Four Downs: Syracuse

I have never started a postgame breakdown by looking at a future opponent. I believe every game is the equivalent of a one-week season, that every team and every game deserves proper analysis before moving onto the next. My natural progression starts after the final whistle, and I emotionally calm down after a game by slowly moving forward, by giving the last Saturday its proper due before transitioning into a future present, if that makes sense.

I just couldn't help myself, though, after Notre Dame beat Clemson, 47-40, in two overtimes at Notre Dame Stadium last night.

The game woke up echoes from the Florida State game in 1993, the so-called Game of the Century between Lou Holtz and Bobby Bowden. Notre Dame led that one by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter before Charlie Ward touched off a furious rally with a 4th-and-20 touchdown pass to Kez McCorvey. It nearly collapsed the Fighting Irish, and FSU only fell short when Ward failed to convert a 14-yard pass attempt to Warrick Dunn as time expired.

That game should have won Notre Dame a national championship or at least offered Holtz and Bowden a rematch in the Fiesta Bowl at the end of the season. Instead, the Irish lost at home to Boston College one week later and surrendered all claims to the national championship. The Seminoles eventually beat Nebraska for the title in the Orange Bowl, while Notre Dame finished No. 2 after beating Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.

I thought about that game because Notre Dame staked a claim to the No. 1 ranking in the nation by beating Clemson. The Tigers hadn't lost a regular season game since 2017 and stomped opponents before BC battle-hardened them last week. Quarterback DJ Uiagalelei threw for 439 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, and two receivers each went over the century mark, including Cornell Powell, who had 161 yards on six receptions and a touchdown.

Clemson's valiant effort forced Notre Dame to fight to a final whistle, but the Irish did so with Ian Book's 310 yards passing and Kyren Williams' 140 yards rushing. Williams scored three times, and Book spread the ball around to six different receivers, four of whom talled at least four receptions. Javon McKinley went over 100 yards while Avery Davis caught his only touchdown.

The surreal game bounced around America and pushed Dave Chappelle's Saturday Night Live appearance into the wee overnight hours. It changed stations while Joe Biden offered his first address since he projected to win the presidential election. It captivated sports fans and exhausted viewers into the late hours of the night.

It was the Game of the Century.

And now Notre Dame has to play Boston College.

Wake up the echoes.

Here are the observations from Boston College's 16-13 win over Syracuse.

*****
First Down: Ground and Pound

Boston College's win over Syracuse was, in a word, sludgy. The Eagles eschewed an air assault for a ground-and-pound, 47-carry day that pounded the Orange for 191 yards. The team attack averaged more than four yards against the Syracuse defensive front and controlled the clock. It kept the go fast offense off the field, especially in the third quarter, but it resulted in a low-scoring, plodding game in contrast to BC's high-flying first half of the season.

"Certainly not our cleanest game and probably not our best when we go back and look at it," BC head coach Jeff Hafley said. "But at the end of the day, we're 5-3. We were a team that was picked to finish 15th in the ACC, (and) we just won our fourth ACC game. I told the guys in the locker room that I don't care what the score is, when we win, I expect the music to be blaring and to be enjoying it with each other because we played hard, and that team fought hard."

Keeping the ball on the ground was a decision made easier by David Bailey's ability to push the football. He carried the ball 25 times for 125 yards, his fourth 100-yard game, and while he didn't score, Bailey pushed the ball between the tackles to move the chains against Syracuse's defense.

He had five carries on a 13-play drive lasting almost eight minutes in the first quarter, and he ran five consecutive plays on an 11-play drive in the second quarter. He later added two more carries on a four-minute drive that considerably shortened the period and prevented Syracuse from obtaining more than three drives.

It got worse for the Orange in the third quarter when BC ran 16 times and held the ball for more than 12 minutes. It prevented Syracuse from mounting more than one drive, and the lone field goal all but cut the opposing offense's ability to ever put points on the board. The one complaint was that the Eagles didn't punch in their own drives for touchdowns, which would have turned a three-point game into a certified blowout.

"David Bailey had 125 yards and averaged around five (yards) per carry," Hafley said. "Travis Levy had 17 (carries) and averaged 4.7 yards per carry, and had 75 yards. You would look at those stats and think we scored 28 points easily, right? But we didn't, and that means we didn't do a good enough job, and that means that Syracuse's defense stopped us."

