Photo by: Joe Sullivan
BC Beats Virginia By Winning Battle in the Trenches
October 03, 2023 | Football, #ForBoston Files
The defensive line besieged Tony Muskett by committing to its aggressiveness.
Saturday's 27-24 win over Virginia felt like a resurgent performance by the Boston College football program. A 14-point halftime deficit evaporated after the Eagles tilted the field, and a strong defensive performance held the Cavaliers to 36 yards of total offense in the third and fourth quarters. A recommitment to the running game in turn gashed holes in Virginia's interior defense, and a creative, fluid passing game chunked big plays against mismatches that were exploited within the secondary.
It represented a major jump forward for a team seeking a complete and total performance, and a defensive line that failed to generate pressure against Louisville in the team's first road game delivered knockout blows in its return to Alumni Stadium. A season-high five sacks in particular put Virginia quarterback Tony Muskett on his back, but the seven quarterback hurries severed connections at the point of attack and generated the kind of day that made coaches smile while watching back the film in the win's afterglow.
"I really thought it clicked after [Virginia's] second score," said head coach Jeff Hafley. "We pretty much shut [Muskett] down after that, other than the Hail Mary, and in the second half, I think it started from the defensive line. They were aggressive. We pressured more off the ball, and all they had was three points that came from a six-play, 12-yard drive. That's the most physical, most violent that our defensive line has been, and I think that's a combination of coaching playing. We cut them loose, and I think we need to do that more."
Virginia entered Saturday with one of the nation's highest number of sacks allowed, but the pressure sustained by the BC defense earned its success by committing to a scheme centered around several different points of attack. The more passive attack in the early alignment caused havoc in the second half by chipping away at the line, and it particularly didn't overreact to the slow start that produced two early touchdowns for the Cavaliers' offense.
BC simply outworked Virginia on Saturday, and it used a combination of scheme and intelligence to create mismatches and assignment issues for tackles Ugonna Nnanna and McKale Boley. Guards Noah Josey and Ty Furnish were subsequently wiped out of their support roles by the defensive tackles, and Muskett eventually found himself with collapsed pockets as pressure came from the off-center positions.
"I noticed that they were flipping right tackles," said defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku. "I noticed that was, I would say, a weak point, so being able to watch film and see those weaknesses, we were just able to exploit those weaknesses. It was an emphasis for Coach Hafley and our defensive line coach, Coach Vince [Oghobaase]. We knew that they had a relatively mobile quarterback, but we had guys and athletes. We can't keep holding each other back, and that was the message [during] the week - just go after him, and Khris Banks, George Rooks, Cam Horsely, Neto Okpala, Shitta Sillah, myself…we just had to go after him."
Muskett finished 22-for-34 for 247 yards and three touchdowns, but the large bulk of his performance came on three drives during a first half in which he was 16-for-21 for 218 yards. The Hail Mary at the end of the second quarter accounted for 40 of those yards with one play, and a further 52 occurred on the first drive when he threw for three first downs and later completed a five-yard flat pass for a touchdown. Gifted a short field on a third drive at the start of the second quarter, Muskett essentially threw for 124 yards on a handful of plays.
"The mindset for defense on every play is to get a stop and eventually get a three-and-out," defensive tackle George Rooks said, "especially when there's two minutes to go or in the fourth quarter. That's the premium, and we had to stop and get them off the field to get the ball. I think we answered that in the second half. We were very excited and very motivated to get the job done, and after last week's performance [against Louisville], we had a chip on our shoulder. In that fourth quarter, we took a stand."
Virginia threw unique looks at BC's defense, but the Cavaliers couldn't answer how the Eagles attacked the front five at the line of scrimmage even after changing personnel. They largely kept the same players on the field, but flipping the tackles from the left-to-right side and vice-versa didn't do enough to keep Muskett upright. He was sacked both at the end of the third quarter by Rooks and at the start of the fourth quarter by Banks, and a hurry from Rooks later in the fourth ended a drive that pushed into BC's plus territory.Â
Vinny DePalma later added a hurry on second down after the Cavaliers forced a turnover in the middle of the quarter, and both Kam Arnold and Jaylen Blackwell broke to Muskett's last throw on 4th-and-3 with two minutes remaining in the game.
"When I look at an offensive lineman, it's about how he's setting," Rooks said. "I ask about what I can do to set my moves up and what moves work. This week, Virginia had some smaller guards, so I wanted to utilize power. The week before, at Louisville, had some bigger guards, so guys would have wanted to use speed. We just have to keep looking for those tendencies, look at the film, and see what people's weaknesses are and exploit those weaknesses, and we did that [against Virginia]."
"Every guy on our team should be studying the guy they line up against," Hafley said. "What are his strength and what are his weaknesses, and whether they're flipping [personnel] or not shouldn't matter. You look at the tackles and the guards and who is best in pass protection and who is a good matchup for us because you'll want to use a bigger guy inside against guards that aren't as athletic or quick. You ask if one guys is more susceptible to speed or power, and if we can run through them, you might want to put a bigger, faster guy in there.
"It's all about matchups," he continued. "With wide receivers, it's about if there's a guy in the slot that's quicker or faster and if we want to put a quicker defensive back on the field or if it's a bigger wide-out that we'll want to put a bigger, longer DB on the field to get his hands on. It's all matchups and how you want to defend a team."
