Boston College Athletics
Photo by: John Quackenbos
Lessons Learned: Late Score Snatches Victory from Eagles
September 04, 2016 | Football, #ForBoston Files
Last second drive from Georgia Tech steals victory on Emerald Isle
Sometimes the stories don't have the best endings.
The excitement and enthusiasm of the first game of the 2016 season ended in disappointment on Saturday as Georgia Tech used a last-minute drive to skate by the Eagles, 17-14, from Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. It was a decidedly anticlimactic finish to a months-long buildup to the opening game of both the regular season and the ACC slate of contests.
Any time there's a loss on the schedule, especially one that comes in the closing minutes or seconds, there's a tendency to react and try to figure out what went wrong. No matter how well the team played in any respect, it clearly wasn't enough to pick up a W.
But after the initial disappointment subsides, there's some lessons to take away from the defeat on the Emerald Isle:
-Both of the teams on the field are substantially better than last year's record would indicate. The Yellow Jackets, ravaged by injuries a year ago, brought a core roster to Ireland that won the Orange Bowl two seasons ago. BC went toe-to-toe with that core for the entire game. It took a last-minute drive to beat a defense that was solid all day long.
"A lot of good things happened in that game and we had some decent downs in what we wanted to do offensive," said Boston College head coach Steve Addazio. "We showed a lot of improvement. But at the end of the day we didn't make the plays we had to make in the end to close that game out and they did. I like the way the team played. We played physical. We played hard on both sides. We just need to learn how to close that game out."
"We had a hard time running the football offensively," said Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson. "We had a hard time blocking them up front and we had some key missed assignments. They're a very good defensive football team and we knew that going in, and we did some hair-brain things like forget to go into motion, guys would block the wrong guys. We missed tons of reads on the option stuff. When you do that against a good team, you get behind down a distance and it's hard to come back."
-The margin for error in any college football game is razor thin. It takes only an inch in either direction in order for a potentially great play to turn into a costly mistake.
Boston College outgained Georgia Tech, 352-240, in total yardage. They split the time of possession evenly with about 30 minutes apiece, and both teams went 6-14 on third down. They nearly ran the same amount of offensive plays, with GT running 58 to BC's 54.
It's incredible to me that a game featuring 112 plays boils down mistakes on maybe four plays, especially if those plays are spaced out of four quarters. It can make the pill hard to swallow when a game was as evenly played as possible, with the difference coming on the correctable mistakes of a team playing in its first game of the season.
Steve Addazio mentioned earlier in the week how a team playing in its first game is very different from how they'll play even the next week because there's so many weird things that can happen in an opening game. One of those weird things is when an option running team not known for ever passing completes a pass against arguably the nation's best defense on fourth-and-20.
"The only thing is to win the game," said Addazio. "It's not okay to say we were great on 36-out-of-40 plays, except for those four; those four could cost you the game. Whatever the side of the ball you're talking about, or special teams: it doesn't make any difference. The tale of this game was two missed opportunities in the red zone, two field goals missed, and about four plays on defense. Those four plays are costly plays that got them out of three third-and-longs and one fourth-and-20. That was the story with those four plays. So you take those two things and put them together, it cost us the game. Because, really, in between all that, we played pretty well. But we didn't win."
It doesn't make it easier to swallow, but these are correctable mistakes that ultimately will be something to work on as the team progresses and moves forward.
-There is something in the database now to identify what to work on as BC moves forward towards their intrastate game with Massachusetts. There's mistakes to correct, but there's positives to build on. And there's something to be excited about when BC plays the Minutemen at Gillette Stadium next week.
The offense amassed more yards on Saturday than they did against any FBS team they played last year. Jon Hilliman had a major impact running downhill, breaking off a 73-yard touchdown scamper, making defenders miss while enjoying a couple of great holes from his offensive line. Jimmy Lowery's initial block opened up a solid first hole, but Chris Lindstrom provided the highlight, driving his block forward to plow the road for his tailback.
Patrick Towles, playing his first game for the Eagles, finished 11-for-17 passing, including a perfect 5-for-5 in the third quarter, while showing off his quickness as a runner.Â
Charlie Callinan's four catches for 92 yards included 54 yards on one play, and Jeff Smith's three catches for 26 yards showed off the hard work that comes with transitioning to a different position in the offseason.
"We've got a great group of guys," said Addazio. "It's going to affect them (postgame). We are all hurting. But big picture wise, we get back to work at home, get ready to play UMass. Yeah these things hurt you. They hurt you. They're body blows, but we are tougher than that. This game is so unpredictable itwill slap you right in the face.
"(The players) know the tale on that game," he continued. "We have to go back. We have to get better and fix it. The system is important. That was two teams battling each other in an ACC tilt on opening day. That was a clean-played game. Really, for an opening day in the pouring rain, in Europe, it was really a well-played game on both sides of the ball. Those are the facts. So anybody can pick a negative crumb they want and run with it. That's fine, but there was a lot of good stuff there."