*****
Second Down: Boston College Defense

Boston College saw every kind of possible game in the season's early goings. It won its opening game against Duke and executed a comeback against a plucky upstart in the win over Texas State. It nearly completed a comeback against a nationally-ranked opponent against North Carolina and went to the wire in overtime against Pitt. BC absorbed a blowout against Virginia Tech and rallied against Georgia Tech. Clemson showcased the Eagles as a force potentially awakening from a cocoon.

Syracuse was a completely different kind of game because it wasn't pretty, but it didn't have to be. The Eagles were simply better and followed a simple path to a win by recalling old axioms. Stingy defense held an opponent off the clock, and the offense matriculated downfield by moving the chains. It was more of a hard-nosed, rugged type of game and indicative of an older style in the rivalry, and the scoreboard showcased the defense's ability to lift the offense when points were at a premium.

"I think that shows signs of a good football team," Jeff Hafley said. "A lot of times this year, our offense has started to score a lot of points. It's not always going to happen, (and) you have games like this. It's great to see that the defense was able to step up and hold them the way they did to 13 points."

BC held Syracuse to less than 300 points of total offense and limited the Orange to less than three yards per carry on the ground. Quarterback JaCobian Morgan was efficient but only threw for 188 yards, mostly to Taj Harris. He was sacked four times and threw a coverage interception caught by Jason Maitre, and the scheme held an explosive and quick charge in full check by simply doing its job.

Max Richardson registered 10 tackles, including nine solo, and his two sacks included a delayed blitz that blew past running back Cooper Lutz. John Lamot replaced an injured Isaiah McDuffie and scored his own tackle for loss, and both Shitta Sillah and Chibueze Onwuka built havoc on the Syracuse offensive line. Luc Bequette forced and recovered his own fumble opportunity.

"I thought Tem (Lukabu) and the defensive staff did a nice job keeping them to field goals until the last drive of the game," Hafley said. "We had two takeaways, (but) we kept talking about attacking the ball. Luc (Bequette) kind of just ripped it out. Then Maitre with the interception was a great call by Tem. You wish you can capitalize on them, and we could have put (Syracuse) away. We finished today, and I talked about finishing and I kept saying (it) throughout the game, and we did finish."

*****
HAF-time Hits

-I spent all week focusing on this game as a cold weather, icy, Northeast rivalry game, but we really enjoyed picture perfect conditions this week. Temperatures rose into the 70s with bright sunshine on Friday Saturday, which meant the sun beat right through the car windows onto my low heat tolerance. Not that any of this mattered because the game was played in a dome.

-The lack of daylight is rapidly closing the window on my golf season, which is a major bummer for my game this year. I finally played enough to make major strides on the course, and losing the beginning of the season to the COVID-19 quarantine period made me appreciate playing more than ever. I snuck in a hodge-podge 18 hole round this week and walked off nine holes across two different courses to the tune of one of my best scores of the season. I don't know if that was the end of the season, but I could have played forever on Friday. What a day.

-Aaron Boumerhi kicked three field goals for the third time since he joined Boston College. That's a whole new meaning of "boom."

-This has been a year of notable passings, but Sunday's news about Alex Trebek hit hard for those of us who lovingly watched him host Jeopardy for all those decades. He was almost mythical in his battle against pancreatic cancer, that he always smiled and always adored being the steward of that show. When quarantine hit in March, I always managed to get in front of the television at 7:30 p.m. to watch Jeopardy until it ran out of new episodes, and I remarked that the show felt like a good blanket. I wouldn't always watch it, but it was always cozy, always there when I needed it. I'm glad I returned to the show, and I'm even more glad I watched the battle between James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, and Brad Rutter back in January.

*****
Third Down: JaCobian Morgan

I don't know if this was a blind spot on my own research, but I forgot about JaCobian Morgan in the run-up to Saturday's game. I focused more on the offensive scheme and looked at the past performances of both Tommy DeVito and Rex Culpepper, and it never occurred to me that Morgan was a name to focus on after Culpepper sustained an injury against Wake Forest.

That said, Morgan impressed me with his command of the Syracuse offense. The "go fast" offense is relatively easy for younger players because it relies on reflexes and athleticism, but I really liked his ability to move the football in the first half. He finished 19-of-30 passing but went 6-for-8 in the first quarter with 59 yards, and his deep ball to Anthony Queeley in the first quarter set a tone against the BC defense.

