Boston College Athletics
Singular Focus On Pittsburgh
November 27, 2019 | Football, #ForBoston Files
The regular season ends on Saturday, providing a simple message to prepare to win.
For Boston College, preparation for the game against Pittsburgh this week kicked off with an obvious, overarching storyline regarding the need to get a win. There's one game remaining on the schedule, and the Eagles need a win to secure bowl eligibility. It makes Saturday's game against the Panthers as simple as it gets:
Just win, baby.
"We're getting ready to go into the final game of the season, having a great week," head coach Steve Addazio said. "(We're) getting ready to get a sixth win, playing a good team, a top ten defense, a top ten rushing defense, on their home field on the road (during) Thanksgiving week."
Simply beating the Panthers is a difficult reality. They entered the season as defending Coastal Division champions and surged to the front again after a four-game winning streak in October. A near-miss against Penn State preceded a victory over Central Florida, making Pitt the team responsible for ending a 27-game unbeaten streak. Close road wins over Duke and Syracuse forced Pitt into a prominent conversation in the chaos, though a loss to Miami stole frontrunner status away.
The run ended last week with a 28-0 loss at Virginia Tech, and Pitt enters this week all but locked into the Tier One selection pyramid of games, win or lose. An outside shot at the Camping World Bowl still exists if everything breaks correctly, but the more likely destination is one of the four equal status games it played in last year.Â
"I think it's important to keep your focus on what it takes to win the football game," Addazio said of that outside noise. "Every week you've got to win the football game. Any time you deviate from that, you're creating something that is unnecessary. We want to keep playing. We want to get to a bowl game. That's a goal. Nothing can change. The goal is to prepare really great so you can play really great."
The singular focus is required reading for the Panthers because Saturday's game is going to be different from any other game on the schedule. Their philosophical style is most similar to BC with an offense built around the run and a defense that wants to get into the backfield to get off the field quickly.Â
They enter Saturday with a production commensurate to the mentality. Pitt has 91 tackles for loss this year with 48 sacks, numbers that almost double up its opposing teams. Jaylen Twyman and Patrick Jones II have 11 and 10.5 TFLs, respectively, and three other players - Kylan Johnson, Cam Bright and Desline Alexandre - all have nine or more.Â
Twyman and Jones are also brutally difficult to block in the pass. The duo have a combined 18 sacks for a unit averaging an FBS-best 4.36 sacks per game. It's part of a larger effort to contain offenses on the ninth-best unit in the nation, one that is No. 6 in FBS against the run.
"They have a pretty exotic third down blitz package," Addazio stated. "They get a lot of guys cut free on people's offensive line or (blocking) front. They bring a lot of different blitzes. I think they have talented defensive ends. I think they do a good job with their scheme. That's shown up on the tape. The stats are accurate (of how Pitt plays)."
It lines up a titan matchup against BC's rushing attack one week after it struggled against Notre Dame. The Eagles remain the sixth-best rushing unit in the nation and still rank No. 4 in the nation with less than a sack allowed per game. The offensive production dipped, but is holding at No. 23 overall with over 457 yards per game while scoring more than 31 points per game.
"I think you have to do a great job picking up pressures," Addazio continued. "I don't think it's an 'add-a-guy'-routine. I think it (requires) great communication up front. We have a pretty good offensive line. We'll work hard to get those things picked up. If (Pitt) brings one more (on a blitz), it means someone's got to get free in man coverage and (we have to) gave the ball out to them."
It creates a strength-on-strength matchup for Pitt's Senior Day. Saturday is an old Big East, Northeast matchup, and a wintry mix is in the forecast to blanket the notorious Heinz Field playing surface. It requires full focus on the week without the need to add to the simple message.
"Every week's the same," Addazio said. "Same Sunday, same Monday, same Tuesday, same Wednesday. Nothing's different. Just get prepared, go out and have a great plan. Keep motivation high, keep work ethic high and have a great week, one day at a time. I would like to think you can't distinguish between any given week. Every week is the same week."
