Four Downs: NC State
October 07, 2018 | Football, #ForBoston Files
BC nearly pulled off a historic rally against the No. 23 Wolfpack on Saturday
With two minutes remaining in the third quarter of Saturday's football game, No. 23 NC State led Boston College by a 28-3 margin. The Wolfpack was all but assured of winning the game, and the Eagles would travel home with a bag of questions. That deficit, with that amount of time left, would take a perfect quarter and something of a miraculous comeback.
Stop me if you heard this one before.
It had to be something of a Massachusetts thing, but Boston College, with barely 17 minutes of clock time remaining, nearly executed its biggest comeback in program history, rallying to within five points of NC State. Unlike their New England Patriot counterparts, however, the Eagles failed to overcome the deficit, losing 28-23Â in Raleigh on Saturday afternoon.
"I'm proud of the way our kids played," head coach Steve Addazio said. "I thought we played hard. I thought we were a team that battled until the end and put ourselves in a position to have a chance to win the game after coming off of an atrocious first half."
The game itself was an exercise of insanity where there's almost too much to unpack. On the one hand, BC dug itself into a sinkhole chasm before it rallied in the game's last 17 minutes. NC State had gone on a nine-minute drive to open the second half and controlled the clock for 13 minutes in the third. The game was a blowout, and hope was, in a word, lost.
But the Eagles nearly pulled off a miracle comeback on the road against a nationally-ranked opponent. They scored the last 20 points and dominated the fourth quarter, and they achieved the balance that didn't exist in the first 75% of the game. It came at the expense of a team proving itself worthy of a national ranking. NC State combined an underrated defense opposite an NFL-ready offense, and the Eagles exploded in all three phases down the stretch. If not for a couple of questionable calls at the end of the game, BC would have assuredly completed the rally.
"Early in the game, we had wide open opportunities that we were not able to connect on, one in the end zone and several that were in the midfield, deep balls," Addazio said. "You've got to be able to make those plays. We didn't. On the flip side, they did, so we dug ourselves a sizeable hole in the first half. (But) I thought we fought our way back out of that hole. (The players) put themselves, on the road (and) after an unbelievable half, to come back and have a chance to win it in the end."
The nuances of this game are almost immeasurable. There was some good offset by the bad, and the bad is tempered by the good. The overall performance probably sits somewhere in the middle. Either way, there's plenty to learn about this football team after it walked off Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
*****
First Down: The First Half
The best way to stop the NC State attack is to keep it off the field. Ryan Finley is an NFL-caliber quarterback, and the rushing attack started a breakthrough last week with the emergence of Ricky Person, Jr. Beating the Wolfpack would require, then, good situational football to get off the field in key spots combined with an offense capable of taking time off the clock. Unfortunately for BC, that didn't happen, even though there were good, individual plays.
BC forced two interceptions, but the offense couldn't get traction and only held the ball for 10 minutes. It went 0-of-7 on third downs and gave the ball right back to NC State. That created more opportunities for the Wolfpack, which summarily went 4-of-6 on third downs. Finley might have had the two picks, but he also had 16 completions for 193 yards while the rushing attack piled up 110 yards on 24 carries.
"We have to do a far better job in our run defense than we're doing," Steve Addazio said. "We've got to a far better job on offense in third downs so that we can stay on the field and keep the defense off the field. We created turnovers, again. We didn't capitalize enough on the turnovers that we had."
It begat a vicious cycle. BC had seven drives in the first half, but it couldn't prevent NC State from having six. The Wolfpack put together a 13-play drive for 71 yards over seven minutes in the first quarter but it ended in Zach Allen's second career interception. The next drive ended with another interception after four plays ate two minutes off the board. In between, though, the Eagles had two three-and-outs for a combined three minutes.
It led to NC State driving for 3:32 over seven plays for a touchdown, then another 11-play drive after a BC punt. Likewise, in the third quarter, a 16-play drive over 10 minute yielded nothing after a blocked field goal, but a three-and-out for BC led to a quick-strike touchdown for the Wolfpack.
"The kids are playing hard, they believe in what they're doing and are playing together," NC State head coach Dave Doeren said. "They don't care who makes the play or who gets the credit, they just play hard and they bought into this game plan. A lot of time went into it - didn't sleep a lot last week preparing for what BC does. They're a really good offense, and we played pretty darn good."
