Photo by: Kait Devir
Four Downs: Temple
September 19, 2021 | Football, #ForBoston Files
BC cruised to a 28-3 win with a stalwart defense and relentless running game.
The Boston College football program faced real questions this week about its future prospects for the 2021 season. The Eagles were 2-0, but mounting injuries cost them their starting quarterback in addition to earlier losses along the defensive line. Wide receiver Zay Flowers was additionally hurt last week, and even though he returned to finish the game against UMass, the sight of a star player writhing on the ground was more commonplace than anyone desired.
It cast real doubt over the expected greatness of the team, but BC answered that bell on Saturday in the first game since it lost both Phil Jurkovec and kicker Aaron Boumerhi for an extended period with a dominant 28-3 win over the Temple Owls. It was, at times, an unpretty game, but by creating and completing a team-based synergy, the Eagles instead showed what can happen for a program built by individuals bound by a greater purpose.
"It was a team victory, which is so much fun," head coach Jeff Hafley said after the game. "The offense had their moment. Special teams was solid. The defense was lights out. That's how we have to win games. I thought the coaches coached really well, and our players did a nice job."
BC creamed Temple in all three phases of the game and won by recreating the solid consistent play expected out Hafley's team. A four-speared attack on the ground rushed for 200 yards, and both freshman Jaden Williams emerged as the most reliable receiver for quarterback Dennis Grosel in the limited use of the air game.Â
Temple's offense, meanwhile, stagnated while BC exorcised an old demon by holding dual-threat quarterback Justin Lynch to virtually nothing. He went 17-of-24 passing for 161 yards and completed a 32-yard explosive play, but he spent the entire game under duress and was sacked four times. He was particularly ineffective in the first quarter when he failed to gain a first down on his first three drives, and a mixed rush defense built around both blitz and downfield coverages confused and forced him into uncomfortable mistakes.
"We believe in our scheme," Hafley said, "and we believe in our staff. We believe in the players, and truthfully, we got back to just being ourselves, not worrying about who we're playing. We played our scheme and played for each other. That's all we talked about [this week] and just the way [it] bounced back after last week was really impressive. We almost had a second shutout. We had four three-and-outs in the first five possessions. That doesn't [just] happen, and that was really impressive."
The game regained BC's mojo and stoked the Eagles' fires for a potential shot at the national polls. They remained one of two undefeated teams in the ACC and bolstered numbers already ranked among the nation's elite. It kept the team in an advantageous spot heading into the final non-conference week of the season.
Here's more from the win in the City of Brother Love:
*****
First Down: Throwback
The early three-and-outs forebode the problems Temple faced over the entire game, and the rest of the first half didn't get much better for the Owls after they turned the ball over on downs on their fourth drive. They had another three-and-out and watched as BC finished the half with a 21-0 lead, and their failure to do much in those first two quarters set a tone that kept them out of the end zone at the end of the game.
Temple finished with 239 yards to record the second-lowest total of the Jeff Hafley era and the lowest number of yards posted by an FBS team against BC since Hafley's arrival. The Owls failed to gain 100 yards rushing and averaged only 2.2 yards per carry and struggled overall to move the ball with any type of momentum. They also committed 11 penalties in a sign of what happened to BC last week and failed to score while running a game-high 60 plays on offense.
"We stopped them four times on four downs inside the red zone multiple times," Hafley said. "There was a big hit in there by [Isaiah Graham-Mobley] and big time discipline football. We were a disciplined defense that just focused on their job, and I can't wait to watch the tape."
Even the advanced situational numbers thumbed the scale against Temple after BC recorded four sacks and held the Owls to three third-down conversions in 14 attempts. Both Khris Banks and Isaiah Graham-Mobley - Temple transfers to BC - finished with at least five tackles, and Graham-Mobley's stop to force a turnover on downs particularly stamped his return to his own club.
Part of it was by the design of a BC game plan combining elements of clock control and game management over the organic explosive plays, but a big piece of it was the added focus on the defensive mindset after last week's game. The Eagles slashed their penalty count while keeping Lynch off-kilter, and downfield coverage cost him the ability to check off to different receivers.
