Photo by: John Quackenbos
Four Downs: Kansas
September 14, 2019 | Football, #ForBoston Files
The Jayhawks handed the Eagles a stinging loss at Alumni Stadium on Friday.
There is an undeniable energy to a football game's opening kickoff. Teams run out of tunnels with hopeful optimism as a buzz encircles the crowd. A pyrotechnic display and videoboard montage provides the restraint before players break charge out from behind banners. The kickoff itself is the crescendo of the time spent waiting specifically for that moment.
It begins the process of turning hope into reality, but unwritten and unspoken risks exist under the surface. The impossibility of ties means one team needs to lose, whether it's a close, hard-fought game or a blowout. It's a big reason why wins are so emotional and why losses feel soul-crushing.
Boston College opened Friday night with a touchdown drive and used an interception to quickly extend its lead over Kansas to 10-0 in the first five minutes of the first quarter. It was an invigorating moment for the Eagles filled with optimism and pride. It, unfortunately, would also be the high water mark of the game.
The Jayhawks adjusted on defense and used an offensive explosion to score on seven consecutive possessions. It ruined the excitement, leaving BC saddled with a 48-24 defeat after the smoke from the opening fireworks cleared.
"Obviously not a very good performance by us," BC head coach Steve Addazio said. "(I) give a lot of credit to Les Miles and their team. I thought they got their kids to play hard, and I thought they did a great job out there."
Defeat often leaves teams seeking answers and pointing fingers at exposed issues. The film study will be particularly grisly because it hard-codes a negative performance review into the entire season. It creates benchmarks for improvement, but it's also a necessary evil after a disappointing performance. That's all pretty easy to admit.
How a team responds, though, is what defines a season. Grit isn't about how a team plays when it's at its best; toughness and character shine through when a team responds after a loss or setback. There were plenty of them on Friday night, and that will set the table for the rest of this week and beyond.
"Obviously, I did not do a good enough job getting our team ready to play," Addazio said. "I'm responsible for that, and it's my job to make sure we get that fixed. We've got to get back on the tape, find out where our mistakes were, find out where the issues were, get them corrected, and get ready to go down to New Jersey next week (to) get ready to play another game (against Rutgers)."
Here's what was learned from Friday's loss to the Jayhawks:
*****
First Down: Gashed
BC trailed Kansas, 21-17, in the second quarter when Anthony Brown hit Hunter Long for a 42-yard pass to move the Eagles to the outskirts of the Jayhawk red zone. A second connection to Korab Idrizi moved the ball to the 12, and it pushed Kansas to its heels with a timeout with 52 seconds left.
It took all of one play call to give the Eagles the lead. BC ran a double reverse, wide receiver option pass to CJ Lewis, who hit the quarterback in stride for a touchdown. It flipped momentum back to the home side, apparently pushing the Maroon and Gold ahead, 24-21, with halftime approaching after Danny Longman's kickoff to the Kansas 15.
Khalil Herbert said otherwise. He slashed a run to the right side and burst through the line of scrimmage into the second level. He gained the sideline before defensive back Mehdi El-Attrach became aware of his presence in the open field, and a missed tackle sprung him for an 82-yard gain. A touchdown came three plays later, and it all but evaporated any BC momentum.
"Backbreaker," Steve Addazio said after the game. "We came back, regained momentum, went up on top. We had a run blitz on. When you blitz, you've got every gap covered. Every gap's supposed to be covered. Apparently it was not. Somebody must not have been in a gap, and that was a backbreaker."
Until that point, Kansas barely had 20 yards on a handful of second quarter carries after a first quarter in which it had 38 yards on eight carries. That one run, though, seemingly shell-shocked BC, and the Kansas offensive line began generating gaps and surges for the running game as tackling became a liability. The third quarter drew to a close with Herbert nearly hitting 100 yards and Pooka Williams grabbing 66 yards on 10 carries and a score, and the Jayhawks rushed for 166 yards coming out of halftime.Â
The Jayhawks finished the game with 329 yards rushing, 12th most against the Eagles since 1996.
"That's my responsibility to make sure that we tackle better than that," Addazio said. "I thought we tackled well (against Virginia Tech). I thought there was some mixed bag (against Richmond), and I thought we missed a lot of tackles (on Friday). It wasn't like those weren't talented guys (running the ball), but we need to tackle better."
