That looked like a Top 10 team. Good effort all around. This team still has issues, but they are playing hard and smart. My initial thoughts:
-- Andre Callender deserves a lot of credit for improving his effort and production this year. He has a real shot at first-team ACC
-- Just the type of day Ryan needed. He looked sharp and put up Heisman numbers without getting greedy or hurt.
-- We still need to generate more pressure on the opponent's QBs.
-- It sure was nice to have Jeff Smith back.
This team has now won seven in a row for the first time since 1993 (the bowl game plus the perfect start). Congrats to the players and to the two coaches who won those games -- Jags and Spaz.
I'll have my second viewing thoughts and grades up late Sunday.
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Concur with all of the above. However, BC's pass defense is sneaky. 392 yds given up through the air looks bad, but 6 INTs look unbelievable, and that 392 does not look so bad when only one play was a big play and no big play TDs. BGSU ground out (pun intended) those pass yards with a lot of underneath junk. Callender continues to improve and hopefully recruiting at RB will pick up as Brooks continues to prove he cannot take of the ball. Overall great game, and worthy of leaping over South Florida if they don't pound FAU.
Just got back from the game. The offense looked fantastic. I cannot say enough about what AC has done this year, especially since the NC State game. Ryan looked very very good. He had 300 yards in 3 quarters. Jags and Logan left him in long enough to pad the stats a little but not long enough to run it up. They also got Crane in for a quarter. Bring on the TV games. Something very exciting is just around the corner. Hopefully I will see plenty of BC fans at ND next week. Ryan For Heisman!
We are fucking BC dude. That was fucking awesome. I can't wait to stomp those clown fucking Domers next week. WE ARE BC
Also Devils suck. Orange and black baby
USC LOST! BC up to at least 4/5. Florida still beating LSU....
Enjoyed being the guest blogger this week. Thanks for the opportunity, and congrats to the Eagles for the big win. You have a an excellent team, and I'm rooting for you to play in the BCS this year. Hell, you run the table, who knows what could happen?
Here's my take on my Falconblog, for those who are interested.
http://orangeandbrown.blogspot.com/2007/10/anterograde-amnesia-edition.html
Notre Dame looked like hot garbage last night. They got their big win though and won't be as upset-minded next week, which is good news. After watching USC shit the bed against Stanford, nothing be taken for granted.
#4 in the coaches' poll
#4 in AP, too...
Why is BC #4? They have yet to beat a team currently recieving any votes in the AP poll. #5 USF beat #8 WVU and won on the road vs. #22 Auburn.
BC is number 4 because of a few reasons. First, Matt Ryan is playing out of his mind and is currently number 2 in the heisman race according to ESPN.com, and he is the #1 or #2 NFL QB prospect too. Second, alhough BC gave up 400 some odd yards to BGSU yesterday, they also had 6 interceptions as eagleinexile noted. Their run defense has risen to become one of the best in the country, number 2 (yeah, they stopped the ACC's best rusher, GT's Choice to just 31 yards after 9 straight over 100 yd games, if you remember). Also, BC has the most interceptions in the nation (16, tied with Cincy), and they are also number 6 in the country in turnover margin. BC has also beat their opponents handily, just as they should if they are going to be a top 5 team. Bowling Green is an underrated team and BC destroyed them. If you watched the South Florida game, you would know that they barely squeaked past FAU and FAU beat themselves (3 field goals missed). What also has to do a lot with it is that key teams ahead of BC in the rankings have lost the last two weeks, thus allowing BC to jump majorly. Listen, it is early and BC has their hardest games ahead of them but don't ignore the fact that the stats don't lie; BC deserves to be #4 in the country. Keep it up Eagles.
Aside from bcfrankatl's very factual and honest assessment of BC's overall body of work. BC is #4 because voters do not just vote based on who you beat. How you beat them, was it close, did you make a lot of mistakes, was it on the road? Also, do you have an All-American playmaker. Now, in USF's defense, they have beaten one very good team (WVU) and one good team (Auburn). Wins like that are what gets a team ranked, but when voters are sorting out their Top 5, they look a little more closely. BC tore Bowling Green apart, and USF struggled with FAU. If you want to be in the National title race, you have to handle a team like FAU with a little more ease. Granted BC did not close the door on Army or UMass, but neither team really threatened to beat BC, the way FAU did USF. This is why USF leaped over BC two weeks ago in the polls, because BC did not play like a Top 5 team, but this week they surely did, and USF played like a team trying not to lose. Finally, USF has no Heisman material on the squad right now, but they do have an amazing Outland prospect at DE.
Uh, BC looked horrible against Army and UMass (which is a subdivision team). USF has more impressive wins, WVU and at Auburn, which beat the reigning national champs. Besides that, does anyone remember what happened in 2002 when ND was undefeated and ranked 4th in the country? A mediocre BC team went into South Bend and beat them. ND can make their season by returning the favor against us this year, to revenge their losses in 1993 and 2002. They will come out guns ablazin' which is very worrisome.
Also, ESPN does not have Ryan 2nd. Featured voter Todd McShay does. Overall he is fifth. Obviously, I expect that to change when their next poll is published on Tuesday.
