, we just haven't been able to line it all up yet.
Number three is a Steal. Larmond I am calling you out. We require a
few DEEP passes to Larmond for the W, without it , it won't happen,
Maryland's pass defense hasn't been overly stellar, so here is your
chance, you are a better than average WR, here is your stage to prove
it.

4M) Bring the blitz

Maryland is in a QB controversy and that means two kids trying to
prove themselves and likely taking chances they shouldn't. Let's
bring the blitz early and often and force Brown and O'Brien to think
quick while trying to impress--hopefully that results in some INT's for us.

5W) Scoring 24 points.

I'm making a bold prediction here, we score 24 {which we haven't
against div 1) and we win. That's all

6M) Be aggressive

We know what Edsall will be Ginger-like the same as Spaz... But we
need to be aggressive to win.

7W) O Line Run Blocking

Here is where I talk about an area that we have consistently improved
throughout the year. Run blocking has slowly got better and better as
the year has progressed. A back like Montel can help hide the
problems, but with Montel out the Oline needed to continue to
improve, and they have.
Are they great now? No, simply they are not, but they have
dramatically improved, allowing us to occupy time possession and give
our D a breather.
For us to beat Maryland as I took the Deep threat to Larmond earlier
is going to be to pound it on the ground, as Marylands rush Defense
is one of the worst in the Nation at 110.
Duece/Dre/Tajh.. Tie those laces tight! And just as importantly, O
line keep improving and making holes where the RB expect them.


8M) Chase being patient

Many times (and for good reason considering the lack of pass blocking),
Chase has quickly fired to the first option available...many times the
safety valve before the route has even opened up.

We don't need Chase to throw to the first safe, open guy-- we need
Chase to throw to the BEST option regardless of who comes open first.

Yes, the line needs to allow him tone to do this; but of they do we
need Chase to be patient and find the best man, not necessarily the first man.

9W) Don't out Ugly the uniforms

Haha, this really doesn’t play into the w/l column for the game, but as we are both Under Armor teams, and we will be dawning our white jerseys with stained glass and helmet with stained glass, I believe Maryland will be dawning another new helmet/ uniform design that hasn’t been seen yet. As I like the changes for our home jerseys and am fairly indifferent on the away ones, think we will get a reminder that we are thankful we don't look like Maryland


10M) Make big plays

When Mathias "Kiwi" Kiwankua was here, he would always tell his teammates "Make a play...make big plays", and that's what we need here. If you have an opportunity to hit a homerun, you need to hit a homerun. If that's a sace, it's a ssack. Maybe it's an INT for a TD. Maybe it's shedding that fourth tackler for a TD run. Maybe it's channelling your inner Usain Bolt and finding a way to outrun that last d-back on a fly route.

Point is our guys need to step up and make big plays when they have the chance.

We make big plays on Saturday, I think we walk away with a W.

Recap:
Wesley: 60, Deep Threat, 24pts, Run-Block, Unis
BCMike: Dream, Blitz, Aggressive, Chase-Patient, Big Plays



Keys to the Game vs. Maryland
Wesley: 60, Deep Threat, 24pts, Run-Block, Unis
BCMike: Dream, Blitz, Aggressive, Chase-Patient, Big Plays
  
pollcode.com free polls 

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Draft: 10/26: Worst of the Worst vs. VT



As the Losses continue to mount, there is no doubt that BCMike and I have a harder and harder time writing up the worst of the worst. Believe me , we would crank out a Best of the best with a ton more Vigor! But, we are committed in good times and hard times. The Tech game showed some improvement, but we still have some work to do, meanwhile, here are the worst of the worst from the game.

1M) The Tease

Allowing me to think how wonderful it would be to wear my BC shirt with pride on Monday, giving everyone a hard time for making fun of my team every day this season…then taking that dream away in the second half.


2W) The Halftime adjustments

Virginia Tech made them, and we didn't. We came out the second half flat, and with no more tricks in the bag, and our house of cards fell to the ground.


3M) Inability to diagnose / stop the WR screen

VT ran one WR screen to see if it worked. It did—so they tried it again—and again….and again. Each time we were equally unable to stop it. It was very frustrating as VT was pretty plainly telling our guys that "hey, we're going to keep on running this play until you stop it"…and we couldn't. Very depressing.


4W) The D Line

Do I think our D Line is talented? Yeah I do, but they lack the consistency to put constant pressure on a QB, or even to stop the run. Throughout the game our guys appeared winded, and just plain getting beat by the O Line of Tech, and I think our D line has a standard to live up to ( see Raji, Brace) and frankly theyaren't able to do it .

