Boston College Athletics
Four Downs: Purdue
September 23, 2018 | Football, #ForBoston Files
Purdue opened a 23-7 lead in the first half and never looked back
Boston College head coach Steve Addazio never minced words about his team's objectives for Saturday's game against Purdue. He knew the Boilermakers possessed a dynamic passing attack, and he openly talked about the need to keep it off the field. To do so, BC intended to control the clock through balance, something achievable in the next step of developing both the run and throw games.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, though, that never happened. Purdue held AJ Dillon to 59 yards rushing and quarterback Anthony Brown threw four interceptions as the Boilermakers rolled to a 30-13 victory at home.
"They came out and made every play they had to make," Addazio said. "On the flip side, we did not. We had to get first downs, and six out of seven drives had no first downs in the first half. We did not make plays when they were available and never got in sync."
With BC's offense limited, the defense fell under attack from a relentless Purdue offense. The Boilermakers scored on four of their seven drives and posted four drives of three minutes or more in the first half. They went into the locker room with 19 minutes of clock time and combined it with tilted field position to take a 23-7 lead at the break.
"It was all over the field," Addazio said. "There were times we made some spectacular plays with the defense rushing the quarterback, and there were times we were right where we needed to be. But (Purdue) created momentum. We had done that fairly consistently over the last nine or ten games (dating back to last year). I need to go back and look at what exactly happened (on Saturday)."
So much of the BC mindset is predicated on the ability to avoid what happened. The offense plays with tempo as a way to establish rhythm. That rhythm helps achieve regular first downs within a mentality that moving the chains eventually leads to an opponent's end zone. It taxes opposing defenses and keeps opposing offenses on the sideline.
Opposing offenses then have to play aggressively, which in turn plays into an attacking BC defense, creating a cycle for success. Failing to establish the cycle early, however, doomed the Eagles against Purdue. It meant BC's offense went looking for big plays instead of playing to its rhythm, which in turn kept it disjointed.
"It's very uncharacteristic of us in every way, shape or form," Addazio said. "I don't want to take away from Purdue, but I know we're better than what we saw. I don't know what that was. That's one of those games when you're on the sideline and you ask what else could go wrong. I don't think we played poorly up front, but somehow, someway, we shot ourselves in the foot when making the plays to make explosions to keep the ball moving."
The good news for BC is that it's only one game, and all of this is fixable. One loss doesn't doom an entire season, though it likely will eliminate the Eagles from the national rankings. It hurts, but there's another week of preparation ahead and another game to fix things before the conference schedule starts in earnest.
Here's some else of what can be taken away from Saturday's loss at Ross-Ade Stadium:
*****
First Down: Boston College offense
Anthony Brown definitely had a day to forget at quarterback. He only threw for 96 yards against Purdue, and three of his four interceptions came on consecutive drives in the third quarter when BC attempted to reclaim lost territory.
"I just have to execute better and make the throws that I have to make," Brown said. "Four turnovers is not acceptable anywhere. It doesn't matter who you're playing. Today was Purdue's day. They were the better team."
Brown's overall day overshadowed his success at moving the ball in the first quarter. He completed four passes for 33 yards on the Eagles' second drive and finished with a 15-yard strike for a score to tight end Tommy Sweeney. It tied the game at 7-7 at that point and, combined with some timely runs by both AJ Dillon and Jeff Smith, had gave BC optimistic hope. But things never materialized beyond that.
"There were plenty of opportunities," Steve Addazio said. "But we pressed too hard and looked for bigger plays when we had smaller plays to keep the chains moving. It's about getting first downs. First downs get you home."
The quarterback is always the lightning rod of the unit, but being out of sync falls on everyone, including the coaching staff. Brown or Dillon take the biggest hits in their statistics, but it's a shared responsibility that begins at the top with a trickle-down effect.
"We have to help Anthony Brown earlier in that game," Addazio said. "When things don't go right early for a quarterback, we have to help him and get him started. That's my fault. We could've done a better job of getting him started, and that didn't happen. I would put that on me. I felt the same way in the run game, that we couldn't get it started.
"If you can't get first down, our style of offense can't get going with tempo. We wanted to go supersonic fast late in the game, and we went down the field. We didn't get it done early, so we have to go back and look at it."