The stats provided a clear explanation. The rushing game had 50-plus yards, but it lacked AJ Dillon, who didn't make the trip because of his ankle injury. Anthony Brown was 6-of-14 for 54 yards, 25 of which came on one completion to Kobay White. He had missed Jeff Smith on downfield throws, and his pass to Tommy Sweeney nearly ended up with an interception at the goal line when BC kicked its field goal. In short, the first half was everything BC didn't want to happen.Â
*****
Second Down: The Comeback
The comeback began late in the third. NC State controlled the entire third quarter clock, but the defense came up with big stops to hold the Wolfpack to only one score. Then, as time started winding down, BC started connecting on the plays it failed on in the first half. Anthony Brown rushed from midfield to the NC State red zone, which shocked the Wolfpack defense enough for Ben Glines to run it in on a play where Jon Baker broke out and pancake blocked the road to the end zone.
The touchdown juiced up the BC offense, which started connecting on the big plays. Anthony Brown missed two big throws to Jeff Smith in that first half, including one in the end zone, but he hit them all in the fourth quarter.Â
He opened up two drives by completing open passes on the deep ball. A 46-yard pass to Michael Walker set up an 11-yard catch-and-run touchdown by Glines, and he hit Smith for a 35-yard bomb to set up a 21-yard pass to Walker to set up another goal line opportunity for Glines. By the time the game ended, Brown looked every bit as what the Eagles could have hoped for, and he led the offense on a charge that put the Wolfpack defense on roller skates. Later, the Eagles had an opportunity to take the lead, but a 22-player pile-up at the goal line ended in a fumble for Glines instead of a whistle for stopped forward progress.
"We found some accuracy, and that's a good thing," Addazio said. "We made a few plays early, but we missed a few plays. You get in these games, and it's usually a handful of plays that dictate a lot more than everyone realizes. It's like that first drive. We go down there and have a chance to stick it in for a touchdown. I thought we found a rhythm in the second half. I thought we adjusted our game without AJ, and I thought we hit a little rhythm. I would put that squarely on me because I would say that we needed to find that adjustment sooner."
That offensive success allowed the defense to play with more confidence because it limited NC State's opportunities. The sizeable lead allowed the Wolfpack to play ball control, and Finley only threw four passes in the entire fourth quarter, one of which iced the game on a third and short. The offense instead ran 16 rushing plays, including 10 carries in a row down the stretch, but only gained 42 yards, and it, in turn only gained four first downs. John Lamot also caused a fumble on Person, which the Eagles summarily recovered.
Contrast that with the third quarter, where NC State had 11 first downs and attempted nine passes.
*****
Halftime Hits
-I find it incredibly hard to blame referees for a win or loss, so I'm not going to do that. That said, I personally did not agree with the two most obvious calls down the stretch. Ben Glines' fumble at the goal line should have blown dead for forward progress, and I felt the spot on BC's fourth quarter stop against Reggie Gallaspy was incorrect. However, I do not ever cast blame on officials for a loss. It doesn't reflect anything from the game, nor did it take away, in my opinion, from the outcome.
-The last three BC-NC State games have now been decided by a touchdown or less. There is shared history for the schools when head coach Tom O'Brien left Chestnut Hill for Raleigh, and the matchup is now 8-6 in favor of the Eagles since the switch to the ACC. I think it might be safe to call this a rivalry.
-Kevin Bletzer's blocked field goal was the first for BC since Connor Wujciak against Virginia Tech in 2014.
-This was BC's first game against a ranked opponent all season. It will likely face another one in a couple of weeks when it plays Miami, and as many as three ranked teams remain on the schedule, depending on results.
*****
Third Quarter: Special Teams
The special teams unit shed its maligning mistakes from the past couple of weeks and had a monster day against the Wolfpack. A blocked punt for a touchdown was the biggest highlight, but a blocked defensive field goal, a made offensive field goal from a tough angle and a fourth quarter kickoff return brought the unit through one of its better weeks of the season.
"Special teams blocked a field goal," Steve Addazio said. "We kicked a field goal. We blocked a punt. We had a big return out of Mike Walker. I thought we did enough on special teams to give ourselves a great opportunity in that football game."
In the kicking game, Colton Lichtenberg's 33-yard field in the first quarter helped put BC on the board for the first time on the day. The left hash mark kick required push back to the right, but he split the uprights for BC's first made field goal longer than 30 yards on the season. Danny Longman, meanwhile, kicked three of his four kickoffs for touchbacks, averaging over 60 yards per boot, and Grant Carlson averaged over 44 yards on punts, including one that finished inside the 20.