*****
Second Down: Missed Opportunities
Kansas head coach Les Miles endorsed Carter Stanley this week after the quarterback struggled with decision-making, completion yardage and turnovers against Coastal Carolina. That ringing support paid off on Friday when the senior lit up Alumni Stadium went 20-of-27 for 238 yards and three touchdowns.
It didn't start with sunshine and rainbows, though. Stanley started the game with a poor screen pass to Pooka Williams, then floated an interception to Mehdi El-Attrach on his second play from scrimmage. After that, though, he was on fire, going 12-for-12 on his next dozen plays and connecting for explosive plays with wide receiver Andrew Parchment.
"Our coaches do a great job of getting us great looks," Stanley said. "It's the same thing this whole team had to do this past weekend. We had to flush it. We had a disappointing result (against Coastal Carolina), but we knew it was back to work the next day. I'm extremely thankful for these coaches and the looks that they gave us."
Stanley helped Parchment burn the defense for eight catches, 100 yards and two touchdowns by capitalizing on BC's issues switching on routes. The Jayhawks spread the field with four wide receiver sets, and it isolated linebackers in single coverage in the first level. The linebackers let the receivers switch to the defensive backfield, but it created a soft spot for open routes over the middle.
"I think we're in the RPO world a little bit more than we've been," Les Miles said. "I think that benefits us."
*****
Halftime Hits
-I was on vacation with my wife last year and didn't see any of the light show/music theatricality before the Clemson game, so I found the pregame, "Zombie Nation" light display especially heart-pumping.
-I completely forgot about Chase Rettig's statistical success during his time at BC. Rettig missed a bowl game in two of his four years as QB1, but he had some positively electric games. He finished his career as one of only four BC quarterbacks with 8,000 yards passing, and his 52 touchdowns are only four less than Matt Ryan. His 441 yards against Miami in 2012 are still sixth all time for a single game in program history.
-A quick shoutout is also in order for Nate Freese, who returned with Rettig on Friday. The former seventh-round draft pick remains the only Boston College player with over 300 career points, and his 70 field goals made are 13 more than the next closest kicker. He's the only player to hit four field goals in a game three different times, and he remains the only kicker with 20-made field goals in two different seasons. Freese is one of two kickers ever drafted by BC, the other being Fred Steinfort (Oakland, 5th round, 1976).
*****
Third Down: AJ Dillon
The loss forces a near-universal analysis of what went wrong, but there were some positives to glean off of the offense's performance. The offensive line experienced early surges against the Kansas defensive front, and AJ Dillon pounded the Jayhawks for his first 100-yard game of the season. He had 131 yards in the first half and hurdled his way into six points on BC's first drive as the holes simply opened against the three down linemen.
It was Dillon's 28th career rushing touchdown and tied him for third place overall in program history with Andre Williams, five behind second place William Green. It was also Dillon's 17th career game with at least one rushing touchdown and his 13th career 100-yard game. It was also his first 100-yard game since the Florida STate game last year, and it tied him with WIlliams for the fifth-most in BC history.
"(Kansas) had 400 yards of offense in the first half, (and) I thought we were matching it pretty good," Steve Addazio said. "In the second half, when we had our first opportunity, we got out of our game a little bit. (The Kansas offense) affects the way you call plays on offense. You don't want to be three-and-out, (but) you're afraid to give them field (position)."
*****
Fourth Down: Lost Synergy
I often use the term "synergy" to describe how Boston College plays its three phases of a football game. Offensive time of possession chews the clock enough to impose pressure on an opposing offense, forcing risks against the Eagles' defense. The advantageous defense capitalizes on inherent situational mistakes, eventually putting its offense back on the field against a tired opposing defense. The offense can then score, which requires special teams assistance, creating a cycle against the BC defense. Everything is intertwined.
The whole process can be thrown out of synergy, though, if one of the phases doesn't hold its end of the bargain. BC only trailed by three points at halftime but fell out of sync in the third quarter. The offense didn't sustain momentum, and the defense wound up on the field far too often. The Eagles had 28 yards of total offense in the quarter with only one first down, forcing its own defense back on the field too frequently. Kansas, meanwhile, had over 12 minutes of possession with 11 first downs, eight by rushing.