"We didn't have momentum going," Brown said. "We didn't have enough execution period. I put my teammates in horrible positions. We have to go back, look at the film, see what happened and get ready for Temple."
It's important to note that a team is never as bad as when it plays poorly, just as it's never as good as when everyone succeeds. Saturday's loss isn't what anyone wanted to see, but there's another week of preparation ahead where BC can fix these mistakes moving forward.
*****
Second Down: National Rankings
The entire week felt like something of a coronation for the Eagles after they returned to the national rankings for the first time in 10 years. The mentality didn't change inside the locker room, though, because BC's players recognized the number put a target on their collective back.
"I was worried about (the distraction), but I thought we had as good a week as we had around here," Steve Addazio said. "These kids were locked, had a great psyche, and that's not what we saw on the field. It wasn't a lack of effort. They had great effort. It just wasn't good play. Purdue was just clearly the better team, and we clearly didn't make any plays on this field on this day. It's my responsibility, and I have to get it fixed. This team wasn't fat and happy about themselves."
It's a broken record at this point, but rankings in week three doesn't change the mentality inside the locker room. It's also not an indication of the team's spirit or future aspirations. If the voters choose to drop BC from the poll, it doesn't mean it can't claw back up. In 2008, the Eagles were ranked No. 23 when they lost to North Carolina. It knocked them out of the polls, but they returned a few weeks later before the season finale against Maryland.
The same thing happened in 2006 when BC entered the rankings after beating No. 18 Clemson in Week Two. After beating BYU, the No. 20 Eagles lost to NC State to fall out of the polls, but they returned three weeks later.
"The team is angry (about the loss)," Addazio said. "I'd say angry. (They are) a bunch of guys that know we're more capable of what we saw. They're angry with a lot of resolve, as it should be."
"We left some plays on the field that is uncharacteristic of us," Will Harris said. "We'll be back. I wouldn't expect to see this out of us ever again."
*****
Halftime Hits
-There is always fun to be had in college football traditions, and Purdue had its own brand on display on Saturday afternoon, most visibly the Big Bass Drum and the Boilermaker Special. The drum stands 10 feet tall and had a four-member crew tending to its frame. It's known as the "world's largest drum."
-The Boilermaker Special, on the other hand, is a locomotive that leads the football team onto the field and an ode to Purdue's engineering reputation. The train is actually the official mascot of the Purdue athletics department.
-Maybe it's the colors? The loss dropped BC to 5-4 against teams that wear black and yellow/gold as its colors in the Steve Addazio era, but BC is only 6-8 since the start of the decade.
*****
Third Quarter: Purdue
Purdue proved its offense has budding superstars with quarterback David Blough and wide receiver Rondale Moore. The two connected on a 70-yard touchdown pass that was upheld by replay after Moore's knee appeared to touch the turf. They linked up for 110 yards as Blough finished with 296 yard and three touchdowns to lead the Boilermakers to an overdue first victory.
"It's always tough and no fun when you lose," head coach Jeff Brohm said. "You want to feel bad. You want to be ticked off and angry, and you want (losing) to cause you to say we're not going to do this anymore. (Today) was a great overall effort. I'm very proud of our football team."
The win changes the dynamic of the Purdue season, and it underscored how hungry the Boilermakers entered Saturday. It proves the Boilermakers can get over the hump, and it changes the dynamic in a wide open Big Ten West Division. It doesn't, however, change how critical each game is moving forward.
Purdue heads to Nebraska next week to play a team sitting with a surprising 0-3 record. In two weeks, it draws Illinois, which is on a two-game slide of its own after getting blown out by Penn State. Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin all remain on the schedule as well, and all of those teams are above .500. Factor in games against Ohio State and Michigan State, as well as the Old Oaken Bucket against Indiana, and it shows how huge Saturday's win over BC really becomes for bowl eligibility.
"We knew Purdue was backed against the wall, and they came out swinging," Steve Addazio said.
*****
Fourth Down: Temple
BC now heads into a week of regrouping and preparation before it plays on Saturday against a Temple team making a fast turnaround after a disappointing start to the season. They're now 2-2 after beating both Maryland and Tulsa.
There's obviously a lot of meat to pick through in a BC-Temple matchup, but the Owls evened their record this past Thursday by winning their first conference game of the year. Ryquell Armstead ran for 108 yards and a touchdown, and the defense scored twice with a pick six and a fumble scoop-and-score against the Golden Hurricane.
