That was a long frustrating way to begin the season. The silver lining is
the win and that Anthony Brown showed real potential in his first game. Everything that you feel good about the game also leaves you wondering if Addazio will ever fully deliver. For example, he really committed to the uptempo offense, yet we only scored 23 points and started resting our best defensive players in the 2nd Quarter. Another example: Addazio seemingly adjusted to his game management criticisms and used the clock well at the first half and went for it on 4th down. Yet there was some very stubborn and head scratching play calling. Finally, he has seemed to recruit elite skill players, but our traditional foundation -- the offensive line -- looked sloppy. He has a week to figure it all out.
For now, I am going to use this win to dream about a bright future for Brown and BC Football.
I also did a post-game Periscope. Thanks to all those who interacted. Because of the holiday weekend, I don't know when I will rewatch the game, so grades might not roll out until Tuesday.
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22 comments:
Steve Addazio improves his coaching record to 38-38, the Jeff Fisher of college football.
Agree that it was promising, but sad they didn't cover 3.5 pt spread. Literally, need to finish plays. The last drive of first half had them looking like an ACC team vs. a MAC team. Besides that, they looked like they played down. Need a lot of improvement. Run calls weren't great. Snuffed out very easily. I will watch the next game, but come on dudes. Please BE DUDES.
Talent is wasted on this coaching staff and play calling. The staff wants to live up to the aggressiveness that they spoke of but their true colors showed 90% of the game. The offensive line was offensive to my eyes. Hilliman is not a good RB.. lots of unnecessary shifting and too little moving forward. We blew a red shirt for 1 play. The CBs were getting beat regularly. Only 1 major downfield pass so there was no "keeping the defense honest."
Adazzio was lucky to escape NIU with a win and hopefully this team develops A LOT in a week or Wake should be Daz' wake.
He should Be fired. Clock management in the fourth quarter was atrocious. He left a minute and 30 seconds more on the clock then necessary which gave Northern Illinois a chance to drive down the field and tie or win the game. We were getting plays off with 28 seconds left on play clock.
Just an awful in game coach.
Positives:
1) Game management was the best I have seen under Addazio. He used timeouts effectively at the end of the half, preserved his timeouts for the end of the game and callled an aggressive game (they went for it on 4th down 3 times!)
2) For a redshirt freshman, Anthony Brown played well. Yes, his mechanics were not great and he was often extremely inaccurate with his passes. However, he made key plays when it counted, stayed in the pocket and only forced things a couple times. He also seemed calm under pressure. We have not had many game-winnng drives over the post-Ryan era so that was another plus.
3) Speical teams were nearly flawless. Lichtenburg hit 3 high-pressure field goals, the coverage game was good and the return game set BC up well. White had a nice KO return.
4) Kobay White, another redshirt freshman, is a baller. Oh, and he was only a 3-star, so you can shove recruiting rankings where they belong.
5) There is a lot of whining about the play calling. I think the coaches were calling a tighter gam than we will see the rest of the season. They did not want to show Wake too much at this point. Loved the up-tempo and they ran over 90 plays!
Negatives:
1) The offensive line looks slow and out of shape. They are not conditioned to run 90 plays.
2) Defense was out of position on many chunk plays. Too many players were trying to do two jobs. The good news is that is correctable. Just do your job guys!
3) Running game. We have to be able to run the ball and I just don't think Hilliman is the answer.
Overall, thrilled about the win but nervous for ACC play.
Why does this win seem like a loss. Probably because NIU had all of the momentum at the end of the game. They were driving the ball all 4th quarter and we couldn't stop them. Had they made that field goal at the end of the game, they would have run it down our throats in overtime.
Incredibly, BC made 3 high pressure field goals while NIU went 2 for 3 with last one crashing off the cross bar! How many times have I seen BC in that very same position and miss a lay up shot to lose a game that we should have won.
BC's best player on the field last night was the place kicker. Sadly, the rest of the team didn't impress me. This could be a very long season without dramatic improvement.
Eagle389
Bring back Ryan Day as offensive coordinator . Pay him what is needed and groom him for head
coach . Unless and unlikely Spazdazio comes up with 8 wins (L. Clemson Fla. St , Louisville,
VA Tech.)
Anthony and Colin are exciting . Harold got lost many times.
strange game - a lot to feel good about, more of the same, and some troubling new developments.
to feel good about:
- Brown as a redshirt freshman had his ups and downs but all in all played a very competent and complete game for his first ever game. he has a lot of tools in the toolbox as they say, can extend plays with his feet, has a nice arm, moved the ball around to a lot of different receivers. was a little wild at times but that is to be expected. was very happy he got the start - last year we had to suffer through the announce teams talk about how much Daz gushed about Brown and how he was the presumed starter for next season, would have been a real let down if he didn't emerge as the guy.
- Kobay White another RS Freshman getting open and making real nice catches. we heard about him all preseason, Gunnell picked him in the Mike G interview player as a guy who was going to break out, but it was nice to see it translate.