*****
Fourth Quarter: NC State
Prior to last season, NC State was a consistent seven-win team. It would win three or four conference games, finish in the middle of the ACC Atlantic Division and go to a bowl game. Chuck Amato won 11 games in 2002, but the Wolfpack never seemed to shift up or down. That changed last year after 6-1 start.
The Wolfpack are now 5-0 for the first time since '02 and 2-0 for only the fifth time since 2000. The offense is humming along, and the defense, which lost its entire front four to the NFL last year, didn't miss a beat in replacing its line.
"I think they are playing like they have something to prove right now," Ryan Finley said. "They are playing as a unit. I think that's one thing you can say about our defense is that they play together, and they are smart. They play really hard. It's exciting on Sundays when we go in and watch the film as a team and we watch the defense."
The Wolfpack are indicative of how hard the ACC Atlantic Division is becoming. Two teams (No. 4 Clemson and the No. 23 Wolfpack) are both undefeated and nationally ranked. BC and Syracuse are both 4-2, and Florida State, a team that seems to churn out NFL-ready talent, is 3-3. Nobody could sleep on Wake Forest, and the Deacons are 3-3. Louisville is looking for its first ACC win and is 2-4 on the season, but the Cardinals just had a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback for the past two seasons.
The same goes for the Coastal Division. Miami is 5-1 and nationally ranked, and Virginia Tech was ranked this past week, though a loss to No. 6 Notre Dame didn't help. Duke has been ranked, and there's still threats coming from Pittsburgh, Virginia and Georgia Tech.
Of the 14 teams in the conference, only two are under .500 as conference play gets kicked up in earnest.
The ACC is the epitome of how a team can be one or two plays away from one or two extra wins, and those one or two wins can elevate a team from third to second in its division. But getting those one or two plays is nearly impossible because of the talent level that exists in the conference. It makes the second half of Saturday's game look more resilient, even as it might make the first half more disappointing.
*****
Point After: Louisville
The Cardinals are next up for the Eagles in Boston on Saturday after dropping their third straight game this past weekend.
Georgia Tech ran all over Louisville at Cardinals Stadium, amassing 542 yards of rushing en route to a 66-31 victory. The game featured two passing attempts by the Yellow Jackets because of the triple option, which went for eight yards per rush on 65 carries. Quarterback TaQuon Marshall was especially effective, gaining 175 yards and two touchdowns. The Jackets opened up a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and led 31-17 at the half as part of the blowout.
Game time is set for 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and can be seen on the ACC Network's Raycom Sports Network, televised locally on NESN.
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Stop me if you heard this one before.
It had to be something of a Massachusetts thing, but Boston College, with barely 17 minutes of clock time remaining, nearly executed its biggest comeback in program history, rallying to within five points of NC State. Unlike their New England Patriot counterparts, however, the Eagles failed to overcome the deficit, losing 28-23Â in Raleigh on Saturday afternoon.
"I'm proud of the way our kids played," head coach Steve Addazio said. "I thought we played hard. I thought we were a team that battled until the end and put ourselves in a position to have a chance to win the game after coming off of an atrocious first half."
The game itself was an exercise of insanity where there's almost too much to unpack. On the one hand, BC dug itself into a sinkhole chasm before it rallied in the game's last 17 minutes. NC State had gone on a nine-minute drive to open the second half and controlled the clock for 13 minutes in the third. The game was a blowout, and hope was, in a word, lost.
But the Eagles nearly pulled off a miracle comeback on the road against a nationally-ranked opponent. They scored the last 20 points and dominated the fourth quarter, and they achieved the balance that didn't exist in the first 75% of the game. It came at the expense of a team proving itself worthy of a national ranking. NC State combined an underrated defense opposite an NFL-ready offense, and the Eagles exploded in all three phases down the stretch. If not for a couple of questionable calls at the end of the game, BC would have assuredly completed the rally.
"Early in the game, we had wide open opportunities that we were not able to connect on, one in the end zone and several that were in the midfield, deep balls," Addazio said. "You've got to be able to make those plays. We didn't. On the flip side, they did, so we dug ourselves a sizeable hole in the first half. (But) I thought we fought our way back out of that hole. (The players) put themselves, on the road (and) after an unbelievable half, to come back and have a chance to win it in the end."