BC simply confused Lynch from the outset, and the obvious happy feet and inability to find secondary receivers likewise forced him to lock onto first targets. And while his undeniable skill enabled him to work through the second half, it was obvious how much the Eagles feasted on a freshman, rookie quarterback.
"IGM had a couple of big stops," Hafley said, "and Khris played really hard. What I said to the team in [the locker room] is that the coolest part about our team is when we get transfers. It's not, 'This guy's here to take my job.' Our team welcomes them, and they want [the transfers] to succeed, which is so different right now in college football."
*****
Second Down: Holy Horsepower, Batman!
The overall recalibration enabled BC to rediscover its power running game, and the Eagles crushed Temple's front seven with 187 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. Four to five different players got involved and exhibited a different style from the typical high-flying Frank Cignetti offense, but the design and intent found the mojo that was arguably missing for much of last year.
"We set the tone and wore them out a little bit in the first half," Jeff Hafley said. "It was cool to see [Alec Sinkfield] come in with a ton of juice and finish them off at the end of the game. I thought our backs played well, I thought the [offensive line] played well. They brought a ton of guys up to fire some gaps."
The added emphasis on the running game enabled BC to control the clock for the first half, and the Eagles finished the second quarter with almost 18 minutes of possession time. It slipped in the third quarter when Temple held control for over 11 minutes, but the defense's success enabled Patrick Garwo and Alec Sinkfield to team up with quarterback Dennis Grosel for a split fourth quarter.
"When you watch the film, I don't [second half struggles] were about anything not working," Hafley said. "A tight end might have missed his block. The guard might have just been off, and the tackle might have just been off there. All 11 guys have to execute, and they were firing guys through. They had a ton of guys at the line of scrimmage."
Hafley has often compared the first games of the season to an NFL exhibition schedule, and BC approached Saturday with an added emphasis on the running game. Grosel didn't need to throw much after the first drive, though the Eagles did try to open up the playbook at times, but the necessary work is now game film for the team to work through in order to create momentum for next weekend's game against Missouri.
*****
HAF-time Hits
-Nostra-Dad-Us came within a touchdown of hitting BC's points total for a third consecutive week. The pregame text called for a 35-14 win, so if we're dealing with a plus/minus uncertainty at all, he's still red hot through the first three games of the season.Â
-I was outside for most of yesterday and paid a dear price for not planning my wardrobe better. Jeans and a polo shirt were a great idea for the early part of the morning, but the afternoon burned the haze and clouds off to reveal a beating-hot sunshine that my body roasted under. I stayed in that state until the sun went down, but I got a really great picture of a cotton candy sky at the end of the day. Needless to say, it made the all-afternoon heat wave worth it to me.
-I was 100 percent correct about our tailgate habits last week after we ordered takeout in the Rubin household, but the leftover hot chicken pizza I consumed really set my heartburn on fire last night. Maybe I should stop eating after 9 p.m.
-Quick shoutout to my baby daughter, who rolled over the first time while I wrote up this article. Apparently she was really into what I was saying about the BC defense and needed to proofread it by rolling directly into me.
*****
Third Down: Feel the Power.
Natural questions persisted during the week about Dennis Grosel's ascension to a long-term QB1 role in the wake of Phil Jurkovec's injury, but it's impossible to answer those questions with one start in one game in September. BC didn't ask him to execute too much from the quarterback position on Saturday, so his numbers plateaued after he started the game with two quick completions for a touchdown.
"I think everybody needs to realize that it's different when you come in [off the bench]," Jeff Hafley said. "He's the starter now and he's going to be, and I thought he did a good job of managing the game. He scored 28 points, so I think he did a nice job. I really do, and he's going to get better and better. It's his first start of the year, but I think he did a nice job."
