Boston College Athletics
Four Downs: Clemson
October 27, 2019 | Football, #ForBoston Files
The Tigers dominated BC on Saturday night to win their 23rd straight game.
The first eight weeks provided an almost-surreal referendum on the Clemson football team. The Tigers were the defending national champions, but they weren't the preseason No. 1 team. Wins kept piling up, but nothing the team did quieted the resounding criticism of its performance. There was always some other mistake or slow start or turnover margin drawing some form of spotlight, and it came to a head this week when the Tigers slid to No. 4 for the first time since early last season.
It didn't necessitate a "statement game," but on Saturday, that's exactly what Clemson got. The Tigers rolled past Boston College, 59-7, to remain undefeated and loudly announce that they weren't about to quietly surrender their championship crown quite yet.
"Clemson played a hell of a game," BC head coach Steve Addazio said. "They showed that they're an elite team and (displayed) why they've won 23 games in a row. We ran into a buzzsaw."
The Tigers dominated every facet of Saturday's game. They raced out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter and led, 38-7, at halftime. They had as many yards in the first quarter as BC amassed in the entire game, eclipsing that total in the individual second and third frames.Â
They broke the Boston College program record for both total offensive yards and first downs allowed. They tied for second-most points scored against an Eagle defense and came within a field goal of tying the No. 1 overall slot. It was all collateral damage for Clemson's objective of proving the not-so-quiet doubters so very, very wrong.
"They made every play that they could possibly make," Addazio said. "More credit to them, they played like the No. 1 team in the country, and the team that went after Alabama for a national championship. That's what happened out there."
Beating Clemson would have required a Herculean effort, but the loss still stings with bitter disappointment. It sent the Eagles back to Boston with a .500 record at 4-4, and an added emphasis now stresses next week's game against Syracuse.
Here's what else came out of the loss in Death Valley on Saturday:
*****
First Down: Boston College offense
Boston College entered Saturday with a very direct, precise route to beating Clemson. The game couldn't devolve into a footrace, so the Eagles needed to drag the game out with its offense. The running attack therefore reserved center stage in a replay of how the team attempted to beat Clemson in each of the last two years.
For one drive at the end of the first quarter, that was exactly what BC accomplished. The Eagles executed a 15-play drive amassing nearly six minutes of clock time and drove 75 yards for a touchdown. It began with a 30-yard pass to tight end Hunter Long before focusing nearly exclusively on the run. AJ Dillon had over 20 yards by himself before punching in a touchdown from the Clemson nine-yard line, and it drew BC within 10 points of the fast Tiger start.
"I thought we put together a good drive in the first quarter," Addazio added. "I felt good about that drive. It got away from us real quick (after that). When that happens, you feel like you have to take bigger chunks. That happened a little bit. It brings you a little out of your run game, and it gets you out of your flow."
Dillon finished with 76 yards on 19 carries, a stark drop-off from his 34-carry, 223-yard performance from a week ago. It was his first game without 100 yards since limited action against Richmond and snapped a streak of five consecutive games over the century mark. His tough sledding compounded David Bailey's struggles, and the Tigers used their lack of total success to hold the rest of the unit in check.
"BC rushed for 429 yards last week," Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. "We accepted the challenge. We knew what we were going to get coming in. We held (BC) to 97 yards rushing. (We had) two sacks and (they had) 11 punts. I think they only had 10 first downs. We had some other opportunities for turnovers and didn't capitalize. I'm really proud of our defense."
That said, the game handed Dillon a single silver lining when he became Boston College's all-time leading rusher in the third quarter. It was a moment robbed of the proper fanfare given the circumstances on the scoreboard, but it's an accomplished feat that will one day outshine a bad day at the office.Â
"He had some tough runs in there," Addazio said. "He's done so many great things at Boston College. There's so many more yet to come. We're excited for the future. We're happy for him to reach that milestone, and we're moving forward."
*****
Second Down: Clemson Offense
The Boston College defense started its day by holding Clemson to a field goal on its first drive of the game. The Tigers charged 65 yards in eight plays, one of which was a 15-yard pass interference penalty against BC, but the defense held when it mattered most against the goal line. It provided optimism that Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence would engineer his numbers in between the 20s but stall closer to the red zone.
That changed on the second drive when back-to-back pass interference penalties gave Clemson a first down inside the BC 20. It took all of two plays from there to get Travis Etienne into the end zone for his first score, and after BC went three-and-out on its next drive, it took three plays for the Tigers to go 75 yards for a 17-0 lead.