The game is scheduled for 12 p.m. and will be seen on television on ESPNU.
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Unfortunately for the Eagles, though, that never happened. Purdue held AJ Dillon to 59 yards rushing and quarterback Anthony Brown threw four interceptions as the Boilermakers rolled to a 30-13 victory at home.
"They came out and made every play they had to make," Addazio said. "On the flip side, we did not. We had to get first downs, and six out of seven drives had no first downs in the first half. We did not make plays when they were available and never got in sync."
With BC's offense limited, the defense fell under attack from a relentless Purdue offense. The Boilermakers scored on four of their seven drives and posted four drives of three minutes or more in the first half. They went into the locker room with 19 minutes of clock time and combined it with tilted field position to take a 23-7 lead at the break.
"It was all over the field," Addazio said. "There were times we made some spectacular plays with the defense rushing the quarterback, and there were times we were right where we needed to be. But (Purdue) created momentum. We had done that fairly consistently over the last nine or ten games (dating back to last year). I need to go back and look at what exactly happened (on Saturday)."
So much of the BC mindset is predicated on the ability to avoid what happened. The offense plays with tempo as a way to establish rhythm. That rhythm helps achieve regular first downs within a mentality that moving the chains eventually leads to an opponent's end zone. It taxes opposing defenses and keeps opposing offenses on the sideline.
Opposing offenses then have to play aggressively, which in turn plays into an attacking BC defense, creating a cycle for success. Failing to establish the cycle early, however, doomed the Eagles against Purdue. It meant BC's offense went looking for big plays instead of playing to its rhythm, which in turn kept it disjointed.
"It's very uncharacteristic of us in every way, shape or form," Addazio said. "I don't want to take away from Purdue, but I know we're better than what we saw. I don't know what that was. That's one of those games when you're on the sideline and you ask what else could go wrong. I don't think we played poorly up front, but somehow, someway, we shot ourselves in the foot when making the plays to make explosions to keep the ball moving."
The good news for BC is that it's only one game, and all of this is fixable. One loss doesn't doom an entire season, though it likely will eliminate the Eagles from the national rankings. It hurts, but there's another week of preparation ahead and another game to fix things before the conference schedule starts in earnest.
Here's some else of what can be taken away from Saturday's loss at Ross-Ade Stadium:
*****
First Down: Boston College offense
Anthony Brown definitely had a day to forget at quarterback. He only threw for 96 yards against Purdue, and three of his four interceptions came on consecutive drives in the third quarter when BC attempted to reclaim lost territory.
"I just have to execute better and make the throws that I have to make," Brown said. "Four turnovers is not acceptable anywhere. It doesn't matter who you're playing. Today was Purdue's day. They were the better team."
Brown's overall day overshadowed his success at moving the ball in the first quarter. He completed four passes for 33 yards on the Eagles' second drive and finished with a 15-yard strike for a score to tight end Tommy Sweeney. It tied the game at 7-7 at that point and, combined with some timely runs by both AJ Dillon and Jeff Smith, had gave BC optimistic hope. But things never materialized beyond that.
"There were plenty of opportunities," Steve Addazio said. "But we pressed too hard and looked for bigger plays when we had smaller plays to keep the chains moving. It's about getting first downs. First downs get you home."
The quarterback is always the lightning rod of the unit, but being out of sync falls on everyone, including the coaching staff. Brown or Dillon take the biggest hits in their statistics, but it's a shared responsibility that begins at the top with a trickle-down effect.
"We have to help Anthony Brown earlier in that game," Addazio said. "When things don't go right early for a quarterback, we have to help him and get him started. That's my fault. We could've done a better job of getting him started, and that didn't happen. I would put that on me. I felt the same way in the run game, that we couldn't get it started.
"If you can't get first down, our style of offense can't get going with tempo. We wanted to go supersonic fast late in the game, and we went down the field. We didn't get it done early, so we have to go back and look at it."
"We didn't have momentum going," Brown said. "We didn't have enough execution period. I put my teammates in horrible positions. We have to go back, look at the film, see what happened and get ready for Temple."
