Four Downs: NC State

College football's modern era is defined by its speed. Every team is going faster, creating game situations with video game numbers. It's an offensive sport defined by athletes designed to make more and more plays. Coaches aren't ignoring defenses, but the not-so-halcyon days of Buddy Ryan criticizing "chuck and duck" offenses are long gone.

Every school employs its own unique take on football's evolution, and Boston College is no different. The Eagles utilize elements of where the sport changed with a no-huddle offense capable of going at warp speed, but the coaching staff always sought to win games by utilizing a different mindset. Clock control and field position became more important, placing more emphasis on defense and the running game.

It's a symbiotic and synergistic relationship. The offense chunks its way downfield by sustaining long drives and gaining first downs. It creates the illusion of conservative play calling and forces a defense to respect conditioning and fatigue as reality. Short yardage plays create explosive downfield threats.

It all controls time of possession, forcing opposing offenses to play more aggressively in order to generate points. The advanced aggressiveness plays into a ball-hawking secondary and stingy defense, and it creates a complete mismatch when special teams tilt field position in the third phase of football.

When everything is in harmony, Boston College can dominate an opponent. On Saturday, that's exactly what it did in a 45-24 thumping of NC State.

"Our defense came out on fire and made some unbelievably plays," head coach Steve Addazio said. "It held (NC State) to 50-something yards rushing (and) two goal line stands inside the two or three (yard line). I thought we established the run. We ran for over 429 yards, roughly thereabout, and that was the No. 1 rushing team in the conference. We were able to rush for as many yards as they had given up all season."

BC's success in creating synergy helped a game get out of hand before it ever really got started. AJ Dillon gashed the Wolfpack front for 224 yards and set up two long touchdown runs by David Bailey. Both came in the second quarter and helped build a 24-3 halftime lead, an unrecoverable deficit given the breakout strength of the defensive side.

It was a game two weeks in the making after the bitter disappointment of losses to Wake Forest and Louisville. It helped move BC back into the ACC Atlantic Division race for second place heading into next week, and it generated much-needed momentum before a road trip to Clemson's Death Valley.

Here's what else we learned from Saturday's win:

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First Down: The Buffalo Boys

Running back tandems often feature a clash of running styles capable of changing how teams approach different formations. A blunt force bruiser back usually runs between the tackles before handing duties off to a smaller, quicker scat back, and the combination of different skill sets becomes a nightmare for opponents.

There's a striking difference at Boston College because AJ Dillon and David Bailey are similar running backs. They never alter how plays are called after substitutions, and it creates an issue for defenses because their combined effort rotates a fresh running back into high leverage situations.

It was on full display on Saturday when Dillon rushed for 224 yards, including 116 in the first half, and three touchdowns. He handled the lion's share of duties with 33 carries, but the rotation brought Bailey into those leverages against a softened defense. It created opportunity, and the younger back delivered by flashing every skill on both a 54-yard and 48-yard touchdown run.

"We put together a great game plan, wanting to be completely how we are," Steve Addazio said. "We were like 65/35 (run-vs.-pass play ratio percentage), and we wanted to keep minimally that ratio. But when we started just running the ball like that, we weren't going to come off of that. That was an unbelievable performance by those guys. You had to keep feeding them the rock at that point. There was no merit to not doing that, and our team was totally locked into that."

Dillon's performance marked the 27th all-time game where one player had 200 or more yards rushing. It was his third game with 200 or more yards and fourth with at least three scores. It was his fifth consecutive 100-yard game, two within Mike Cloud's record set in 1998. It also moved him within 75 yards of Andre Williams for the BC record of rushing yards.

Bailey, meanwhile, nearly created the first game where two teammates had 200 yards rushing. He rushed for 182 and two touchdowns. It was his first multi-touchdown game in his short college career, and it helped mark the first time two running backs gained 150 yards on the ground in the same game since a 1997's 45-44 loss to Miami.

It happened against the No. 1 ranked rushing defense in the conference and the fifth-best in the nation.

"Watching film all week, I studied these guys, I restudied, like I knew every play I was going to do," Dillon said. "The offensive line blocked their butts off. On some of those long runs that David and I had, (the receivers were) downfield blocking. We showed that it doesn't matter who we line up against or what statistical ratings or anything that people have. We're going to come with everything we've got."

"I would say (AJ's) faster than me," Bailey joked after the game. "I'm going to give him that. I'm not going to say way faster, but he's faster than me. I feel like we both have a stiff-arm and a spin move. He probably has a better spin move than me. Other than that, we're pretty similar to each other."

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Second Down: Dennis Grosel

Dillon and Bailey became the biggest postgame story of Saturday, so it's easy to forget how the spotlight focused on quarterback Dennis Grosel during the week. The redshirt sophomore became a household name after Anthony Brown sustained a season-ending injury against Louisville, and Saturday's game marked his first start in a journey that began as a walk-on, depth signal caller in Chestnut Hill.

The running backs' collective performance meant Grosel didn't have to do much, and he only attempted 15 passes. He completed six of them, but his fake-screen pass to Hunter Long was the perfect stamp on exactly how he managed the game. It baited the NC State defense into selling out on the right side of the line, and Long's release to the left side gave him a whole lot of open field with which to work.

"The situation called for a completion," Grosel said. "We needed to move the chains a little bit. To see that big frame so wide open, a lot of times you don't see them that wide open. Get it anywhere near (Long), he's making a catch and run for it."

He connected with Long again in the third quarter during BC's 98-yard touchdown drive, hitting the tight end with a 24-yard pass that set up a goal line situation. Earlier in the drive, Grosel had run for 11 yards on a key third down and further hit Long with a nine-yard pass on another third down conversion.