"I thought our guys had an awesome mindset, great focus and went about getting their job done in all phases," Dabo Swinney said. "This was a big finish to the third phase of our journey, (and) we are now rolling into a new phase, into the fourth quarter of the year."
The first quarter set the tone for Clemson's journey through the remainder of the game, which ended in record-breaking fashion. The Tigers scored on five consecutive drives to open up a 31-point lead at halftime, and the numbers just kept piling up from there. Lawrence went 16-of-19 passing for 275 yards and three touchdowns. Travis Etienne, meanwhile, had 109 yards on 16 carries and three touchdowns, building an unstoppable momentum that continued through the third quarter.
"Offensively, we set the tone," Swinney said. "I felt like this defense was going to need a fast and efficient offense. (Trevor Lawrence) played an awesome game. This is the first time we didn't have any turnovers since the national championship game. That's hopefully a sign of things to come. Travis Etienne continues to set the tone for us, and it's back-to-back-to-back 500-plus yard games (for us)."
*****
Third Down: Silver Lining
Dabo Swinney spent time during his weekly press conference talking about how the Clemson defense operated under a relative microscope. The entire front four changed following departures, but the unit didn't miss a beat in the first half of the season. On Saturday, it ruined any cohesion on the BC offense, and the elite secondary backfield neutralized Dennis Grosel's ability to find an open receiver.
"The defense has elite personnel everywhere," Steve Addazio said. "The back end might be the best back end they've had. The front end, while they lost some guys, is super athletic everywhere."
Because the score blew out in the fourth quarter, both teams substituted depth players into the game. Matt Valecce stepped into the quarterback position in the fourth quarter and went 3-of-4 for 27 yards, completing passes to Elijah Robinson and Pat Garwo. Those are players that ordinarily wouldn't have been on the field in fourth quarter situations, but the score enabled BC to make the most of a bad situation by playing some of its more inexperienced athletes, like the true freshman running back Garwo. It doesn't mean there will be wholesale changes for next week, but it at least allowed for a glimpse into some other players in real game situations.
*****
Fourth Down: Syracuse
Losing to Clemson hurts because of the manner in which it happened, but BC will need to return home with an incredibly short memory before playing Syracuse next week. The late start on Saturday will combine with a long travel flight home to Massachusetts, ultimately leaving the Eagles one day short on their next preparatory week prior to playing the Orange.
"Quite frankly, my mindset is that we have to go and get ready to play Syracuse," Steve Addazio said. "We have a big game coming up around the corner. It's a late night, and we have to go get ready to play the Cuse."
The game will ultimately become a critical junction of both teams' bowl prospects after the Orange dropped a 35-17 loss to Florida State this past weekend. It kept Syracuse winless in the ACC, a precipitous drop after finishing last season in the Camping World Bowl and 10 wins. More than that, though, the Orange dropped to 3-5 overall on the season and now push backwards towards potential bowl ineligibility.
*****
Point After: ACC Bowl Picture
Everyone knew it would be a Herculean task to take down the defending national champion, but it likely does little to stifle the disappointment of losing in such a dramatic fashion. So the loss gives BC a little bit more perspective into just how hard it is to reach the next level of excellence within the ACC and the Atlantic Division.
Bowl eligibility is still very much within reach for the Eagles despite falling back to .500 with a 4-4 overall record. The 2-3 conference record will provide a pain point because it dropped BC behind Florida State, but there's still room and time to improve and finish in the upper tier of the conference's bowl positioning. BC remains a single game behind third place Louisville, with FSU making up a half-game difference between the two teams. The Seminoles, meanwhile, host a pesky and difficult Miami team on Saturday in Tallahassee before coming north for the Red Bandana Game.
The Coastal Division, meanwhile, remains absolute carnage with four teams harboring two losses and three teams essentially one game back in the loss column. Every team still has a mathematical shot to win the division, which ultimately means the bowl tiering system will become much more muddled in the coming weeks. The entire division will eventually cannibalize itself, opening the door for the third place team in the Atlantic Division to jump ahead into the Tier I slotting of bowl games.
That doesn't include a scenario where both Clemson and Notre Dame play a role in the selection scenario. The Orange Bowl is not part of the College Football Playoff this year, which means the ACC could conceivably receive a second slot in the New Year's Six games if its champion advances to the College Football Playoff. Notre Dame's loss to Michigan increases the impact of that because the Fighting Irish, if not chosen for a New Year's Six game, default into the ACC bowl selection slotting.
All of this means BC will need to get back on its horse pretty quickly because there's still plenty of games and scenarios up for grabs, and the only way to ensure favorable selections is by winning.