I am excited to see Ricci and Ramsey next year together as I think they have some serious potential up the middle.


5M) Chase missing the open man

It wasn't too often that Chase had enough time to throw and actually had a man wide open. Amidon (it waseither Amidon or Bobby Swigert) was wide open with no one around him. Chase put just a little too much steam on the ball and overshot the WR who could have backpedalled in. It's not too often we're going to get a TD handed to us on a plate. When it's offered, we really need to take advantage of it—particularly by a club as good as VT.


6W) Dbacks in the 2nd half

Something happened at half time, not sure if it was a make a wish program that allowed kids to play DB for BC or what, but after a stellar first half by our DB's they were unable to cover Tech's Wide out's , bad positioning, timing, etc. It really was bad all around. The Key play that stuck in everyones mind was our best player in the secondary Donnie Fletcher getting horribly out maneuvered in the end zone, allowing a Tech Touchdown.


7M) The "here ya go" D on the last drive of the 1st half

If you're an Eagles fan who has watched our team from the beginning, you probably had a little bit of D?j? vu when you saw VT drive the ball 80 yards in the last minute of the first half. Looked an awful lot like Northwestern, didn't it? We played way back, looking to prevent the 50 yard play that was never coming. We gave up large chunks of yardage and allowed VT to score right before the half, stealing the momentum and leaving us with a "what just…just…happened…?" feeling on D despite playing exceptionally well up until that point in the game.


8M) Andre Williams Running

Mike you areexactly right, I think we all knew what was going to happen going into the 2nd half.

Let me preface this with I like what we saw from Deuce against Tech, and I know the O Line didn't do anyone a tremendous amount of favors, but where did Andre Williams rushing go? The Andre williams that absolutely crushed Syracuse? The one with speed, vision, and power.. It wasn't there against Tech, and I sure hope that we see it in the future.


9M) Jim Noel missed INT

Good call on Dre. I'm a fan as well, but he just didn't hit the holes hard like he has been. Not sure if he's still banged up or not, but we need him to WANT to run over people if he's going to be effective.

Logan Thomas didn't bring his A-Game vs. our Eagles, but we didn't take much advantage of it, either. On a tipped ball, the pass went up in the air and directly to Jim Noel. Yes, he had to dive for it—but since I've seen Jim make plays easily a hundred times more athletic than that one it's simply one he should have had and one we could have really used.


10W) Being 1-6

BCMike, I was REALLY thinking I would see how this loss effected your home life as the final pick ..
Like Mike stated in his first pick , we were given hope, but being 1-6 and our only win being to Umass, and making us officially out for a bowl game this year hurt, I cannot lie. I love bowl games, even the crappy ones, We showed a lot more fight in this game, but the result was VERY painful.

Recap:
BCMike: Tease, WR Screen, Chase missing, here ya go, Noel missed INT
Wesley: Halftime, Dline, Dbacks, Dre, 1-6





Draft: 10-26: Worst of the Worst vs. VT
BCMike: Tease, WR Screen, Chase missing, here ya go, Noel missed INT
Wesley: Halftime, Dline, Dbacks, Dre, 1-6
  
pollcode.com free polls 

Friday, October 21, 2011

10/21/11 -- Keys to the Game vs. VT

Keys to the Game (please also read BCI's Keys to the drinking game this week, it's a funny read).

--------------------------------------------------------


1W) Get Spaz to read previous weeks Keys to the Game

Seriously I think BCMike and I put in a good bit of effort to make this blog not just
entertaining but have a lot of technical thoughts put together. I personally don't believe Spaz puts the same thought into his game plan.

So this week I will be emailing him and GDF a link to our keys of the game, repeatedly, and I encourage all of readers to do the same. Most of our previous keys to the game , tend to be like groundhog day as we see the same mistakes week-in, week out, lets see some improvement!



2M) Match VT's early intensity

You know Wesley, I'm going to have to agree with you. I'm not sure how much time Spaz & Co. put into the game plan, but it really couldn't hurt to take a look at our keys. Can't get much worse. Maybe they did for the UMass game..?

My first key here is a simple one‹one we have not done the last two times Spaz has lead us into Blacksburg to get embarrassed on an epic level we need to match VT's intensity out of the games. The crowd will be hopping (after more than two to three hours of tailgating), jumping up and down, rocking out Metallica's "Enter Sandman" and the Hokies will be geeked early on. I'm here to tell you from watching VT at home on TV and in person, this team seriously feeds off of it's fans more than most.