Grosel finished 5-of-13 for 34 yards, and his score and his interception came on consecutive drives to start the game after Travis Levy opened up with a long kickoff return. He threw a perfect strike to Jaden Williams for the freshman's second career touchdown, and he followed it up with a rainbow throw downfield that was picked off only because the defender made a perfect play on the ball.Â
He only completed three passes after that, but he also wasn't tasked with much after BC started gashing Temple with the run. He controlled the clock, which flipped the field and stuck the Owls into a brutal time loop of three-and-outs and softened drives. The defense got tired and couldn't get off the field, which in turn meant the offense had to rush itself to try and compensate for missed time and opportunities. That led to more mistakes and three-and-outs, which put the defense back on the field.
*****
Fourth Down: On to Missouri
The year kicked off with Boston College as one of the media's darling team sleeper picks for the ACC and the Atlantic Division. It became commonplace to expect the Eagles to compete at an elite level, and visions of walking out of Clemson with a hard-fought win started to dance through the dreams of anyone who watched BC last season.
I tried to temper those expectations with the reminder of how one misstep in September can derail an entire season's worth of vibrations. A team like Florida State came out of the first week of the season with a great feeling about the way it played against Notre Dame, but the two losses to Jacksonville State and now Wake Forest offer a very different look at an 0-3 team. Everyone's reputation is subject to change, and it's why it's important not to get too high or too low on any game or performance over the course of the year.
It was okay to expect BC to start the season with three straight wins because elite teams simply couldn't slip against the likes of Colgate or UMass or even Temple, but this week starts a very different drive towards the next home game against Missouri, a team nobody at Boston College has ever seen.
"We respect every opponent we play and prepare every week like we're playing the best team in the ACC," Jeff Hafley said. "Our guys did that, and I think each week, we've gotten better in certain phases. We're going to watch the film, and we're going to coach [the players] really hard. As long as we can keep improving, then we'll be happy, and I think we got better [against Temple]. Being 3-0, we did what we needed to do, and I'm just really happy about that right now."
People might still be wary of BC's 3-0 start, but the larger truth is that the rest of the ACC didn't exactly have the most success getting to that point. Wake Forest is the only other team with an undefeated 3-0 record after the Demon Deacons beat FSU yesterday, and nine teams have at least one loss, including five of the seven teams in the Coastal Division.Â
Nobody really knows what to expect anymore. Virginia Tech lost to unranked West Virginia yesterday but beat North Carolina to start the season. UNC, meanwhile, posted 59 points for a second consecutive week in its win over Virginia. That's the same Virginia team that beat Illinois, 42-14. The same Pittsburgh team that beat Tennessee, 41-34, lost to Western Michigan at home, 44-41.Â
The Atlantic Division isn't any different. Louisville beat Central Florida with an end-game pick-six, 42-35, but is tied overall with Syracuse, which rallied from a bad outing against Rutgers to score 62 points against Albany. Clemson is still Clemson, but the 14-8 win over Georgia Tech didn't inspire much confidence after the 10-3 loss to Georgia. And Florida State is on the verge of losing its season early - despite the fact that the Seminoles will forever haunt my dreams for a number of reasons.
That BC is 3-0 despite the injuries and pitfalls of a college football season is a cause for celebration. It's also a reminder not to predict anything because the only thing left to worry about is the next one.
*****
Point After: Missouri
It isn't too often that non-conference games produce the first ever meeting between teams these days. The majority of teams choose to play against more local opponents or teams with shared histories, so it's not often that an SEC team that used to play in the Big 12 schedules an ACC team that used to play in the Big East.Â
Yet that's what will happen next week when Missouri makes the trip to Massachusetts to play Boston College. The Tigers are an interesting team with a 2-1 record, and they likely should have been 3-0 if not for the one-touchdown difference against Kentucky. They're a team worth exploring in the SEC's East Division and a team nobody up here usually sees or knows much about.Â
On Saturday, the Tigers beat their FCS opponent when they dropped 59 points on Southeast Missouri State in a 31-point victory. They led 38-0 at halftime in that one and played three quarterbacks after Connor Bazelak went 21-for-30 for 346 yards and three touchdowns. In total, Missouri rolled 675 yards against the Redhawks and averaged more than nine yards per play in the blowout victory.