BC returns to the road this weekend when it travels to West Point to play the Army Black Knights. Kickoff is slated for noon on Saturday with television coverage available on CBS Sports Network.
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It represented a major jump forward for a team seeking a complete and total performance, and a defensive line that failed to generate pressure against Louisville in the team's first road game delivered knockout blows in its return to Alumni Stadium. A season-high five sacks in particular put Virginia quarterback Tony Muskett on his back, but the seven quarterback hurries severed connections at the point of attack and generated the kind of day that made coaches smile while watching back the film in the win's afterglow.
"I really thought it clicked after [Virginia's] second score," said head coach Jeff Hafley. "We pretty much shut [Muskett] down after that, other than the Hail Mary, and in the second half, I think it started from the defensive line. They were aggressive. We pressured more off the ball, and all they had was three points that came from a six-play, 12-yard drive. That's the most physical, most violent that our defensive line has been, and I think that's a combination of coaching playing. We cut them loose, and I think we need to do that more."
Virginia entered Saturday with one of the nation's highest number of sacks allowed, but the pressure sustained by the BC defense earned its success by committing to a scheme centered around several different points of attack. The more passive attack in the early alignment caused havoc in the second half by chipping away at the line, and it particularly didn't overreact to the slow start that produced two early touchdowns for the Cavaliers' offense.
BC simply outworked Virginia on Saturday, and it used a combination of scheme and intelligence to create mismatches and assignment issues for tackles Ugonna Nnanna and McKale Boley. Guards Noah Josey and Ty Furnish were subsequently wiped out of their support roles by the defensive tackles, and Muskett eventually found himself with collapsed pockets as pressure came from the off-center positions.
"I noticed that they were flipping right tackles," said defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku. "I noticed that was, I would say, a weak point, so being able to watch film and see those weaknesses, we were just able to exploit those weaknesses. It was an emphasis for Coach Hafley and our defensive line coach, Coach Vince [Oghobaase]. We knew that they had a relatively mobile quarterback, but we had guys and athletes. We can't keep holding each other back, and that was the message [during] the week - just go after him, and Khris Banks, George Rooks, Cam Horsely, Neto Okpala, Shitta Sillah, myself…we just had to go after him."
Muskett finished 22-for-34 for 247 yards and three touchdowns, but the large bulk of his performance came on three drives during a first half in which he was 16-for-21 for 218 yards. The Hail Mary at the end of the second quarter accounted for 40 of those yards with one play, and a further 52 occurred on the first drive when he threw for three first downs and later completed a five-yard flat pass for a touchdown. Gifted a short field on a third drive at the start of the second quarter, Muskett essentially threw for 124 yards on a handful of plays.
"The mindset for defense on every play is to get a stop and eventually get a three-and-out," defensive tackle George Rooks said, "especially when there's two minutes to go or in the fourth quarter. That's the premium, and we had to stop and get them off the field to get the ball. I think we answered that in the second half. We were very excited and very motivated to get the job done, and after last week's performance [against Louisville], we had a chip on our shoulder. In that fourth quarter, we took a stand."
Virginia threw unique looks at BC's defense, but the Cavaliers couldn't answer how the Eagles attacked the front five at the line of scrimmage even after changing personnel. They largely kept the same players on the field, but flipping the tackles from the left-to-right side and vice-versa didn't do enough to keep Muskett upright. He was sacked both at the end of the third quarter by Rooks and at the start of the fourth quarter by Banks, and a hurry from Rooks later in the fourth ended a drive that pushed into BC's plus territory.Â
Vinny DePalma later added a hurry on second down after the Cavaliers forced a turnover in the middle of the quarter, and both Kam Arnold and Jaylen Blackwell broke to Muskett's last throw on 4th-and-3 with two minutes remaining in the game.
"When I look at an offensive lineman, it's about how he's setting," Rooks said. "I ask about what I can do to set my moves up and what moves work. This week, Virginia had some smaller guards, so I wanted to utilize power. The week before, at Louisville, had some bigger guards, so guys would have wanted to use speed. We just have to keep looking for those tendencies, look at the film, and see what people's weaknesses are and exploit those weaknesses, and we did that [against Virginia]."
"Every guy on our team should be studying the guy they line up against," Hafley said. "What are his strength and what are his weaknesses, and whether they're flipping [personnel] or not shouldn't matter. You look at the tackles and the guards and who is best in pass protection and who is a good matchup for us because you'll want to use a bigger guy inside against guards that aren't as athletic or quick. You ask if one guys is more susceptible to speed or power, and if we can run through them, you might want to put a bigger, faster guy in there.
"It's all about matchups," he continued. "With wide receivers, it's about if there's a guy in the slot that's quicker or faster and if we want to put a quicker defensive back on the field or if it's a bigger wide-out that we'll want to put a bigger, longer DB on the field to get his hands on. It's all matchups and how you want to defend a team."
BC returns to the road this weekend when it travels to West Point to play the Army Black Knights. Kickoff is slated for noon on Saturday with television coverage available on CBS Sports Network.
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Players Mentioned
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