If our guys enter the game timid and unsure, we'll get humiliated like we have the last two trips to Lane Stadium. If our guys can get themselves excited and ready to play (please note that I am learning from our staff and putting the blame/pressure on the players, not our coaches), we could have a chance to pull the upset…but if we get down big early, the crowd and that team will swallow us up.



3W) Tight Ends Utilized

Guess this Is just back to harping on number 1, but we HAVE GOT TO UTILIZE THE TE's, have to. Not just an additional blocker either, as potential receivers. Even if the DL is pushing the OL back the TE's should have an area to work as a escape valve for Chase, hopefully the Bye week they were able to test this.



4M) O-Line Pass blocking like the 2nd half of Clemson

Yes, it got ugly early in Death Valley last week, but the team did come back a little bit in the 2nd half. Particularly, it seemed like Chase had much more time to throw and really did make the most out of it. The first quarter or so I thought the O-Line was trying to murder Chase by allowing shot after shot to come his way, but they did not sure how or what was different‹in the second half.

I think I'm in the majority that believes that Chase is our guy, but it doesn't matter who is back there if we don't give him time. Yes, he still needs to get better at the short passes and hit the occasional wide-open deep man, but he's more than serviceable if we provide him time to throw.

That's on the O-Line. We don't do that, we frankly don't have a chance.



5W) Pressure Logan Thomas

You know , Logan Thomas was supposed to be the 5th coming of Michael Vick, well he isn't , and I am sure I will get hit over the head for saying this , but I do not think he is as good of QB as Chase Rettig, he may get protected a bit better and have some different options, but true talent, I don't think he has. That being said I would love to see us get into this QB's head, by having some blitz patterns chasing him around and making him very uncomfortable!



6M) Swigert breaks out...again

It's no secret that we'll need numerous players to step up and have career-type days if we're going to knock off the Hokies on Saturday.

My candidate? Bobby Swagger. He had a fantastic game vs. Clemson two weeks ago and looks to be forming a bit of chemistry with Chase.

We need the WR's to step up big-time vs. the talented VT secondary, and Bobby will be the one to lead that charge.



7W) Freese Making them count

Swagger, haha. You know I agree with your point, but I think you have the wrong receiver, I would probably have chosen Amidon, he has really impressed me as a gritty tough runner, although Swagger is showing some good skills.

Call me wearing the grotesquely maroon glasses, but I think this game will be close, and we are going to need Freese to show that he is the man, which I think he is very capable of doing.. Expect Freese to raise his longest Fgs.



8M) Beware of Long-Ball Logan

I've been forced able to watch a few VT games this year and there are four things I can tell you about the kids as a cliff's notes version.

One, the kid is über calm under pressure. Almost to a fault so. Yes, we can pressure him like any other QB, but he doesn't get "Glennon flustered" like a previous Hokies QB would.

Second, he's learning. He's not quite there yet, but you can actually see incremental improvement week after week. Yes, he still makes "rookie" mistakes, but he's making fewer and fewer of them as the season progresses. Three, he throws a very, very pretty ball. I know this really doesn't have much impact on the game, but you'll see what I mean when you watch the game. It's a bit of a long wind up, and perhaps it's just the abnormally long frame for a QB, but it's a pretty passing motion and produces a very pretty thrown ball.

Lastly, and this is to my point at number 8, he throws a very nice deep ball. This probably isn't hurt by the tight spiral the kid throws, but some guys are just very good deep ball throwers--much more than the rest of their passes--a la Auburn's Jason Campbell.

It's this fourth one that we really have to watch out for. We need to respect the fact that while he's only a Sophomore and has only been the starter for a handful of games, he's cool under pressure enough to allow a big play to develop and put the ball where it needs to be deep down the field.



9W) Youth earns its stripes

BC has some youth, but in its secondary it is VERY evident. Kinda keying on Mikes pick on number 8, I really want our Secondary to show up and play strong, at times the 10 yard cushion / zone makes sense, but your tackles have to be VERY good, well lets see that tackling!



10M) Tune out the critics, have fun

It can't be easy being a player at BC right now. We're in the midst of one of our worst seasons in several decades and we're entering the toughest part of our schedule.

The writing is on the wall that Coach Spaz will be fired at the end of the year, and that means a lot of change and uncertainty. Critics, writers, fans, alums, blogs (like ours), etc., have all been boisterous in their dislike of where the program and team currently is and where it appears it's going.