Â
It cast real doubt over the expected greatness of the team, but BC answered that bell on Saturday in the first game since it lost both Phil Jurkovec and kicker Aaron Boumerhi for an extended period with a dominant 28-3 win over the Temple Owls. It was, at times, an unpretty game, but by creating and completing a team-based synergy, the Eagles instead showed what can happen for a program built by individuals bound by a greater purpose.
"It was a team victory, which is so much fun," head coach Jeff Hafley said after the game. "The offense had their moment. Special teams was solid. The defense was lights out. That's how we have to win games. I thought the coaches coached really well, and our players did a nice job."
BC creamed Temple in all three phases of the game and won by recreating the solid consistent play expected out Hafley's team. A four-speared attack on the ground rushed for 200 yards, and both freshman Jaden Williams emerged as the most reliable receiver for quarterback Dennis Grosel in the limited use of the air game.Â
Temple's offense, meanwhile, stagnated while BC exorcised an old demon by holding dual-threat quarterback Justin Lynch to virtually nothing. He went 17-of-24 passing for 161 yards and completed a 32-yard explosive play, but he spent the entire game under duress and was sacked four times. He was particularly ineffective in the first quarter when he failed to gain a first down on his first three drives, and a mixed rush defense built around both blitz and downfield coverages confused and forced him into uncomfortable mistakes.
"We believe in our scheme," Hafley said, "and we believe in our staff. We believe in the players, and truthfully, we got back to just being ourselves, not worrying about who we're playing. We played our scheme and played for each other. That's all we talked about [this week] and just the way [it] bounced back after last week was really impressive. We almost had a second shutout. We had four three-and-outs in the first five possessions. That doesn't [just] happen, and that was really impressive."
The game regained BC's mojo and stoked the Eagles' fires for a potential shot at the national polls. They remained one of two undefeated teams in the ACC and bolstered numbers already ranked among the nation's elite. It kept the team in an advantageous spot heading into the final non-conference week of the season.
Here's more from the win in the City of Brother Love:
*****
First Down: Throwback
The early three-and-outs forebode the problems Temple faced over the entire game, and the rest of the first half didn't get much better for the Owls after they turned the ball over on downs on their fourth drive. They had another three-and-out and watched as BC finished the half with a 21-0 lead, and their failure to do much in those first two quarters set a tone that kept them out of the end zone at the end of the game.
Temple finished with 239 yards to record the second-lowest total of the Jeff Hafley era and the lowest number of yards posted by an FBS team against BC since Hafley's arrival. The Owls failed to gain 100 yards rushing and averaged only 2.2 yards per carry and struggled overall to move the ball with any type of momentum. They also committed 11 penalties in a sign of what happened to BC last week and failed to score while running a game-high 60 plays on offense.
"We stopped them four times on four downs inside the red zone multiple times," Hafley said. "There was a big hit in there by [Isaiah Graham-Mobley] and big time discipline football. We were a disciplined defense that just focused on their job, and I can't wait to watch the tape."
Even the advanced situational numbers thumbed the scale against Temple after BC recorded four sacks and held the Owls to three third-down conversions in 14 attempts. Both Khris Banks and Isaiah Graham-Mobley - Temple transfers to BC - finished with at least five tackles, and Graham-Mobley's stop to force a turnover on downs particularly stamped his return to his own club.
Part of it was by the design of a BC game plan combining elements of clock control and game management over the organic explosive plays, but a big piece of it was the added focus on the defensive mindset after last week's game. The Eagles slashed their penalty count while keeping Lynch off-kilter, and downfield coverage cost him the ability to check off to different receivers.
BC simply confused Lynch from the outset, and the obvious happy feet and inability to find secondary receivers likewise forced him to lock onto first targets. And while his undeniable skill enabled him to work through the second half, it was obvious how much the Eagles feasted on a freshman, rookie quarterback.
"IGM had a couple of big stops," Hafley said, "and Khris played really hard. What I said to the team in [the locker room] is that the coolest part about our team is when we get transfers. It's not, 'This guy's here to take my job.' Our team welcomes them, and they want [the transfers] to succeed, which is so different right now in college football."
