Boston College Athletics
Davon Jones
Photo by: Jon Fleming
Lessons Learned: One Of Those Days
September 18, 2016 | Football, #ForBoston Files
It was a bad day for BC football.
Bad days start innocently enough. Team intros have tons of energy, and there's hopeful optimism on both sidelines. Good karma runs rampant through fan bases, analysts, journalists and everyone else.
They often start with a positive. Yesterday, Boston College forced a three-and-out on Virginia Tech's first drive, which included a false start penalty against the Hokies. After a punt, the Eagles started on their own 40-yard line. On third down, facing their own three-and-out, Patrick Towles hit a slant pass to his tight end, Tommy Sweeney, down the middle of the field for 22 yards, and BC moved deep into plus territory.
Then it turned.
Virginia Tech scored 14 points before the end of the first quarter, aided by a BC fumble on the very next play after that seam pass down the middle. With a 21-0 lead at halftime, the Hokies pulled away in the third quarter, scoring three touchdowns in that frame alone as BC faded into the Saturday afternoon.
Virginia Tech had an all three phases kind of day, and BC didn't. The Hokies did everything well, and BC didn't. It happens to everyone at some point, and on Saturday, it was BC's turn to have one of those days.
So is there something to learn? Sure there is. It might not be surface deep, and it might require level resetting. But it's there. Let's try to take a look:
-Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat this; the statistics tell the stark contrast. It is what it is. No one can go back in time and change what happened.
It's clear to me that Virginia Tech's found the spark they missed over the past couple of seasons. The Hokies put 400 yards on Tennessee, with the main reason for the loss being three turnovers. Their high-powered, up-tempo offense is capable of doing many different things in a short amount of time.
"(Their offense) is taxing if you let it become taxing," said head coach Steve Addazio. "If you are three and out (on defense), then it is not taxing. If you sustain drives, then it becomes very taxing. The throws downfield were the story of the day. We had two critical (pass interferences). Those lead to that third quarter roll that started happening. Obviously we dropped balls on the other side. It created a third quarter gap really quickly. Running the ball early, there wasn't a lot going on. We were real good (early) against the run, and then we had those issues in the back end."
The way to defeat an up-tempo offense is to keep it off the field. In the second quarter, the teams held the ball for the same amount of time. BC forced the Hokies to go 0-3 on third-down conversions. In the third quarter, the Hokies had eight first downs to BC's one and held the ball for over eight minutes. In the second quarter, Virginia Tech scored only once. In the third, VT scored three times.
-Whether you lost a game on a last second field goal or lose by 49 points, it's still a loss. It goes into the record books exactly the same way. A loss is a loss, no matter how anyone tries to splice it.
"All losses hurt equally the same," said Addazio. "They really do. When you lose a close game, it's crushing to you. When you come out in a game like this and et your butt woooped in, it's crushing to you. I don't think one is worse than the other."
Virginia Tech is one of the most hostile home crowds in college football. It's more intense in person than it is on television, and this was really the first home game against a competitive opponent after opening against Liberty and playing Tennessee in Bristol. It was also Tech's ACC opener. That creates an atmosphere that is very hard to turn back. Yes, it's happened in the past, but it's incredibly hard to do.
It's also something that's extremely difficult to simulate. You can practice with speakers pumping in crowd noise, but seeing it in person, with everyone wearing one color as far as the eye can see, is completely different and can be overwhelming.
"We have to go back and take a look at the tape," said Addazio. "We have to improve and get better. We have to teach our young guys how to handle this envrionment. Being in this kind of envrionment and what it takes to turn back that tide. We will go back and do that, and we will move forward."
This can be valuable if Boston College learns from it. There's still games remaining at places like Florida State, hostile environments against talented teams. Having now played at Lane Stadium, BC can draw on what happened to learn from it, better preparing them for the next kind of enviornment.
-At long last, BC will be able to return home. It's been a long month, and even though there was a game close to home against UMass, the Eagles have yet to dress for a game in their own locker room. They'll finally get that on Saturday.
"I think it is really important to determine the why (we lost) and the issues that have to be corrected," said Addazio. "We have to find out what created this to happen this way."
