BC-Northwestern preview

Every season has a “fork in the road” game. It's usually not the opener. Like every season, we have questions to be answered. Yet unlike other seasons it seems like all our questions are on one side of the ball. Can Rettig be great? Will Rogers turn things around? How healthy is Montel? It’s all about the offense. BC will never win anything significant with the worst offense among BCS schools. If we are going to have hope, if we are going to challenge for the ACC title, and if we want our Saturdays to be fun again we need to be competent on offense. After playing Northwestern we will know a lot more about this team.

Overlooked storyline for the game: BC’s defensive ends
With the issues in defensive back and the shuffling of the offensive line, no one is really discussing our depth at defensive end. The DEs will be critical this game as they will need to contain whoever is playing QB for Northwestern. True freshman Connor Wujciak is listed on depth chart and there aren’t many bodies BC can turn to if the Des struggle or get hurt.

Three Simple Keys
1. The offensive line play. No one really questioned Spaz on this, but with days before the game, he announced he would play his “best five guys.” This philosophy (as opposed to playing the guys who are best at their respective positions) cost us last year. Let’s hope it clicks this year.
2. Converting in the redzone. I know this might be asking too much since we just want some successful drives, but BC cannot settle for field goals against a team that scores as quickly as Northwestern.
3. Establishing the run. Even though Northwestern has made stopping the run important, I don’t think they will be that improved. If BC cannot run on them, winning the game will be a struggle.

Gambling Notes
-- Spaz is 10-4 at home
-- Spaz is 1-3 vs non-ACC BCS teams
-- Pat Fitzgerald is 3-5 against non-Big Ten BCS teams
Due to Persa’s status, the game was taken off the Las Vegas books. Prior to that the line was BC-3.

Factoid
BC and Northwestern have played three times. The games have all been in September and had unusual scoring. The three games have been decided by 49 points, 45 points and 1 point respectively.

Scoreboard Watching
I will be paying attention to Miami vs Maryland. Both are on BC's schedule and both have new coaches. If the games were played today I think we’d be an underdog against both.

I hope to see...
Rettig have a solid day. My expectations are high for him, but for this game I would settle for him completing most of his passes and avoiding any INTs.

BC is in trouble if…
Northwestern gets to 30 points. Spaz’s teams have only scored more than 30 once against a BCS team. I know there will be improvements on offense, but I don’t think we are ready for a shootout yet.

Bottom Line
Even if Persa plays, he’s not going to be 100%. That leaves Northwestern one dimensional on offense, which plays right into our style. I think BC will frustrate them most of the day and keep the QBs in the pocket. I also think this will be a decent, mistake free game on offense. I think BC controls the tempo and the scoreboard en route to our first win of the season.
Final Score: BC 27, Northwestern 17