"In the second half on offense, we did not have enough explosives," Steve Addazio said. "We missed two many opportunities. I don't remember every drive, but there were some key penalties that were getting us off-schedule in the second half. We had a fumble that knocked us back a little in field position. We had a couple, at least two, offsides penalties. In a game where, if you don't match every drive, you get behind so quick, this is what can happen to you."
The coup-de-grace came at the beginning of the fourth quarter when the offense finally began moving the ball against the Kansas defense. It took 14 plays to move 69 yards in under four minutes after Kobay White started earning space in the receiving game. Anthony Brown hit him for two passes and moved the chains for 12 yards, and it set up an Aaron Boumerhi field goal attempt from 30 yards out. Boumerhi, who earlier hit a 40-yard attempt, pushed it wide, ending the last true BC threat.
"I felt like, as long as we kept it within a 10-point game, we still had an opportunity to come back through," Addazio said. "It was three scores there, and we moved the ball down the field and got into field goal range. At that point, take the three while you have the field goal range. Well, we didn't hit the three, and then after that, I thought we got a little bit sideways, probably pressing too hard."
*****
Point After Attempt: Rutgers
In Thursday afternoon's W2WF post, I specifically mentioned my personal aversion to making record predictions. I simply don't make them anymore because there are too many variables during regular season games. There is no way to predict November without passing through September, and the way a team plays in September doesn't dictate the rest of a season.
There are examples everywhere because teams can start fast or start slow before heating up or petering out. Syracuse was 4-0 last year when it lost to both Clemson and Pittsburgh in late September and early October, but the Orange rallied to finish the season 10-3 with a win over West Virginia in the Camping World Bowl. West Virginia, by the way, lost its last three games after ascending to No. 7 nationally.
NC State was 5-0 to start the season before losing three of four games, but it still advanced to the Gator Bowl with a three-game winning streak.
Pittsburgh was 3-4 after losing to Notre Dame but won four in a row to win the Coastal Division last season - after a final week loss to Miami.
Even BC last year opened the year 7-2 before circumstances shoved the Eagles into a 7-5 overall record.
The point is that the loss stings, but there's a long way to go before the year ends. A record is only as good as the current week; BC is "0-1" in last week's season, as far as I'm concerned, and it now heads to Rutgers to fix the mistakes from this week and go "1-0" on next week.
Rutgers, meanwhile, is awaiting the Eagles after a bye week. The Scarlet Knights lost at No. 19 Iowa, 30-0, in their Big 10 season debut but rallied from a 21-7 first quarter deficit to beat UMass, 48-21, in the first game of the year.
It begins the process of turning hope into reality, but unwritten and unspoken risks exist under the surface. The impossibility of ties means one team needs to lose, whether it's a close, hard-fought game or a blowout. It's a big reason why wins are so emotional and why losses feel soul-crushing.
Boston College opened Friday night with a touchdown drive and used an interception to quickly extend its lead over Kansas to 10-0 in the first five minutes of the first quarter. It was an invigorating moment for the Eagles filled with optimism and pride. It, unfortunately, would also be the high water mark of the game.
The Jayhawks adjusted on defense and used an offensive explosion to score on seven consecutive possessions. It ruined the excitement, leaving BC saddled with a 48-24 defeat after the smoke from the opening fireworks cleared.
"Obviously not a very good performance by us," BC head coach Steve Addazio said. "(I) give a lot of credit to Les Miles and their team. I thought they got their kids to play hard, and I thought they did a great job out there."
Defeat often leaves teams seeking answers and pointing fingers at exposed issues. The film study will be particularly grisly because it hard-codes a negative performance review into the entire season. It creates benchmarks for improvement, but it's also a necessary evil after a disappointing performance. That's all pretty easy to admit.
How a team responds, though, is what defines a season. Grit isn't about how a team plays when it's at its best; toughness and character shine through when a team responds after a loss or setback. There were plenty of them on Friday night, and that will set the table for the rest of this week and beyond.
"Obviously, I did not do a good enough job getting our team ready to play," Addazio said. "I'm responsible for that, and it's my job to make sure we get that fixed. We've got to get back on the tape, find out where our mistakes were, find out where the issues were, get them corrected, and get ready to go down to New Jersey next week (to) get ready to play another game (against Rutgers)."
Here's what was learned from Friday's loss to the Jayhawks:
*****
First Down: Gashed
BC trailed Kansas, 21-17, in the second quarter when Anthony Brown hit Hunter Long for a 42-yard pass to move the Eagles to the outskirts of the Jayhawk red zone. A second connection to Korab Idrizi moved the ball to the 12, and it pushed Kansas to its heels with a timeout with 52 seconds left.