The nuances of this game are almost immeasurable. There was some good offset by the bad, and the bad is tempered by the good. The overall performance probably sits somewhere in the middle. Either way, there's plenty to learn about this football team after it walked off Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
*****
First Down: The First Half
The best way to stop the NC State attack is to keep it off the field. Ryan Finley is an NFL-caliber quarterback, and the rushing attack started a breakthrough last week with the emergence of Ricky Person, Jr. Beating the Wolfpack would require, then, good situational football to get off the field in key spots combined with an offense capable of taking time off the clock. Unfortunately for BC, that didn't happen, even though there were good, individual plays.
BC forced two interceptions, but the offense couldn't get traction and only held the ball for 10 minutes. It went 0-of-7 on third downs and gave the ball right back to NC State. That created more opportunities for the Wolfpack, which summarily went 4-of-6 on third downs. Finley might have had the two picks, but he also had 16 completions for 193 yards while the rushing attack piled up 110 yards on 24 carries.
"We have to do a far better job in our run defense than we're doing," Steve Addazio said. "We've got to a far better job on offense in third downs so that we can stay on the field and keep the defense off the field. We created turnovers, again. We didn't capitalize enough on the turnovers that we had."
It begat a vicious cycle. BC had seven drives in the first half, but it couldn't prevent NC State from having six. The Wolfpack put together a 13-play drive for 71 yards over seven minutes in the first quarter but it ended in Zach Allen's second career interception. The next drive ended with another interception after four plays ate two minutes off the board. In between, though, the Eagles had two three-and-outs for a combined three minutes.
It led to NC State driving for 3:32 over seven plays for a touchdown, then another 11-play drive after a BC punt. Likewise, in the third quarter, a 16-play drive over 10 minute yielded nothing after a blocked field goal, but a three-and-out for BC led to a quick-strike touchdown for the Wolfpack.
"The kids are playing hard, they believe in what they're doing and are playing together," NC State head coach Dave Doeren said. "They don't care who makes the play or who gets the credit, they just play hard and they bought into this game plan. A lot of time went into it - didn't sleep a lot last week preparing for what BC does. They're a really good offense, and we played pretty darn good."
The stats provided a clear explanation. The rushing game had 50-plus yards, but it lacked AJ Dillon, who didn't make the trip because of his ankle injury. Anthony Brown was 6-of-14 for 54 yards, 25 of which came on one completion to Kobay White. He had missed Jeff Smith on downfield throws, and his pass to Tommy Sweeney nearly ended up with an interception at the goal line when BC kicked its field goal. In short, the first half was everything BC didn't want to happen.Â
*****
Second Down: The Comeback
The comeback began late in the third. NC State controlled the entire third quarter clock, but the defense came up with big stops to hold the Wolfpack to only one score. Then, as time started winding down, BC started connecting on the plays it failed on in the first half. Anthony Brown rushed from midfield to the NC State red zone, which shocked the Wolfpack defense enough for Ben Glines to run it in on a play where Jon Baker broke out and pancake blocked the road to the end zone.
The touchdown juiced up the BC offense, which started connecting on the big plays. Anthony Brown missed two big throws to Jeff Smith in that first half, including one in the end zone, but he hit them all in the fourth quarter.Â
He opened up two drives by completing open passes on the deep ball. A 46-yard pass to Michael Walker set up an 11-yard catch-and-run touchdown by Glines, and he hit Smith for a 35-yard bomb to set up a 21-yard pass to Walker to set up another goal line opportunity for Glines. By the time the game ended, Brown looked every bit as what the Eagles could have hoped for, and he led the offense on a charge that put the Wolfpack defense on roller skates. Later, the Eagles had an opportunity to take the lead, but a 22-player pile-up at the goal line ended in a fumble for Glines instead of a whistle for stopped forward progress.
"We found some accuracy, and that's a good thing," Addazio said. "We made a few plays early, but we missed a few plays. You get in these games, and it's usually a handful of plays that dictate a lot more than everyone realizes. It's like that first drive. We go down there and have a chance to stick it in for a touchdown. I thought we found a rhythm in the second half. I thought we adjusted our game without AJ, and I thought we hit a little rhythm. I would put that squarely on me because I would say that we needed to find that adjustment sooner."
That offensive success allowed the defense to play with more confidence because it limited NC State's opportunities. The sizeable lead allowed the Wolfpack to play ball control, and Finley only threw four passes in the entire fourth quarter, one of which iced the game on a third and short. The offense instead ran 16 rushing plays, including 10 carries in a row down the stretch, but only gained 42 yards, and it, in turn only gained four first downs. John Lamot also caused a fumble on Person, which the Eagles summarily recovered.
Contrast that with the third quarter, where NC State had 11 first downs and attempted nine passes.