"It's very tough," said quarterback Patrick Towles. "We got out (butts) kicked today in all three facets. There isn't much to say about it. They outplayed us all four quarters. We have to get back to work tomorrow. There is a lot of football left this season."
They often start with a positive. Yesterday, Boston College forced a three-and-out on Virginia Tech's first drive, which included a false start penalty against the Hokies. After a punt, the Eagles started on their own 40-yard line. On third down, facing their own three-and-out, Patrick Towles hit a slant pass to his tight end, Tommy Sweeney, down the middle of the field for 22 yards, and BC moved deep into plus territory.
Then it turned.
Virginia Tech scored 14 points before the end of the first quarter, aided by a BC fumble on the very next play after that seam pass down the middle. With a 21-0 lead at halftime, the Hokies pulled away in the third quarter, scoring three touchdowns in that frame alone as BC faded into the Saturday afternoon.
Virginia Tech had an all three phases kind of day, and BC didn't. The Hokies did everything well, and BC didn't. It happens to everyone at some point, and on Saturday, it was BC's turn to have one of those days.
So is there something to learn? Sure there is. It might not be surface deep, and it might require level resetting. But it's there. Let's try to take a look:
-Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat this; the statistics tell the stark contrast. It is what it is. No one can go back in time and change what happened.
It's clear to me that Virginia Tech's found the spark they missed over the past couple of seasons. The Hokies put 400 yards on Tennessee, with the main reason for the loss being three turnovers. Their high-powered, up-tempo offense is capable of doing many different things in a short amount of time.
"(Their offense) is taxing if you let it become taxing," said head coach Steve Addazio. "If you are three and out (on defense), then it is not taxing. If you sustain drives, then it becomes very taxing. The throws downfield were the story of the day. We had two critical (pass interferences). Those lead to that third quarter roll that started happening. Obviously we dropped balls on the other side. It created a third quarter gap really quickly. Running the ball early, there wasn't a lot going on. We were real good (early) against the run, and then we had those issues in the back end."
The way to defeat an up-tempo offense is to keep it off the field. In the second quarter, the teams held the ball for the same amount of time. BC forced the Hokies to go 0-3 on third-down conversions. In the third quarter, the Hokies had eight first downs to BC's one and held the ball for over eight minutes. In the second quarter, Virginia Tech scored only once. In the third, VT scored three times.
-Whether you lost a game on a last second field goal or lose by 49 points, it's still a loss. It goes into the record books exactly the same way. A loss is a loss, no matter how anyone tries to splice it.
"All losses hurt equally the same," said Addazio. "They really do. When you lose a close game, it's crushing to you. When you come out in a game like this and et your butt woooped in, it's crushing to you. I don't think one is worse than the other."
Virginia Tech is one of the most hostile home crowds in college football. It's more intense in person than it is on television, and this was really the first home game against a competitive opponent after opening against Liberty and playing Tennessee in Bristol. It was also Tech's ACC opener. That creates an atmosphere that is very hard to turn back. Yes, it's happened in the past, but it's incredibly hard to do.
It's also something that's extremely difficult to simulate. You can practice with speakers pumping in crowd noise, but seeing it in person, with everyone wearing one color as far as the eye can see, is completely different and can be overwhelming.
"We have to go back and take a look at the tape," said Addazio. "We have to improve and get better. We have to teach our young guys how to handle this envrionment. Being in this kind of envrionment and what it takes to turn back that tide. We will go back and do that, and we will move forward."
This can be valuable if Boston College learns from it. There's still games remaining at places like Florida State, hostile environments against talented teams. Having now played at Lane Stadium, BC can draw on what happened to learn from it, better preparing them for the next kind of enviornment.
-At long last, BC will be able to return home. It's been a long month, and even though there was a game close to home against UMass, the Eagles have yet to dress for a game in their own locker room. They'll finally get that on Saturday.
"I think it is really important to determine the why (we lost) and the issues that have to be corrected," said Addazio. "We have to find out what created this to happen this way."
"It's very tough," said quarterback Patrick Towles. "We got out (butts) kicked today in all three facets. There isn't much to say about it. They outplayed us all four quarters. We have to get back to work tomorrow. There is a lot of football left this season."
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