"(The team) will respond great," Steve Addazio said. "I'm not just saying that. I know what they're like (as people). They're bright guys and get it. They're disappointed and understand that they could have and should have played better. They understand what happened (against Clemson). They will not stutter step. They will be ready to go play Syracuse."
It didn't necessitate a "statement game," but on Saturday, that's exactly what Clemson got. The Tigers rolled past Boston College, 59-7, to remain undefeated and loudly announce that they weren't about to quietly surrender their championship crown quite yet.
"Clemson played a hell of a game," BC head coach Steve Addazio said. "They showed that they're an elite team and (displayed) why they've won 23 games in a row. We ran into a buzzsaw."
The Tigers dominated every facet of Saturday's game. They raced out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter and led, 38-7, at halftime. They had as many yards in the first quarter as BC amassed in the entire game, eclipsing that total in the individual second and third frames.Â
They broke the Boston College program record for both total offensive yards and first downs allowed. They tied for second-most points scored against an Eagle defense and came within a field goal of tying the No. 1 overall slot. It was all collateral damage for Clemson's objective of proving the not-so-quiet doubters so very, very wrong.
"They made every play that they could possibly make," Addazio said. "More credit to them, they played like the No. 1 team in the country, and the team that went after Alabama for a national championship. That's what happened out there."
Beating Clemson would have required a Herculean effort, but the loss still stings with bitter disappointment. It sent the Eagles back to Boston with a .500 record at 4-4, and an added emphasis now stresses next week's game against Syracuse.
Here's what else came out of the loss in Death Valley on Saturday:
*****
First Down: Boston College offense
Boston College entered Saturday with a very direct, precise route to beating Clemson. The game couldn't devolve into a footrace, so the Eagles needed to drag the game out with its offense. The running attack therefore reserved center stage in a replay of how the team attempted to beat Clemson in each of the last two years.
For one drive at the end of the first quarter, that was exactly what BC accomplished. The Eagles executed a 15-play drive amassing nearly six minutes of clock time and drove 75 yards for a touchdown. It began with a 30-yard pass to tight end Hunter Long before focusing nearly exclusively on the run. AJ Dillon had over 20 yards by himself before punching in a touchdown from the Clemson nine-yard line, and it drew BC within 10 points of the fast Tiger start.
"I thought we put together a good drive in the first quarter," Addazio added. "I felt good about that drive. It got away from us real quick (after that). When that happens, you feel like you have to take bigger chunks. That happened a little bit. It brings you a little out of your run game, and it gets you out of your flow."
Dillon finished with 76 yards on 19 carries, a stark drop-off from his 34-carry, 223-yard performance from a week ago. It was his first game without 100 yards since limited action against Richmond and snapped a streak of five consecutive games over the century mark. His tough sledding compounded David Bailey's struggles, and the Tigers used their lack of total success to hold the rest of the unit in check.
"BC rushed for 429 yards last week," Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. "We accepted the challenge. We knew what we were going to get coming in. We held (BC) to 97 yards rushing. (We had) two sacks and (they had) 11 punts. I think they only had 10 first downs. We had some other opportunities for turnovers and didn't capitalize. I'm really proud of our defense."
That said, the game handed Dillon a single silver lining when he became Boston College's all-time leading rusher in the third quarter. It was a moment robbed of the proper fanfare given the circumstances on the scoreboard, but it's an accomplished feat that will one day outshine a bad day at the office.Â
"He had some tough runs in there," Addazio said. "He's done so many great things at Boston College. There's so many more yet to come. We're excited for the future. We're happy for him to reach that milestone, and we're moving forward."
*****
Second Down: Clemson Offense
The Boston College defense started its day by holding Clemson to a field goal on its first drive of the game. The Tigers charged 65 yards in eight plays, one of which was a 15-yard pass interference penalty against BC, but the defense held when it mattered most against the goal line. It provided optimism that Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence would engineer his numbers in between the 20s but stall closer to the red zone.
That changed on the second drive when back-to-back pass interference penalties gave Clemson a first down inside the BC 20. It took all of two plays from there to get Travis Etienne into the end zone for his first score, and after BC went three-and-out on its next drive, it took three plays for the Tigers to go 75 yards for a 17-0 lead.
"I thought our guys had an awesome mindset, great focus and went about getting their job done in all phases," Dabo Swinney said. "This was a big finish to the third phase of our journey, (and) we are now rolling into a new phase, into the fourth quarter of the year."