I watch a lot of college football and you have to realize that there is so much parity that from week to week, the Top 15 can shuffle around quite a bit. One week, your team could be ranked #3, lose a game, then drop to #12.
The polls are meaningless until November when they factor into the BCS. Until then, it just means that the voters feel you should be ranked a certain way at that snapshot in time.
Further, I have witnessed teams start at 6,7, even 8-0 only to implode in November. All 6 of BC's remaining games could go to the loss column. On the other hand, BC has the talent and the coaching to win all 6 of these games. Let's just take it week by week and see what happens, but just ignore the polls until mid-November.
bcfrankatl, your description of usf game vs. fau could just have easily been the description of the bc game vs. umass. too close of a game vs. a weaker opponent which beat themselves (umass had 17 penalties). i'm not buying it.
it's one spot, who cares. the only problem here is that you are putting so much stock into silly rankings. we know that the rankings are based on very little intellect/analyzing and a lot of hype/publicity. In the end, it will become relatively clear who belongs and who doesn't. All you have to do to prove that you belong is to continue to win every week.
The Coaches poll is a joke anyway. Those votes are done without having seen any of the games; at most, the voter sees the final scores and maybe a couple highlights from the bigger games. I'm not sure if the AP voters see much more football, but they are at least out there covering the games and probably see and talk about the games as much as we do.
btw, unlike App St, UMass is undefeated vs. I-AA opponents.
tkane, just like eagleinexile wrote, regardless of how badly BC played vs UMass the reason they jumped last week is because staying undefeated this early in the season and having 5 teams ahead of you in the polls lose will jump you 5 spots. As you know, South Florida deservingly jumped ahead of BC in the polls after their win against WVU and all those top 10 teams losing. This week was different. With two teams ahead of BC and South Florida losing, there was going to be a battle for the 4 spot. This week, BC played considerably better than South Florida played, therefore they jumped them.
I agree with eagleboston and matthew completely, i was just defending BC's legitimacy in a forum for BC fans. Hopefully BC can keep this up, although (don't kill me for bringing this up) they always seem to lose at least one seemingly automatic win a year that comes back to bite them in the ass. But i feel like Coach Jags will keep them too focused on taking it game by game and not looking ahead and at the rankings, just as eagleboston said they need to do. But listen, I live in Georgia, and having to go to school with all these SEC assholes everyday and hearing their bullshit about how UGA is amazing gets annoying. It is nice to be able to say my New England team from little Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts is number 4 in the country, even if I only get to say it for a week.
A few things: First, because it gets under my skin, I'll start with Bravesbill. (a) There goes that "m" word again--"mediocre." Bill, BC in 2002 was a 9-win team. They finished 26th and 29th in the rankings. When there are more than 100 schools, that's simply not mediocre. It was a very good BC team. Not a great team, or a championship contender, but sure as hell a long way from this year's ND team, which is a BAD team, among the very worst in Division 1's "Bowl Subdivision." They don't HAVE the guns to start ablazin'. Relax. (b) South Florida. I'm not sold on how impressive their wins have been, and I'm not impressed by their opponents. USF needed an absolute Butterfingers performance by the 'Eers to squeak by them. That was the ugliest football I have seen in a long time, the ugliest non-monsoon football I've EVER seen. And time will tell whether West Virginia even deserved that Top 5 ranking--or ANY ranking--to begin with. They still haven't beaten anyone stronger than Maryland this year. Next, if you're going to look back to last year to puff Auburn, you might as well note that BC has already beaten both of last year's ACC division winners. Last year means nothing.
Second, as "horrible" as BC looked against Army and UMass, the Eagles have never really been threatened all season. UMass pulling within 3 in the 3rd is as close as it's been. In that case, BC soon pulled back ahead by 10, and ultimately chose to take a knee in the UMass red zone at the end rather than run up the score. As for USF (note to tkane also), last Saturday Fla. Atlantic (NOT a good team) had the ball to go for the winning score at the end. They turned it over on downs, and USF classlessly pushed for a vanity touchdown. Far different situation.
Third, one other note to tkane: while I agree with several others that the polls are pretty silly/meaningless, so too is your assertion that BC has played no one of note because none of BC's opponents is getting any votes. At the time BC has played its 5 "Bowl Subdivision" opponents, 2 of them (Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, and Bowling Green) were vote-getters. That neither is getting any/many votes anymore owes much to the fact that BC has throttled each of them on national TV. I'll bet that even UMass would be getting a bunch of votes right now under the new Appy State rule, had they actually *beaten* BC the way that a few of you guys assert they were close to doing.
Whoa--how do I edit? I apparently threw Bowling Green in as an ARV team. They weren't and aren't.
Look. The polls don't mean much as stated my many posters on this comment board.
I will say though that I agree with the voters in that BC should have jumped USF at this moment in time. USF might not even be the best team in their conference right now, with Cincy knocking on the door. For this week, BC throttled the MAC leader. USF squeaked past an OK Sun Belt team. Based on the performances on Saturday, I can see where BC would jump USF this week.
Both USFs and BCs hardest games are ahead of them though. If both teams keep winning, bowls and rankings take care of themselves.
Go Eagles!
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