*****
Second Down: Holy Horsepower, Batman!
The overall recalibration enabled BC to rediscover its power running game, and the Eagles crushed Temple's front seven with 187 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. Four to five different players got involved and exhibited a different style from the typical high-flying Frank Cignetti offense, but the design and intent found the mojo that was arguably missing for much of last year.
"We set the tone and wore them out a little bit in the first half," Jeff Hafley said. "It was cool to see [Alec Sinkfield] come in with a ton of juice and finish them off at the end of the game. I thought our backs played well, I thought the [offensive line] played well. They brought a ton of guys up to fire some gaps."
The added emphasis on the running game enabled BC to control the clock for the first half, and the Eagles finished the second quarter with almost 18 minutes of possession time. It slipped in the third quarter when Temple held control for over 11 minutes, but the defense's success enabled Patrick Garwo and Alec Sinkfield to team up with quarterback Dennis Grosel for a split fourth quarter.
"When you watch the film, I don't [second half struggles] were about anything not working," Hafley said. "A tight end might have missed his block. The guard might have just been off, and the tackle might have just been off there. All 11 guys have to execute, and they were firing guys through. They had a ton of guys at the line of scrimmage."
Hafley has often compared the first games of the season to an NFL exhibition schedule, and BC approached Saturday with an added emphasis on the running game. Grosel didn't need to throw much after the first drive, though the Eagles did try to open up the playbook at times, but the necessary work is now game film for the team to work through in order to create momentum for next weekend's game against Missouri.
*****
HAF-time Hits
-Nostra-Dad-Us came within a touchdown of hitting BC's points total for a third consecutive week. The pregame text called for a 35-14 win, so if we're dealing with a plus/minus uncertainty at all, he's still red hot through the first three games of the season.Â
-I was outside for most of yesterday and paid a dear price for not planning my wardrobe better. Jeans and a polo shirt were a great idea for the early part of the morning, but the afternoon burned the haze and clouds off to reveal a beating-hot sunshine that my body roasted under. I stayed in that state until the sun went down, but I got a really great picture of a cotton candy sky at the end of the day. Needless to say, it made the all-afternoon heat wave worth it to me.
-I was 100 percent correct about our tailgate habits last week after we ordered takeout in the Rubin household, but the leftover hot chicken pizza I consumed really set my heartburn on fire last night. Maybe I should stop eating after 9 p.m.
-Quick shoutout to my baby daughter, who rolled over the first time while I wrote up this article. Apparently she was really into what I was saying about the BC defense and needed to proofread it by rolling directly into me.
*****
Third Down: Feel the Power.
Natural questions persisted during the week about Dennis Grosel's ascension to a long-term QB1 role in the wake of Phil Jurkovec's injury, but it's impossible to answer those questions with one start in one game in September. BC didn't ask him to execute too much from the quarterback position on Saturday, so his numbers plateaued after he started the game with two quick completions for a touchdown.
"I think everybody needs to realize that it's different when you come in [off the bench]," Jeff Hafley said. "He's the starter now and he's going to be, and I thought he did a good job of managing the game. He scored 28 points, so I think he did a nice job. I really do, and he's going to get better and better. It's his first start of the year, but I think he did a nice job."
Grosel finished 5-of-13 for 34 yards, and his score and his interception came on consecutive drives to start the game after Travis Levy opened up with a long kickoff return. He threw a perfect strike to Jaden Williams for the freshman's second career touchdown, and he followed it up with a rainbow throw downfield that was picked off only because the defender made a perfect play on the ball.Â
He only completed three passes after that, but he also wasn't tasked with much after BC started gashing Temple with the run. He controlled the clock, which flipped the field and stuck the Owls into a brutal time loop of three-and-outs and softened drives. The defense got tired and couldn't get off the field, which in turn meant the offense had to rush itself to try and compensate for missed time and opportunities. That led to more mistakes and three-and-outs, which put the defense back on the field.