The first quarter set the tone for Clemson's journey through the remainder of the game, which ended in record-breaking fashion. The Tigers scored on five consecutive drives to open up a 31-point lead at halftime, and the numbers just kept piling up from there. Lawrence went 16-of-19 passing for 275 yards and three touchdowns. Travis Etienne, meanwhile, had 109 yards on 16 carries and three touchdowns, building an unstoppable momentum that continued through the third quarter.
"Offensively, we set the tone," Swinney said. "I felt like this defense was going to need a fast and efficient offense. (Trevor Lawrence) played an awesome game. This is the first time we didn't have any turnovers since the national championship game. That's hopefully a sign of things to come. Travis Etienne continues to set the tone for us, and it's back-to-back-to-back 500-plus yard games (for us)."
*****
Third Down: Silver Lining
Dabo Swinney spent time during his weekly press conference talking about how the Clemson defense operated under a relative microscope. The entire front four changed following departures, but the unit didn't miss a beat in the first half of the season. On Saturday, it ruined any cohesion on the BC offense, and the elite secondary backfield neutralized Dennis Grosel's ability to find an open receiver.
"The defense has elite personnel everywhere," Steve Addazio said. "The back end might be the best back end they've had. The front end, while they lost some guys, is super athletic everywhere."
Because the score blew out in the fourth quarter, both teams substituted depth players into the game. Matt Valecce stepped into the quarterback position in the fourth quarter and went 3-of-4 for 27 yards, completing passes to Elijah Robinson and Pat Garwo. Those are players that ordinarily wouldn't have been on the field in fourth quarter situations, but the score enabled BC to make the most of a bad situation by playing some of its more inexperienced athletes, like the true freshman running back Garwo. It doesn't mean there will be wholesale changes for next week, but it at least allowed for a glimpse into some other players in real game situations.
*****
Fourth Down: Syracuse
Losing to Clemson hurts because of the manner in which it happened, but BC will need to return home with an incredibly short memory before playing Syracuse next week. The late start on Saturday will combine with a long travel flight home to Massachusetts, ultimately leaving the Eagles one day short on their next preparatory week prior to playing the Orange.
"Quite frankly, my mindset is that we have to go and get ready to play Syracuse," Steve Addazio said. "We have a big game coming up around the corner. It's a late night, and we have to go get ready to play the Cuse."
The game will ultimately become a critical junction of both teams' bowl prospects after the Orange dropped a 35-17 loss to Florida State this past weekend. It kept Syracuse winless in the ACC, a precipitous drop after finishing last season in the Camping World Bowl and 10 wins. More than that, though, the Orange dropped to 3-5 overall on the season and now push backwards towards potential bowl ineligibility.
*****
Point After: ACC Bowl Picture
Everyone knew it would be a Herculean task to take down the defending national champion, but it likely does little to stifle the disappointment of losing in such a dramatic fashion. So the loss gives BC a little bit more perspective into just how hard it is to reach the next level of excellence within the ACC and the Atlantic Division.
Bowl eligibility is still very much within reach for the Eagles despite falling back to .500 with a 4-4 overall record. The 2-3 conference record will provide a pain point because it dropped BC behind Florida State, but there's still room and time to improve and finish in the upper tier of the conference's bowl positioning. BC remains a single game behind third place Louisville, with FSU making up a half-game difference between the two teams. The Seminoles, meanwhile, host a pesky and difficult Miami team on Saturday in Tallahassee before coming north for the Red Bandana Game.
The Coastal Division, meanwhile, remains absolute carnage with four teams harboring two losses and three teams essentially one game back in the loss column. Every team still has a mathematical shot to win the division, which ultimately means the bowl tiering system will become much more muddled in the coming weeks. The entire division will eventually cannibalize itself, opening the door for the third place team in the Atlantic Division to jump ahead into the Tier I slotting of bowl games.
That doesn't include a scenario where both Clemson and Notre Dame play a role in the selection scenario. The Orange Bowl is not part of the College Football Playoff this year, which means the ACC could conceivably receive a second slot in the New Year's Six games if its champion advances to the College Football Playoff. Notre Dame's loss to Michigan increases the impact of that because the Fighting Irish, if not chosen for a New Year's Six game, default into the ACC bowl selection slotting.
All of this means BC will need to get back on its horse pretty quickly because there's still plenty of games and scenarios up for grabs, and the only way to ensure favorable selections is by winning.
"(The team) will respond great," Steve Addazio said. "I'm not just saying that. I know what they're like (as people). They're bright guys and get it. They're disappointed and understand that they could have and should have played better. They understand what happened (against Clemson). They will not stutter step. They will be ready to go play Syracuse."
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