It's important to note that a team is never as bad as when it plays poorly, just as it's never as good as when everyone succeeds. Saturday's loss isn't what anyone wanted to see, but there's another week of preparation ahead where BC can fix these mistakes moving forward.
*****
Second Down: National Rankings
The entire week felt like something of a coronation for the Eagles after they returned to the national rankings for the first time in 10 years. The mentality didn't change inside the locker room, though, because BC's players recognized the number put a target on their collective back.
"I was worried about (the distraction), but I thought we had as good a week as we had around here," Steve Addazio said. "These kids were locked, had a great psyche, and that's not what we saw on the field. It wasn't a lack of effort. They had great effort. It just wasn't good play. Purdue was just clearly the better team, and we clearly didn't make any plays on this field on this day. It's my responsibility, and I have to get it fixed. This team wasn't fat and happy about themselves."
It's a broken record at this point, but rankings in week three doesn't change the mentality inside the locker room. It's also not an indication of the team's spirit or future aspirations. If the voters choose to drop BC from the poll, it doesn't mean it can't claw back up. In 2008, the Eagles were ranked No. 23 when they lost to North Carolina. It knocked them out of the polls, but they returned a few weeks later before the season finale against Maryland.
The same thing happened in 2006 when BC entered the rankings after beating No. 18 Clemson in Week Two. After beating BYU, the No. 20 Eagles lost to NC State to fall out of the polls, but they returned three weeks later.
"The team is angry (about the loss)," Addazio said. "I'd say angry. (They are) a bunch of guys that know we're more capable of what we saw. They're angry with a lot of resolve, as it should be."
"We left some plays on the field that is uncharacteristic of us," Will Harris said. "We'll be back. I wouldn't expect to see this out of us ever again."
*****
Halftime Hits
-There is always fun to be had in college football traditions, and Purdue had its own brand on display on Saturday afternoon, most visibly the Big Bass Drum and the Boilermaker Special. The drum stands 10 feet tall and had a four-member crew tending to its frame. It's known as the "world's largest drum."
-The Boilermaker Special, on the other hand, is a locomotive that leads the football team onto the field and an ode to Purdue's engineering reputation. The train is actually the official mascot of the Purdue athletics department.
-Maybe it's the colors? The loss dropped BC to 5-4 against teams that wear black and yellow/gold as its colors in the Steve Addazio era, but BC is only 6-8 since the start of the decade.
*****
Third Quarter: Purdue
Purdue proved its offense has budding superstars with quarterback David Blough and wide receiver Rondale Moore. The two connected on a 70-yard touchdown pass that was upheld by replay after Moore's knee appeared to touch the turf. They linked up for 110 yards as Blough finished with 296 yard and three touchdowns to lead the Boilermakers to an overdue first victory.
"It's always tough and no fun when you lose," head coach Jeff Brohm said. "You want to feel bad. You want to be ticked off and angry, and you want (losing) to cause you to say we're not going to do this anymore. (Today) was a great overall effort. I'm very proud of our football team."
The win changes the dynamic of the Purdue season, and it underscored how hungry the Boilermakers entered Saturday. It proves the Boilermakers can get over the hump, and it changes the dynamic in a wide open Big Ten West Division. It doesn't, however, change how critical each game is moving forward.
Purdue heads to Nebraska next week to play a team sitting with a surprising 0-3 record. In two weeks, it draws Illinois, which is on a two-game slide of its own after getting blown out by Penn State. Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin all remain on the schedule as well, and all of those teams are above .500. Factor in games against Ohio State and Michigan State, as well as the Old Oaken Bucket against Indiana, and it shows how huge Saturday's win over BC really becomes for bowl eligibility.
"We knew Purdue was backed against the wall, and they came out swinging," Steve Addazio said.
*****
Fourth Down: Temple
BC now heads into a week of regrouping and preparation before it plays on Saturday against a Temple team making a fast turnaround after a disappointing start to the season. They're now 2-2 after beating both Maryland and Tulsa.
There's obviously a lot of meat to pick through in a BC-Temple matchup, but the Owls evened their record this past Thursday by winning their first conference game of the year. Ryquell Armstead ran for 108 yards and a touchdown, and the defense scored twice with a pick six and a fumble scoop-and-score against the Golden Hurricane.
The game is scheduled for 12 p.m. and will be seen on television on ESPNU.
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Players Mentioned
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