*****
Halftime Hits
-I find it incredibly hard to blame referees for a win or loss, so I'm not going to do that. That said, I personally did not agree with the two most obvious calls down the stretch. Ben Glines' fumble at the goal line should have blown dead for forward progress, and I felt the spot on BC's fourth quarter stop against Reggie Gallaspy was incorrect. However, I do not ever cast blame on officials for a loss. It doesn't reflect anything from the game, nor did it take away, in my opinion, from the outcome.
-The last three BC-NC State games have now been decided by a touchdown or less. There is shared history for the schools when head coach Tom O'Brien left Chestnut Hill for Raleigh, and the matchup is now 8-6 in favor of the Eagles since the switch to the ACC. I think it might be safe to call this a rivalry.
-Kevin Bletzer's blocked field goal was the first for BC since Connor Wujciak against Virginia Tech in 2014.
-This was BC's first game against a ranked opponent all season. It will likely face another one in a couple of weeks when it plays Miami, and as many as three ranked teams remain on the schedule, depending on results.
*****
Third Quarter: Special Teams
The special teams unit shed its maligning mistakes from the past couple of weeks and had a monster day against the Wolfpack. A blocked punt for a touchdown was the biggest highlight, but a blocked defensive field goal, a made offensive field goal from a tough angle and a fourth quarter kickoff return brought the unit through one of its better weeks of the season.
"Special teams blocked a field goal," Steve Addazio said. "We kicked a field goal. We blocked a punt. We had a big return out of Mike Walker. I thought we did enough on special teams to give ourselves a great opportunity in that football game."
In the kicking game, Colton Lichtenberg's 33-yard field in the first quarter helped put BC on the board for the first time on the day. The left hash mark kick required push back to the right, but he split the uprights for BC's first made field goal longer than 30 yards on the season. Danny Longman, meanwhile, kicked three of his four kickoffs for touchbacks, averaging over 60 yards per boot, and Grant Carlson averaged over 44 yards on punts, including one that finished inside the 20.
*****
Fourth Quarter: NC State
Prior to last season, NC State was a consistent seven-win team. It would win three or four conference games, finish in the middle of the ACC Atlantic Division and go to a bowl game. Chuck Amato won 11 games in 2002, but the Wolfpack never seemed to shift up or down. That changed last year after 6-1 start.
The Wolfpack are now 5-0 for the first time since '02 and 2-0 for only the fifth time since 2000. The offense is humming along, and the defense, which lost its entire front four to the NFL last year, didn't miss a beat in replacing its line.
"I think they are playing like they have something to prove right now," Ryan Finley said. "They are playing as a unit. I think that's one thing you can say about our defense is that they play together, and they are smart. They play really hard. It's exciting on Sundays when we go in and watch the film as a team and we watch the defense."
The Wolfpack are indicative of how hard the ACC Atlantic Division is becoming. Two teams (No. 4 Clemson and the No. 23 Wolfpack) are both undefeated and nationally ranked. BC and Syracuse are both 4-2, and Florida State, a team that seems to churn out NFL-ready talent, is 3-3. Nobody could sleep on Wake Forest, and the Deacons are 3-3. Louisville is looking for its first ACC win and is 2-4 on the season, but the Cardinals just had a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback for the past two seasons.
The same goes for the Coastal Division. Miami is 5-1 and nationally ranked, and Virginia Tech was ranked this past week, though a loss to No. 6 Notre Dame didn't help. Duke has been ranked, and there's still threats coming from Pittsburgh, Virginia and Georgia Tech.
Of the 14 teams in the conference, only two are under .500 as conference play gets kicked up in earnest.
The ACC is the epitome of how a team can be one or two plays away from one or two extra wins, and those one or two wins can elevate a team from third to second in its division. But getting those one or two plays is nearly impossible because of the talent level that exists in the conference. It makes the second half of Saturday's game look more resilient, even as it might make the first half more disappointing.
*****
Point After: Louisville
The Cardinals are next up for the Eagles in Boston on Saturday after dropping their third straight game this past weekend.
Georgia Tech ran all over Louisville at Cardinals Stadium, amassing 542 yards of rushing en route to a 66-31 victory. The game featured two passing attempts by the Yellow Jackets because of the triple option, which went for eight yards per rush on 65 carries. Quarterback TaQuon Marshall was especially effective, gaining 175 yards and two touchdowns. The Jackets opened up a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and led 31-17 at the half as part of the blowout.
Game time is set for 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and can be seen on the ACC Network's Raycom Sports Network, televised locally on NESN.
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