- Lichtenberg 3 for 3!
more of the same:
- Hilliman had a handful of nice runs (a 17 yard run and then a handful of 5-7 yard runs, with one nice run getting called back on a block below the knees by Baker) and a ton of no gainers or stops behind the line. would have liked to see more of Dillon, and definitely wanted to see Levy or Jones. Daz seems to like doing full series for certain backs - Dillon would come in for an entire set, and then once they punted or possession changed the next time it was Hilliman. is that necessary? can't we switch these guys in and out on the fly?
- similar to the above, the OL wasn't controlling the LOS. Frye/Daz have had 5 years now bringing in their own guys, coaching them up, etc. - why is this still such an issue?
- still a lot of drops by the WRs, jeff smith in particular. can't let a freshman QB down by dropping balls he drops on a dime.
troubling new developments:
- is it just me or did the DL look pretty meager? i don't think we had any sacks, Allen was caught flat-footed a bunch, and all in all it just didn't seem like that unit was a strength.
- watching this unit versus what Don Brown was doing 2 years ago, its a pretty big change. the blitz's and constant pressure on the offense has changed. if anything, this D had more of a Spaz feel to it with giving the receivers space and having more of a "bend don't break" feel. that could have just been a weird one game thing, but i don't like that at all.
not a troubling development but a new one nonetheless - liked Daz having some balls and being aggressive on offense. when he was calling timeouts at the end of the 1st half to get the ball back i almost choked on my popcorn, and when we got the ball and Brown marched down the field with no TO for a score - that wound up winning us the game and showed (perhaps?) a new philosophy now that we have a QB daz feels good about.
a win is a win folks - annoying BC didn't cover but i'll take the loss there with a 1-0 in the real standings. gotta beat Wake next week.
Does anyone realistically see this team winning more than one or two ACC games? Syracuse and Wake Forest ran up over forty points on their cupcake teams. We just squeaked by an average MAC team. Could be a long year.
Really good comments which ask a lot of pertinents. I could not believe just how bad Northern Illinois was. Their play calling was really bad.---The announcers said what won the game was a hard rush on the field goal attempt from Cameron Moore on the wing. I like Brown. For one night at least, let's give the devil his due. However to celebrate a win over a mediocre opponent leaves a lot of troubling questions.
Wake is almost a must win since they have a good chance of losing the next two against ND and Clemson which would offer a depressing 1-3 start. Wins are also possible against UVA, NC State and Syracuse so there a pathway to three ACC wins. Assuming they go 3-1 in non-conference they also need 3 ACC wins just to become bowl eligible. 6-6 is also likely the minimum performance for Daz to keep his job. Net, the game against Wake next week will go a long way in determining the fate of BC's season even though it is just the second game.
Is the up-tempo offense unequivocally a good thing? Why is BC doing it as opposed to any other team? I don’t know if that opened up some of the short passing plays but it seemed to contribute to the poor line play. Don’t know if they’ll get better at it with time but based off of last night it doesn’t seem like a good strategy for BC.
Grades.
QB. B- Some bright spots. Has guts. Has an arm. But. Concerns about accuracy
RBs. C- not quick enough or elusive against a MAC D
OL. - D. 73 (schmal ) and 74 (hazard). Missed lots of blocks and often found as the guy standing by body at the crime scene after they let the killer in. Baker is off the watch list for Remington. No one knew why he was ever listed
WR. B. Too many drops. But some decent grabs. End of first half drive shows some real potential.
TE incomplete. Not sure what they did.
OC. B- Some real good streaks of play calling. But. Ya know .....,
Maryland is going to beat Texas in Austin, finishing with a true Freshman QB after the starter got hurt.
We can take some pride in that. 51 to 34.
I hope BC really improves for WF.
W. Michigan is leading USC in L.A.
NC State (a potential final 4 team ☺️) did their usual.
Don Brown's boys stuff FL.
For all the crap Daz has gotten...job on the line...he went full re-build with AB.
AB has 4 yrs. fyi.
Did Brown turn 19 yet? 🙂
Daz is gone. Will be with ESPN next year. Thank God a new AD will be choosing his replacement.
I'm looking forward to the Mercedes Benz Stadium party atmosphere at the GT v TN game Monday night. Watching FSU/Bama - big time college football.
This Atlanta stadium is unreal.
But I still like Alumni if we win. 🙂
Looking at FSU, we have a little way to go. 🙂
The game got off to an exciting start, but turned into the usual nail-biter. I was waiting for Landry to demolish the NIU offense, but he was pretty near invisible for most of the game... sometimes literally, as he wasn't on the field. What's up with that? Saving him for ACC games?
Brown seems to have the tools to be a very good QB, with some seasoning. That means we'll probably see Wade start next week.
Went to the first ATL pre-season game. Stadium is the best.
Uh oh. Francois injured.
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