"I thought their quarterback did a nice job," Jeff Hafley said. "We saw him on film a little bit, (and) he was 19-for-30 for 188 (yards). We sacked him four times so credit to our defensive line. Early on, we were playing a little soft, and he was taking what we were giving him. Then we just decided to be more aggressive and challenge him. I give him a lot of credit."

Morgan's performance will earn him another look as a starting quarterback next week, and it's well-deserved. The Orange rarely went three-and-out until the fourth quarter, and it wasn't the offense's fault that they didn't see the ball in the third period. His last drive in the fourth quarter kept Syracuse in the game with an eight-play, 75 yard for a touchdown in under two minutes.

Syracuse is 1-6 overall, but it's not a bad football team. It has dealt with injuries and roster changes over the entire season, but it hung with a well-conditioned Boston College team. There are bright spots on the roster, and Morgan, even though a freshman, is a raw pocket-passing talent. He's clearly a bright future spot for the Orange, and he showed why he threw for 2,500 yards and 30 touchdowns for the Canton Tigers in Mississippi last season.

*****
Fourth Down: Brick Wall

Morgan's chops commanded the Syracuse offense in his first start, but the running game failed to do anything against BC's defensive front. Its 52 yards was the fewest yards allowed by BC since Louisville gained 47 yards on 32 carries in 2018, and it contributed to Syracuse mustering the fewest total offensive yards since that same game.

It was a graduation of sorts for the defensive front after it held both Georgia Tech and Clemson to just over 100 yards. Both teams ran for 106 yards on 30-plus carries, and Pittsburgh's 98-yard output on 40 carries now gives BC 110 yards or less allowed in four of its last five games. The lone outlier is the Virginia Tech game, but removal of the Hokies' 350 yards drops BC's average rushing allowed to under 115 yards by any opponent.

It's a major jump for a team that allowed nearly 200 yards per game last year and an improvement over the 150 yards allowed per game in 2018. Even with the Virginia Tech game factored in, BC is still 12th in the nation in average yards per carry and the third best defense in the ACC against any given play. It trails only North Carolina and Miami in that regard, though both teams are less than 0.10 yards better than the Eagles.

*****
Point After: Here Come The Irish

I already mentioned Notre Dame, but it's important to understand the ACC context of this week's game. The Fighting Irish, an FBS Independent until this season, are alone in first place as the league's lone undefeated conference team, and they jumped to No. 2 in the national polls after beating Clemson.

The ACC disposed of its two-division format this year in lieu of a one-division, 15-team league that will send its top two teams based on winning percentage to the conference championship game. Currently, that means Clemson would earn a second shot at the Irish for the league's automatic bid to the New Year's Six bowl games.

Miami, though, is 5-1 and less than a game behind the Tigers, and both North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest at two-loss teams with an outside shot at the league championship game. BC, with three losses, is likely out of consideration but can make some major noise with its end of season schedule.

The end of the season is going to get dicey because of tiebreakers. In any two-team tie, head-to-head competition will determine the winner, but head-to-head competition against the team with the best overall winning percentage is the secondary tiebreaker before moving down the conference. Overall win percentage versus all common opponents is the tertiary condition before the winning percentage against common opponents based upon order of finish.

That means that the teams ahead of Boston College will likely watch where teams finish behind them. Virginia Tech and North Carolina, for example, hold a win over the Eagles but are still right behind both Clemson, Miami, and, to a lesser degree, Notre Dame. If the Irish stumble, the tiebreaker scenario will potentially default to BC, especially if Clemson and Notre Dame tie.

BC hasn't played Miami, but a win over ND would be a disaster in any situation involving the other four top teams. This is a sneaky-huge game for the Irish, and any push by BC to finish fourth or higher in the league will result in a trickle-down effect.

Boston College and No. 2 Notre Dame will kick off at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday from Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill. The game can be seen on ABC and will mark BC's third appearance on the national syndicate.

Players Mentioned

David Bailey

Luc Bequette

Aaron Boumerhi

John Lamot

Travis Levy

Jason Maitre

Isaiah McDuffie

Chibueze Onwuka

Max Richardson

Shitta Sillah

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