The excitement and enthusiasm of the first game of the 2016 season ended in disappointment on Saturday as Georgia Tech used a last-minute drive to skate by the Eagles, 17-14, from Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. It was a decidedly anticlimactic finish to a months-long buildup to the opening game of both the regular season and the ACC slate of contests.
Any time there's a loss on the schedule, especially one that comes in the closing minutes or seconds, there's a tendency to react and try to figure out what went wrong. No matter how well the team played in any respect, it clearly wasn't enough to pick up a W.
But after the initial disappointment subsides, there's some lessons to take away from the defeat on the Emerald Isle:
-Both of the teams on the field are substantially better than last year's record would indicate. The Yellow Jackets, ravaged by injuries a year ago, brought a core roster to Ireland that won the Orange Bowl two seasons ago. BC went toe-to-toe with that core for the entire game. It took a last-minute drive to beat a defense that was solid all day long.
"A lot of good things happened in that game and we had some decent downs in what we wanted to do offensive," said Boston College head coach Steve Addazio. "We showed a lot of improvement. But at the end of the day we didn't make the plays we had to make in the end to close that game out and they did. I like the way the team played. We played physical. We played hard on both sides. We just need to learn how to close that game out."
"We had a hard time running the football offensively," said Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson. "We had a hard time blocking them up front and we had some key missed assignments. They're a very good defensive football team and we knew that going in, and we did some hair-brain things like forget to go into motion, guys would block the wrong guys. We missed tons of reads on the option stuff. When you do that against a good team, you get behind down a distance and it's hard to come back."
-The margin for error in any college football game is razor thin. It takes only an inch in either direction in order for a potentially great play to turn into a costly mistake.
Boston College outgained Georgia Tech, 352-240, in total yardage. They split the time of possession evenly with about 30 minutes apiece, and both teams went 6-14 on third down. They nearly ran the same amount of offensive plays, with GT running 58 to BC's 54.
It's incredible to me that a game featuring 112 plays boils down mistakes on maybe four plays, especially if those plays are spaced out of four quarters. It can make the pill hard to swallow when a game was as evenly played as possible, with the difference coming on the correctable mistakes of a team playing in its first game of the season.
Steve Addazio mentioned earlier in the week how a team playing in its first game is very different from how they'll play even the next week because there's so many weird things that can happen in an opening game. One of those weird things is when an option running team not known for ever passing completes a pass against arguably the nation's best defense on fourth-and-20.
"The only thing is to win the game," said Addazio. "It's not okay to say we were great on 36-out-of-40 plays, except for those four; those four could cost you the game. Whatever the side of the ball you're talking about, or special teams: it doesn't make any difference. The tale of this game was two missed opportunities in the red zone, two field goals missed, and about four plays on defense. Those four plays are costly plays that got them out of three third-and-longs and one fourth-and-20. That was the story with those four plays. So you take those two things and put them together, it cost us the game. Because, really, in between all that, we played pretty well. But we didn't win."
It doesn't make it easier to swallow, but these are correctable mistakes that ultimately will be something to work on as the team progresses and moves forward.
-There is something in the database now to identify what to work on as BC moves forward towards their intrastate game with Massachusetts. There's mistakes to correct, but there's positives to build on. And there's something to be excited about when BC plays the Minutemen at Gillette Stadium next week.
The offense amassed more yards on Saturday than they did against any FBS team they played last year. Jon Hilliman had a major impact running downhill, breaking off a 73-yard touchdown scamper, making defenders miss while enjoying a couple of great holes from his offensive line. Jimmy Lowery's initial block opened up a solid first hole, but Chris Lindstrom provided the highlight, driving his block forward to plow the road for his tailback.
Patrick Towles, playing his first game for the Eagles, finished 11-for-17 passing, including a perfect 5-for-5 in the third quarter, while showing off his quickness as a runner.Â
Charlie Callinan's four catches for 92 yards included 54 yards on one play, and Jeff Smith's three catches for 26 yards showed off the hard work that comes with transitioning to a different position in the offseason.
"We've got a great group of guys," said Addazio. "It's going to affect them (postgame). We are all hurting. But big picture wise, we get back to work at home, get ready to play UMass. Yeah these things hurt you. They hurt you. They're body blows, but we are tougher than that. This game is so unpredictable itwill slap you right in the face.
"(The players) know the tale on that game," he continued. "We have to go back. We have to get better and fix it. The system is important. That was two teams battling each other in an ACC tilt on opening day. That was a clean-played game. Really, for an opening day in the pouring rain, in Europe, it was really a well-played game on both sides of the ball. Those are the facts. So anybody can pick a negative crumb they want and run with it. That's fine, but there was a lot of good stuff there."
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