*****
Fourth Down: On to Missouri
The year kicked off with Boston College as one of the media's darling team sleeper picks for the ACC and the Atlantic Division. It became commonplace to expect the Eagles to compete at an elite level, and visions of walking out of Clemson with a hard-fought win started to dance through the dreams of anyone who watched BC last season.
I tried to temper those expectations with the reminder of how one misstep in September can derail an entire season's worth of vibrations. A team like Florida State came out of the first week of the season with a great feeling about the way it played against Notre Dame, but the two losses to Jacksonville State and now Wake Forest offer a very different look at an 0-3 team. Everyone's reputation is subject to change, and it's why it's important not to get too high or too low on any game or performance over the course of the year.
It was okay to expect BC to start the season with three straight wins because elite teams simply couldn't slip against the likes of Colgate or UMass or even Temple, but this week starts a very different drive towards the next home game against Missouri, a team nobody at Boston College has ever seen.
"We respect every opponent we play and prepare every week like we're playing the best team in the ACC," Jeff Hafley said. "Our guys did that, and I think each week, we've gotten better in certain phases. We're going to watch the film, and we're going to coach [the players] really hard. As long as we can keep improving, then we'll be happy, and I think we got better [against Temple]. Being 3-0, we did what we needed to do, and I'm just really happy about that right now."
People might still be wary of BC's 3-0 start, but the larger truth is that the rest of the ACC didn't exactly have the most success getting to that point. Wake Forest is the only other team with an undefeated 3-0 record after the Demon Deacons beat FSU yesterday, and nine teams have at least one loss, including five of the seven teams in the Coastal Division.Â
Nobody really knows what to expect anymore. Virginia Tech lost to unranked West Virginia yesterday but beat North Carolina to start the season. UNC, meanwhile, posted 59 points for a second consecutive week in its win over Virginia. That's the same Virginia team that beat Illinois, 42-14. The same Pittsburgh team that beat Tennessee, 41-34, lost to Western Michigan at home, 44-41.Â
The Atlantic Division isn't any different. Louisville beat Central Florida with an end-game pick-six, 42-35, but is tied overall with Syracuse, which rallied from a bad outing against Rutgers to score 62 points against Albany. Clemson is still Clemson, but the 14-8 win over Georgia Tech didn't inspire much confidence after the 10-3 loss to Georgia. And Florida State is on the verge of losing its season early - despite the fact that the Seminoles will forever haunt my dreams for a number of reasons.
That BC is 3-0 despite the injuries and pitfalls of a college football season is a cause for celebration. It's also a reminder not to predict anything because the only thing left to worry about is the next one.
*****
Point After: Missouri
It isn't too often that non-conference games produce the first ever meeting between teams these days. The majority of teams choose to play against more local opponents or teams with shared histories, so it's not often that an SEC team that used to play in the Big 12 schedules an ACC team that used to play in the Big East.Â
Yet that's what will happen next week when Missouri makes the trip to Massachusetts to play Boston College. The Tigers are an interesting team with a 2-1 record, and they likely should have been 3-0 if not for the one-touchdown difference against Kentucky. They're a team worth exploring in the SEC's East Division and a team nobody up here usually sees or knows much about.Â
On Saturday, the Tigers beat their FCS opponent when they dropped 59 points on Southeast Missouri State in a 31-point victory. They led 38-0 at halftime in that one and played three quarterbacks after Connor Bazelak went 21-for-30 for 346 yards and three touchdowns. In total, Missouri rolled 675 yards against the Redhawks and averaged more than nine yards per play in the blowout victory.
Â
Players Mentioned
DL
/ Football
K
/ Football
WR
/ Football
LB
/ Football
QB
/ Football
QB
/ Football
RB
/ Football
RB
/ Football
WR
/ FootballFrom the Desk of Blake James: Episode 3
Friday, October 31
Joanna Bernabei-Mcnamee | The Podcast For Boston: BC Women's Basketball
Friday, October 31
Men’s Hockey: Northeastern Press Conference (Head Coach Greg Brown - Oct. 30, 2025)
Friday, October 31
Better Together | BC Men's Basketball All-Access | EPISODE 2
Thursday, October 30