It took all of one play call to give the Eagles the lead. BC ran a double reverse, wide receiver option pass to CJ Lewis, who hit the quarterback in stride for a touchdown. It flipped momentum back to the home side, apparently pushing the Maroon and Gold ahead, 24-21, with halftime approaching after Danny Longman's kickoff to the Kansas 15.
Khalil Herbert said otherwise. He slashed a run to the right side and burst through the line of scrimmage into the second level. He gained the sideline before defensive back Mehdi El-Attrach became aware of his presence in the open field, and a missed tackle sprung him for an 82-yard gain. A touchdown came three plays later, and it all but evaporated any BC momentum.
"Backbreaker," Steve Addazio said after the game. "We came back, regained momentum, went up on top. We had a run blitz on. When you blitz, you've got every gap covered. Every gap's supposed to be covered. Apparently it was not. Somebody must not have been in a gap, and that was a backbreaker."
Until that point, Kansas barely had 20 yards on a handful of second quarter carries after a first quarter in which it had 38 yards on eight carries. That one run, though, seemingly shell-shocked BC, and the Kansas offensive line began generating gaps and surges for the running game as tackling became a liability. The third quarter drew to a close with Herbert nearly hitting 100 yards and Pooka Williams grabbing 66 yards on 10 carries and a score, and the Jayhawks rushed for 166 yards coming out of halftime.Â
The Jayhawks finished the game with 329 yards rushing, 12th most against the Eagles since 1996.
"That's my responsibility to make sure that we tackle better than that," Addazio said. "I thought we tackled well (against Virginia Tech). I thought there was some mixed bag (against Richmond), and I thought we missed a lot of tackles (on Friday). It wasn't like those weren't talented guys (running the ball), but we need to tackle better."
*****
Second Down: Missed Opportunities
Kansas head coach Les Miles endorsed Carter Stanley this week after the quarterback struggled with decision-making, completion yardage and turnovers against Coastal Carolina. That ringing support paid off on Friday when the senior lit up Alumni Stadium went 20-of-27 for 238 yards and three touchdowns.
It didn't start with sunshine and rainbows, though. Stanley started the game with a poor screen pass to Pooka Williams, then floated an interception to Mehdi El-Attrach on his second play from scrimmage. After that, though, he was on fire, going 12-for-12 on his next dozen plays and connecting for explosive plays with wide receiver Andrew Parchment.
"Our coaches do a great job of getting us great looks," Stanley said. "It's the same thing this whole team had to do this past weekend. We had to flush it. We had a disappointing result (against Coastal Carolina), but we knew it was back to work the next day. I'm extremely thankful for these coaches and the looks that they gave us."
Stanley helped Parchment burn the defense for eight catches, 100 yards and two touchdowns by capitalizing on BC's issues switching on routes. The Jayhawks spread the field with four wide receiver sets, and it isolated linebackers in single coverage in the first level. The linebackers let the receivers switch to the defensive backfield, but it created a soft spot for open routes over the middle.
"I think we're in the RPO world a little bit more than we've been," Les Miles said. "I think that benefits us."
*****
Halftime Hits
-I was on vacation with my wife last year and didn't see any of the light show/music theatricality before the Clemson game, so I found the pregame, "Zombie Nation" light display especially heart-pumping.
-I completely forgot about Chase Rettig's statistical success during his time at BC. Rettig missed a bowl game in two of his four years as QB1, but he had some positively electric games. He finished his career as one of only four BC quarterbacks with 8,000 yards passing, and his 52 touchdowns are only four less than Matt Ryan. His 441 yards against Miami in 2012 are still sixth all time for a single game in program history.
-A quick shoutout is also in order for Nate Freese, who returned with Rettig on Friday. The former seventh-round draft pick remains the only Boston College player with over 300 career points, and his 70 field goals made are 13 more than the next closest kicker. He's the only player to hit four field goals in a game three different times, and he remains the only kicker with 20-made field goals in two different seasons. Freese is one of two kickers ever drafted by BC, the other being Fred Steinfort (Oakland, 5th round, 1976).