"He had a very critical first down on the long drive that might have been the back breaker," Steve Addazio said. "He managed to be able to go out there and kept the ball and scrambled and ran, and he just got enough yardage for that first down. That was a critical, critical first down."

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Halftime Hits

-BC welcomed back both Jeremy Trueblood and Tim Bulman this weekend as its honored legends of the game. Trueblood was an absolute monster on the offensive line - both literally and figuratively - while starting 36 games from 2002-2005. I always remember him because he was huge (six feet, eight inches) and protected the offensive line in an era that began with Brian St. Pierre and ended with Matt Ryan. Even though he was a second-round pick, Trueblood always felt overlooked because his high school and college teammate, Mathias Kiwanuka, was a first-round pick that year.

-Tim Bulman, meanwhile, was a local hero who never had to trade in his maroon and gold. He went from BC High to Boston College and became a household name in the process. He played almost 50 games and was a captain when the Eagles nearly won the Big East on the way into the ACC in 2004. He went undrafted in the 2005 NFL Draft but caught on with Houston in 2006, mostly as a reserve player.

-One of my best friends got married on Saturday night, and at some point in the middle of the night, the wedding DJ put on "Mr. Brightside." I wound up arm-in-arm with two other friends, who are both BC graduates, singing it at the top of our lungs. I'd like to think I know what it's like to be in the student section when it hits, but it's probably that multiplied by a thousand. I still greatly enjoyed it.

-For anyone who wants to know, the wedding was in New Hampshire. I had never driven up there during peak leaf season, but it's absolutely worth the trip once in your life. The colors are gorgeous off the lakes of the Granite State.

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Third Down: The Defense

The bye week combined with the change in quarterback to overshadow the defense after the Louisville game. The noise surrounding its performance against Wake Forest and Louisville quieted down enough through the off week, but there was enough to still generate a burning fire and determination to get its mojo back.

NC State's offense got absolutely nothing going against the BC defense over a bulk of Saturday's game. The Eagles rendered quarterback Bailey Hockman ineffective to the tune of 4-of-10 passing for 27 yards, and Jason Maitre's interception touchdown created a fever pitch celebration in the end zone.

"This was a game where we had a little extra chip on our shoulder," linebacker Max Richardson said. "We're a little bit (angry). Getting goal line stops is a huge momentum changer for any team. It was a great way to start the game. Coach Sheridan put together a great scheme this week."

Richardson recorded a monster day with 10 tackles, a sack and three tackles-for-loss. He was joined in the backfield by freshman Shitta Sillah, who broke out with four tackles and a sack while pushing 18 yards lost on more than two tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Sillah's sack came early on the first possession of the game for NC State, marking his debut party after seeing limited time earlier this year.

Additionally, the pass defense had seven breakups, including two by Mike Palmer, and defensive tackle TJ Rayam recorded an official QB hurry.

"The bye week was great because we utilized the time to rest and recover," Richardson said. "We also went back to the basics defensively with fundamentals and stuff like that. But also, the coaches had an opportunity. They had (extra) days to scheme the other opponent. If they call up the right plays and we do our job at a high level with the technique they teach us, it's really a beautiful thing."

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Fourth Down: ACC Madness

Boston College's losses to Wake Forest and Louisville left a bitter taste because they were both by less than a touchdown. It became exacerbated when BC dropped to sixth place in the Atlantic Division while on its bye, and Louisville's win over the Demon Deacons entrenched the two teams as the potential breakout squads amidst the ACC chaos.

It began generating easy-to-read tiers within the Atlantic Division. Clemson held the undisputed top spot ahead of Wake Forest and, depending on viewpoint, Louisville and NC State. Florida State lagged behind the three with Boston College, and Syracuse continued looking up for its first conference win. Then this weekend happened, and BC's win against NC State created a three-team logjam among two-loss teams.

It remains a wide-open race for bowl positioning, and anything is possible. Wake Forest is only one game ahead of the three teams and still needs to play both NC State and Clemson. BC plays the Tigers this week and still has to play both Florida State and Pittsburgh. Louisville has its crossover game against Virginia next week and still has to play NC State, with a game left at Miami as well.

In the Coastal Division, Virginia and Pittsburgh are tied with one loss, but the Cavaliers beat the Panthers in the first game of the season. Pitt still has to play North Carolina and Virginia Tech, both of which have two losses. Duke is another two-loss team and could factor into the race, and even though there's breathing room, Georgia Tech just beat Miami.

Miami, by the way, represents Virginia's only conference loss.

It creates a roller coaster of emotions every week. Every win pushes a team into a better spot, and every loss feels like the season is ending in shameful defeat. It's exactly what the ACC offices could want in parity, and it's creating resulting chaos every week. If someone beats Clemson, anarchy will reign supreme.

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Point After: Clemson

Speaking of Clemson, the Tigers fell down the polls again after beating Louisville on Saturday. They won 45-10, but Trevor Lawrence threw two early interceptions to create a low-scoring affair into the second quarter. Travis Etienne erupted for 192 yards, but the Tigers slipped to No. 4 in the first polls released on Sunday.

Clemson is still invincible, but the luster is fading among national voters. The first College Football Playoff rankings are still two weeks away, but the Tigers need a little bit of a boost to their resume. They remain undefeated, but the ACC chaos isn't helping. They've been dominant, but it's not winning votes for some odd reason. It's easy to look at them and mention the word "vulnerability," but they also rolled Louisville by 35 points after a "slow start."

I have long said that someone will eventually beat Clemson, but no team is succeeding yet. Given the battles of the last two years, it should create an absolutely electric feel to Death Valley this week, when Boston College arrives in full force.

Players Mentioned

David Bailey

Anthony Brown

AJ Dillon

Dennis Grosel

Hunter Long

Jason Maitre

Mike Palmer

TJ Rayam

Max Richardson

Shitta Sillah

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