Sunday, October 18, 2015

Life after Death Valley?

I am back from Clemson. Before I get into my thoughts on the game, let me once again recommend that every BC fan make the trip to Death Valley at some point. Their fans couldn't be nicer. The game day atmosphere is great and the stadium experience is what you want college football to be. There's noise, pageantry, quirky gimmicks (like the running down the hill), but it is all worth it.

As for this game...I am frustrated but not down. There was offensive progress from last week. Enough to have me believe the season is not over. The defense let up a lot of yards, a lot of points and got called for a lot of penalties, but in person it didn't feel like a terrible performance. It felt more like they ran into a very talented team that played very well.

I will watch the broadcast back Sunday and have my grades and second viewing thoughts up late Sunday night.

20 comments:

Unknown said...

I don't support the selection of Smith as QB.

Prior to this game the argument was that switching out the QBs was negatively impacting both. Well this game seemed to show that whether Smith plays the whole game or is rotated, he will be ineffective.

He seems to be very athletic but is he capable playing QB?

Dan said...

So putting up 17 pts is less effective than 0 MK?

EL MIZ said...

the clock mgmt at the end of the first half was abhorrent. Addazio and the rest of the offensive coaching staff need to do some serious soul-searching while watching the tape of that back. pathetic execution. using 2 of your 3 TO while the clock is stopped, then running AGAIN (did we not learn from last week?) right up the middle and not stopping the clock immediately with a TO. it was baffling. i literally don't think it could have been any worse from a D1 coaching staff. also, if you aren't going to take one shot at the end zone there, don't even come out for the second half. you are waving the white flag and saying "we came to keep the score close".

the D is great but if your Special Teams, Offense and Coaching all are far inferior than the other team's, you are going to lose.

also, can all of the Ryan Day Haters please admit that they were wrong. Day clearly was the brains behind the offense. what i would do to have him back.

mod34b said...

Please Miz, as a stooge for Daz, Day was awful. I hope he never sets foot in campus again.

ps I did not hate him, just appreciated that he lacked talent as a coach. He did do an excellent job with Tyler Murphy, but the play calling overall was horrendous. Don't romanticize Day's (Daz's) overall schlock.

The score yesterday was bad, but the offense did have some decent moments. If he can just get Daz/Fitch to stop running into pointless "cloud of dust" so often.

Smith cannot throw a long ball with anything close to an acceptable completion percentage. And they are not really giving him the chance to connect on short routes. without some credible passing threat, Smith can not get enough room to run.

Run D. stout. Pass D. exposed.

Look for heavy passing here on out.

Excellent punting. good FG. Good PAT. Good punt defense. Good TD coverage. Very good to see these areas improved.

So why could't Daz beat Duke and Wake? Maddening.

Can we win 4 or next 5 to be bowl eligible? No. (L'ville, NCSU, VT, SYR and ND). But then again if the team beats L'Ville, which is possible, maybe.

Can we run 3/5 to be eligible fora waiver of bowl eligibility? maybe.

Hoib said...

i thought Smith did well in such a hostile environment, good composure. I think he might be more effective passing if he actually had someone open to throw to. Is he constantly making the wrong read? Or are we just not able to get people open. No turnovers by him, good. I think we will see a steady dose of the pass from here on out, but I doubt we see a QB or receiving corp. as talented as this one. I think we've hit our low point, things should improve from here.

Pearl Washington said...

Clemson got 197 yards and 21 pts after 3rd and 4th down penalties. Those offensive numbers Clemson put up were tainted ..definitely some home cookin on this interference calls.

Temple is in the top 25

CT said...

Yeah, all the refs. Give ne a break.

CT said...

Would love to know how mod would've gotten more out of Rettig/Williams and Murphy/no throw than they did. Day looks like Baylor compared to this staff.

CT said...

Mod isn't hated as a blog commenter from his couch, but he is pretty awful at it and I hope he visits the campus every now and then.

mod34b said...

CT you are getting weirdly personal. Focus elsewhere please.

CT said...

No. You're in the "fire Daz" crowd at this point and I know that every post during this season and future ones will have that as its theme. I'm preparing myself for the boredom. That's all.

Knucklehead said...

Clemson had a height and speed advantage on DB #5(Moore?) and used it all game. The pass interference calls against Boston College were terrible. The decision to try and block the first punt was horrible and another example of putting someone in a terribly awkward position to make a play(WR out to block a punt is stupid. Fluite in to a sneak fucking reprehensible). Cover their kick and move on.

The running game is fine with Willis. Rouse and Outlow are too slow to the holes.

Baker is a tough hombre. MA a la Mark Columbo.

Kicker kicked a field goal through the fucking uprights which was good.

If we had a field goal kicker in all 7 games we would be 5-2.