Boston College and Pittsburgh will kick off at 3:30 p.m.from Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pa. The game can be seen on ACC Network or on WatchESPN.com for viewers with cable providers carrying the channel. Radio broadcast is available via the BC Learfield IMG Sports Network, locally heard on WEEI 93.7 FM. The game can also be heard on satellite radio via Sirius channel 121, XM channel 203 and Online channel 966.
Just win, baby.
"We're getting ready to go into the final game of the season, having a great week," head coach Steve Addazio said. "(We're) getting ready to get a sixth win, playing a good team, a top ten defense, a top ten rushing defense, on their home field on the road (during) Thanksgiving week."
Simply beating the Panthers is a difficult reality. They entered the season as defending Coastal Division champions and surged to the front again after a four-game winning streak in October. A near-miss against Penn State preceded a victory over Central Florida, making Pitt the team responsible for ending a 27-game unbeaten streak. Close road wins over Duke and Syracuse forced Pitt into a prominent conversation in the chaos, though a loss to Miami stole frontrunner status away.
The run ended last week with a 28-0 loss at Virginia Tech, and Pitt enters this week all but locked into the Tier One selection pyramid of games, win or lose. An outside shot at the Camping World Bowl still exists if everything breaks correctly, but the more likely destination is one of the four equal status games it played in last year.Â
"I think it's important to keep your focus on what it takes to win the football game," Addazio said of that outside noise. "Every week you've got to win the football game. Any time you deviate from that, you're creating something that is unnecessary. We want to keep playing. We want to get to a bowl game. That's a goal. Nothing can change. The goal is to prepare really great so you can play really great."
The singular focus is required reading for the Panthers because Saturday's game is going to be different from any other game on the schedule. Their philosophical style is most similar to BC with an offense built around the run and a defense that wants to get into the backfield to get off the field quickly.Â
They enter Saturday with a production commensurate to the mentality. Pitt has 91 tackles for loss this year with 48 sacks, numbers that almost double up its opposing teams. Jaylen Twyman and Patrick Jones II have 11 and 10.5 TFLs, respectively, and three other players - Kylan Johnson, Cam Bright and Desline Alexandre - all have nine or more.Â
Twyman and Jones are also brutally difficult to block in the pass. The duo have a combined 18 sacks for a unit averaging an FBS-best 4.36 sacks per game. It's part of a larger effort to contain offenses on the ninth-best unit in the nation, one that is No. 6 in FBS against the run.
"They have a pretty exotic third down blitz package," Addazio stated. "They get a lot of guys cut free on people's offensive line or (blocking) front. They bring a lot of different blitzes. I think they have talented defensive ends. I think they do a good job with their scheme. That's shown up on the tape. The stats are accurate (of how Pitt plays)."
It lines up a titan matchup against BC's rushing attack one week after it struggled against Notre Dame. The Eagles remain the sixth-best rushing unit in the nation and still rank No. 4 in the nation with less than a sack allowed per game. The offensive production dipped, but is holding at No. 23 overall with over 457 yards per game while scoring more than 31 points per game.
"I think you have to do a great job picking up pressures," Addazio continued. "I don't think it's an 'add-a-guy'-routine. I think it (requires) great communication up front. We have a pretty good offensive line. We'll work hard to get those things picked up. If (Pitt) brings one more (on a blitz), it means someone's got to get free in man coverage and (we have to) gave the ball out to them."
It creates a strength-on-strength matchup for Pitt's Senior Day. Saturday is an old Big East, Northeast matchup, and a wintry mix is in the forecast to blanket the notorious Heinz Field playing surface. It requires full focus on the week without the need to add to the simple message.
"Every week's the same," Addazio said. "Same Sunday, same Monday, same Tuesday, same Wednesday. Nothing's different. Just get prepared, go out and have a great plan. Keep motivation high, keep work ethic high and have a great week, one day at a time. I would like to think you can't distinguish between any given week. Every week is the same week."
Boston College and Pittsburgh will kick off at 3:30 p.m.from Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pa. The game can be seen on ACC Network or on WatchESPN.com for viewers with cable providers carrying the channel. Radio broadcast is available via the BC Learfield IMG Sports Network, locally heard on WEEI 93.7 FM. The game can also be heard on satellite radio via Sirius channel 121, XM channel 203 and Online channel 966.
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