*****
Third Down: AJ Dillon
The loss forces a near-universal analysis of what went wrong, but there were some positives to glean off of the offense's performance. The offensive line experienced early surges against the Kansas defensive front, and AJ Dillon pounded the Jayhawks for his first 100-yard game of the season. He had 131 yards in the first half and hurdled his way into six points on BC's first drive as the holes simply opened against the three down linemen.
It was Dillon's 28th career rushing touchdown and tied him for third place overall in program history with Andre Williams, five behind second place William Green. It was also Dillon's 17th career game with at least one rushing touchdown and his 13th career 100-yard game. It was also his first 100-yard game since the Florida STate game last year, and it tied him with WIlliams for the fifth-most in BC history.
"(Kansas) had 400 yards of offense in the first half, (and) I thought we were matching it pretty good," Steve Addazio said. "In the second half, when we had our first opportunity, we got out of our game a little bit. (The Kansas offense) affects the way you call plays on offense. You don't want to be three-and-out, (but) you're afraid to give them field (position)."
*****
Fourth Down: Lost Synergy
I often use the term "synergy" to describe how Boston College plays its three phases of a football game. Offensive time of possession chews the clock enough to impose pressure on an opposing offense, forcing risks against the Eagles' defense. The advantageous defense capitalizes on inherent situational mistakes, eventually putting its offense back on the field against a tired opposing defense. The offense can then score, which requires special teams assistance, creating a cycle against the BC defense. Everything is intertwined.
The whole process can be thrown out of synergy, though, if one of the phases doesn't hold its end of the bargain. BC only trailed by three points at halftime but fell out of sync in the third quarter. The offense didn't sustain momentum, and the defense wound up on the field far too often. The Eagles had 28 yards of total offense in the quarter with only one first down, forcing its own defense back on the field too frequently. Kansas, meanwhile, had over 12 minutes of possession with 11 first downs, eight by rushing.
"In the second half on offense, we did not have enough explosives," Steve Addazio said. "We missed two many opportunities. I don't remember every drive, but there were some key penalties that were getting us off-schedule in the second half. We had a fumble that knocked us back a little in field position. We had a couple, at least two, offsides penalties. In a game where, if you don't match every drive, you get behind so quick, this is what can happen to you."
The coup-de-grace came at the beginning of the fourth quarter when the offense finally began moving the ball against the Kansas defense. It took 14 plays to move 69 yards in under four minutes after Kobay White started earning space in the receiving game. Anthony Brown hit him for two passes and moved the chains for 12 yards, and it set up an Aaron Boumerhi field goal attempt from 30 yards out. Boumerhi, who earlier hit a 40-yard attempt, pushed it wide, ending the last true BC threat.
"I felt like, as long as we kept it within a 10-point game, we still had an opportunity to come back through," Addazio said. "It was three scores there, and we moved the ball down the field and got into field goal range. At that point, take the three while you have the field goal range. Well, we didn't hit the three, and then after that, I thought we got a little bit sideways, probably pressing too hard."
*****
Point After Attempt: Rutgers
In Thursday afternoon's W2WF post, I specifically mentioned my personal aversion to making record predictions. I simply don't make them anymore because there are too many variables during regular season games. There is no way to predict November without passing through September, and the way a team plays in September doesn't dictate the rest of a season.
There are examples everywhere because teams can start fast or start slow before heating up or petering out. Syracuse was 4-0 last year when it lost to both Clemson and Pittsburgh in late September and early October, but the Orange rallied to finish the season 10-3 with a win over West Virginia in the Camping World Bowl. West Virginia, by the way, lost its last three games after ascending to No. 7 nationally.
NC State was 5-0 to start the season before losing three of four games, but it still advanced to the Gator Bowl with a three-game winning streak.
Pittsburgh was 3-4 after losing to Notre Dame but won four in a row to win the Coastal Division last season - after a final week loss to Miami.
Even BC last year opened the year 7-2 before circumstances shoved the Eagles into a 7-5 overall record.
The point is that the loss stings, but there's a long way to go before the year ends. A record is only as good as the current week; BC is "0-1" in last week's season, as far as I'm concerned, and it now heads to Rutgers to fix the mistakes from this week and go "1-0" on next week.
Rutgers, meanwhile, is awaiting the Eagles after a bye week. The Scarlet Knights lost at No. 19 Iowa, 30-0, in their Big 10 season debut but rallied from a 21-7 first quarter deficit to beat UMass, 48-21, in the first game of the year.
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