Smith cannot throw an accurate pass beyond 10 yards right now. There were open people to.

The fleaflicker with swigert was a decent idea. Everyone at home and abroad(in South Carolina) knew something was coming there though.

Goddamned frustrating to say again but if we had a field goal kicker in all 7 games we would be 5-2.

mod34b said...

CT. I am not getting why u care what I post?

Tip: don't read my post if you don't like the or I bore you.




And no, I am Not yet urging #firedaz. More like #dabodaz. Take away his in game control and OC control.

His bs enthusiasm is still useful and BC owes him too much to can him just yet. I think
He will have to pull a Spaz: tanking record, tanking recruiting, lose of team confidence. That might take a few more seasons

GP11 said...

People decrying Smith's long balls need to rewatch the scramble and throw to Addazio. He put it just past the DB and in Addazio's hands but he couldn't catch it. Also watch Watson's long balls... He didn't connect on very many of them, but their receivers had the speed to routinely run past or DBs which made them effective even at a low connection %. More on that note... Not really sure why Brown kept leaving the corners on an island to get beat over and over again. The front 7 was pretty good, but our blitzes did not have great success getting home. Would have preferred to show and pull back a bit more.

The Refs were abhorrent. Very frustrating allowing Clemson to extend drives.

I thought Smith was adequate, which... Hey! He's barely 19 years old in his first year on campus against a top 5 team. I'm not sure how you could ask much more than that. Had he played the whole game for Duke and Wake, I'm pretty sure we'd be 5-2 right here.

I'm optimistic (though this is not a change). Until we're truly not in a game that we should be in, I won't give up hope. LOU, VT, and NCST are all beatable teams. If we can get on a roll here into the ND game, hopefully we can pull the upset.

EL MIZ said...

agree with GP - the replay showed the ball go right through Addazio's hands. that was a catchable ball - it would've been a great catch, but it was catchable nonetheless. i thought Smith did a good job for all the reasons stated - true freshman, hostile environment, very talented D, first start. we moved the ball, we scored a few TDs, we got it into their side of the field. he should have been the starter from the get-go and it probably cost us the Wake/Duke games.

re: Day, I just don't see how you watch this team versus the prior two years and not notice the wrinkles Day had put in to give us certain advantages. the offense was never too complex, but it was a lot more effective with arguably the same level of talent. also, it seems like we get 2-3 delay of game penalties per half this year, which is a coaching fail. i don't recall that being such a glaring issue. we had serviceable offenses the past two years, a serviceable offense this year would probably put us at 5 or 6 wins at this point.

Hoib said...

El Miz

So many people on the blog want more throwing, I'm not one of them. They say Smith can't throw, but they fail to mention guys can't get open or can't catch. Daz jr. could have caught that ball, but basically he's a guard in the pass pattern, just liked Bordner last year.

Bravesbill said...

Hoib, I'm with you to a point. You still need to pass if you have any hope of rushing successfully. For whatever reason, BC refuses to attempt any short passes that could soften up the defense. Also, the most frustrating thing is that BC is doing nothing creatively with its rush offense. They basically run the same 4 or 5 plays (most of which go right up the middle). When the defense knows where the play is going, you basically have zero chance at being successful.

mod34b said...

Hoib, to take advantage of Smith's speed, BC needs to try to spread the field with a credible passing attack. Smith's long balls are sometimes ok, sometimes not. But because of the inconsistent throws, Smith's long ball does not present a credible threat to any ACC defense. All teams are happy to have 1-1 coverage.

I would prefer to see some medium to short balls. Not a ton of passing. Not a return to Rettig. but enough passing to create some better O balance and keep the Defense off balance. But some have pointed out here that Daz likely fears an interception so he does not have a short/medium passing game.

Look at Clemson - tons of short passes that were very effective. Of course, Clemson's WR are in an elite class and very different than BC's WRs.

Miz. I am not saying Day is "all bad." I am saying that (via the Daz handcuffs) his offense left a lot to be desired. Daz made him run into the line so so many times for reasons of clock control. Day also had superior QB, RB and OL than Fitch because of failure of Daz to effectively recruit a full team

Hoib said...

BB

I'm w/ u on the running plays. I want more Smith in the read option. I don't think the short passes are there, the D is all bunched up against us. I only think we can pass if we get the run going, and then it'll be the deep ball off play action. Any obvious passing play Smith will see a steady dose of the blitz, so they need to work w/ him on the checkdowns. The line needs to get better also. I think Clemson is a very good,complete team. The only thing we can draw from the game re: Smith is that he is not intimidated and he doesn't force things out of frustration. Zero t/o in a game like that is good. This is a complete rebuilding year for the O. I think we need patience.

Knucklehead said...

OK he had one good longer throw. CLAP FUCKING CLAP.