Sunday, September 02, 2018

Second viewing thoughts and grades: UMass

I was in my car and following the game on my phone, so by the time I watched the game Saturday night, I was calm and knew BC crushed UMass. Had I watched live, the first quarter might have been a little more tense and upsetting. Watching with the outcome known was very calming and reassuring for the season. Brown had been the big question mark (and he looked pretty good). There were a few spotty areas, but this was the start to the season BC needed.

Offense: A-

Statistically Brown was great. Considering his limited preseason, Brown was great. When you factor in the injury, Brown was great. But his passes were a bit off target. I know his completion percentage was good, but he still threw behind some guys or not exactly where the ball should be. Against a better team he will get burned with that stuff. I thought his decisions were good in the passing game. I think he will need to present himself as a running threat in our more challenging games. With the way UMass was biting on the end arounds/sweeps, there could be huge plays for AB if he fakes the handoff.

I know a lot of people wanted Dillon to pad his stats, but I was fine with his game. He didn't get his usual viral highlight, but the pass catching alone showed major improvement. Levy and Bailey were fine. Jones got the TDs, but we had such a size advantage against UMass, I don't know how much of that was him vs our OLine.

Two of White's catches were beautiful. I felt like Smith could have done more after the catch and handoff -- he had space and just didn't get the right hole. Marten had a career day for him. I was a bit surprised none of the other guys turned their catches into big plays.

The OLine was fine. It is hard to judge this game because of two factors that made the whole area muddled. UMass stiacked the box a lot but also was undersized on the DL. We were winning battles but not exploding because of how their back seven played.

Loeffler called a good game. I think it was good to move Brown around. He needs to get used to rollouts and bootlegs since so many teams are going to focus on our run game. I had no problem with the subs in the second half.

Defense: B+

The only surprising part to me was that our defensive line starters didn't dominate in a more pronounced fashion. Allen was fine, but not speeding by the UMass guys. Smith had a nice INT. Ray was fine.

Strachan is another guy who looked good coming back to action. Jones made some nice plays. DePalma got extended playing time.

Sebastian had the biggest coverage breakdown of the game (the first UMass TD) but was ok after. Denis' INT was nice, as was the runback. Harris was fine. Torres was fine.

This was a very vanilla scheme and that's fine. No need to do anything special unless the opponent and game situation calls for it.

Special Teams: B-

I know you can excuse some of the special team's issues to losing our long snapper (Martin), but there were some other issues too.

We allowed a long kick return. We were not aggressive with our own returns...including punt returns.

Overall: A-

I could get nitpicky about the start or letting UMass get some garbage time points, or hammer Addazio for Special Teams but it was a pretty darn good showing. He had the more talented team and they played that way. It was a relatively vanilla approach, but probably what we needed for the start. And to Addazio's credit, the depth and talent improvement is more obvious in a blowout. The second teamers come on and BC still looks better than their FBS opponent.

Next week should be an even easier game, but I think we can trust Addazio not to screw it up. He certainly didn't screw up this game.

15 comments:

Tim said...

Ten days until the season really starts.

Ramman said...

Great start for the Eagles! 🦅

Unknown said...

ATL,

Good post and observations. I think the biggest question mark from the game remains BC's kicking game.

With roughly 12 minutes left in the 3rd, BC went for it on 4th and 1 from the UMASS 25. BC was up 48 to 7 at the time. Perry threw it for an incomplete pass and BC turned it over on downs. Would have been a roughly 40+ yd field goal attempt. Not a good sign that Addazio didn't kick it here. Would have been a good opportunity to get Lichtenberg (or whoever else) an in game experience before one really matters later in the season.

Also, what happened with us being able to have consistent touchbacks off of kickoffs? That was a change from last year.

JBQ said...

White is big time. If AB can get him the ball with good pass protection, it will really complement Dillon. The only note of caution appears to be the defense. So far, so good.

NEDofSavinHill said...

Great game vs. UMass. HC and Temple should be wins but the other nine games are toss ups. If they play well they can win if not they might lose. Miami had a very poor game. 12 penalties, two turnovers and several sacks.They looked undisciplined but if they can clean it up they could be pretty good but certainly not unbeatable. They have now lost four in a row and don't seem like a top 25 team let alone a top 10 one. 2.Last year UMass beat both Appy ST. and BYU. App ST. took Penn ST. purportedly a top 10 team to overtime in Happy Valley and BYU defeated Arizona on the road. UMass may be a solid team so don't devalue BC's victory. 3.Last year Alabama was placed in the final four for the college football playoff. Did they deserve it? Wisconsin was 12-1 with their only loss to OSU the number 5 team by 6 points. Bama was 11-1 with a loss to number 9 Auburn by 10 points. The fix was in . The SEC had a losing bowl record for the 2nd year in a row. The Big Ten was 7-1 in the post season. The playoff committee was in the bag.

Thomas said...

ahhh the old transitive property of sports and unwarranted SEC bashing

BCAlum2000 said...

Alabama won the title. Hard to argue they didnt belong in the CFP ...

As for the game, good showing. Really could have been 80+ to 7 if BC kept their foot on the pedal.

Next week will be even easier. I expect another game of the starters only going 2 quarters ... which is good.

Miami looked terrible for most of that game. Rozier is horrible.

The Tall One said...

The only concern I have for the season is execution. The special teams' executions were very disappointing. The offense will face tougher defenses but has the talent to compete. The defense not being significantly challenged will have to wait for another couple of weeks to see Wake. Still, they need to take advantage of every in-game rep, because they do not want to be ill-prepared when facing an offense that can light them up.

But special teams. UGH. I appreciate that there was an injury, but, someone needs to be ready to step up. Injuries are going to happen. Look at what happened to the offense last year. If players cannot step up, it's because we have extremely poor depth, or the team just isn't prepared. And Addazio teams thus far have never seemed to be prepared.....

Holy Cross will be like that Howard College game, or whatever it was when the team put up a crazy number of points.

Wake .... that's when we'll see how "prepared" the team is.

dixieagle said...

I sure wish we'd been able to pick up that LSU kicker, Cole Tracy, the Assumption College transfer.

mod34b said...
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MilitantEagle said...

The glass half full perspective on having a weak kicking game is Daz being more aggressive on 4th downs. As for the LSU kicker, he's from California so even if BC recruited him not sure he would have chosen BC over LSU.

Napolean Bonaparte said...

Would think with the score being 48-7 at the time and BC being at the UMass 25 they probably elected to treat the 4th down play as equivalent to a punt (if they failed to make a first down) rather than run up the score with a pointless field goal. Actually thought it was a classy move by Addazio. Notre Dame would have hit the field goal.

John said...

FSU Defense stunk the stadium out on the first Drive.

Around the Hub said...

Love seeing genuine BC fan content like this, even from someone living so far from the Heights now! Thought I'd share a new podcast we just launched, all about the Eags. Would love to have you call in sometime!

https://aroundthehub.boston/teams/around-the-res/

John said...

Taggart took a probable TD away from his own team. Ridiculous.

For the $ they pay these guys, you expect more than stupid.