However, for the players to grow, have fun, and develop--they just need to play the game. Just have fun, guys. Go out and enjoy competing with each other against a great opponent. Give it your all, work as a team to accomplish the great upset. Learn from each other. Lean on each other. Hopefully this team will grow together as we plow through the bottom half of our schedule and if we can have some fun while doing so, I bet we'll manage a couple upsets along the way.


RECAP:
Wesley drafted: Give Spaz our Keys, TE's utilized, pressure Logan Thomas, Freese, Youth stepping up
BCMike drafted: Match VT intensity, O-Line pass block, Swigert, beware of long ball, have fun


Keys to the Game vs. VT
Wesley: Give Spaz our Keys, TE's utilized, pressure Logan Thomas, Freese, Youth stepping up
BCMike: Match VT intensity, O-Line pass block, Swigert, beware of long ball, have fun
  
pollcode.com free polls 

Monday, October 17, 2011

10/17/11 Draft: Week 8 Balllot

SB Nation BlogPoll Top 25 College Football Rankings

BCDraft Ballot - Week 8

Rank Team Delta
1 LSU Tigers --
2 Wisconsin Badgers --
3 Alabama Crimson Tide --
4 Oklahoma Sooners --
5 Clemson Tigers --
6 Oklahoma St. Cowboys --
7 Boise St. Broncos --
8 Stanford Cardinal --
9 Oregon Ducks Arrow_up 1
10 Kansas St. Wildcats Arrow_up 6
11 Michigan St. Spartans Arrow_up 10
12 South Carolina Gamecocks Arrow_down -1
13 Virginia Tech Hokies --
14 Arkansas Razorbacks Arrow_down -2
15 Nebraska Cornhuskers --
16 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Arrow_down -7
17 Houston Cougars Arrow_up 3
18 Michigan Wolverines Arrow_down -3
19 Texas A&M Aggies --
20 West Virginia Mountaineers Arrow_down -3
21 Penn St. Nittany Lions --
22 Illinois Fighting Illini Arrow_down -8
23 Washington Huskies --
24 Cincinnati Bearcats --
25 SMU Mustangs --
Dropouts: Arizona St. Sun Devils, Baylor Bears, Wake Forest Demon Deacons, North Carolina Tar Heels, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Louisiana Ragin Cajuns

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

Monday, October 10, 2011

10-10-11 Draft: Worst of the Worst vs. Clemson

Wesley is away and traveling, so I might be doing this one on my own. We'll start off with my first pick and if he's not back by tomorrow, I'll draft alone (sad, right?)

Ok.... Worst of the Worst vs. Clemson....here we go!

-------------------------------------
1M) The @BCGeneD tweet

It’s one thing to give the fans of alumni a hard time if we’re winning loads of games and getting lauded in the press for how great we are. It’s another thing to do it while we are clearly in the midst of the worst season of football Boston College has seen in literally decades.

Many commented on the Gene tweet, most citing poor performance by the team, well below average coaching, boring play-calling, with some even commenting on the relatively lackluster home schedule. The truth of the matter, in my opinion, is that none of those things actually has any sort of drastic effect on BC fans getting butts in seats prior to kickoff. This is clearly an issue with the tailgating/gameday atmosphere at Boston College.

If you have two, maybe sometimes three hours to rush in, pay an exorbitant amount of money for a spot, spark your grill, find your friends, and finally get around to cracking a cold one you’re realistically looking at 1.5-2 hours of active tailgating. That’s simply not cutting it. If Gene (who I still support but is apparently intentionally making it increasingly more difficult to do so) wants to know why BC fans aren’t in their seats before kickoff, he should have taken a tour of the Clemson tailgating fields at 8AM, seven hours before kickoff.

Or at UCF at 8AM, twelve hours before kickoff.

Once you—be it a student, alum, casual fan, or family member—have had your fill of tailgating, eating, drinking, hanging out, playing games, talking football, catching up with folks…you’re READY for the game. You WANT it to start. It’s not that BC fans don’t want to go to the game or don’t look forward to it, it’s that College Football is an EVENT. The game is PART of the event, the showcase, the main act. But please, don’t kid yourself. Most folks going to a BC game this year, save the die-hards, aren’t going for the stellar lineup of opposing teams or the paltry 1-5 record. They’re going there to try to enjoy the EVENT, not just the game.

2W)


Week 6 Ballot (draft)...thoughts?