Photo by: Kelly Coughlan
The Replay: Army
October 08, 2023 | Football, #ForBoston Files
Soggy-but-happy Eagles left West Point with a hard-fought win.
The players on the Boston College football team knew preparations for Saturday's game against Army required a different perspective and viewpoint compared to any other opponent on the Eagles' schedule. The Black Knights ran a funky, option-based offense capable of gashing opposing defenses, and the service academy's legendary toughness and discipline translated to a guaranteed slugfest for the full four quarters. They anticipated a different approach, but they boxed it into the standard work week built around the combination of past review and future preparations.
The early part of the week helped them understand how they beat Virginia, and the midweek's transition helped them plan for Army's idiosyncrasies. Yet all of that changed near the end of the week when the weather forecast forced them to strip the game plan of all but its component parts in the hours prior to their departure for West Point. They eliminated their complexities and approached the Black Knights knowing that the slippery rain would make the game unique to the degree that they had to counter strength with strength, but the general digestion enabled them to pave a quick road to a 27-24 victory that felt respected and earned from the Michie Stadium faithful.
"We simplified it," said head coach Jeff Hafley after the game. "We threw some calls out because we kind of shrunk down what we were doing. If we went with all of our calls, we wouldn't have the time to [show] it against some of the stuff that they do that we haven't seen. So we condensed it. We threw out one coverage, we put in a couple of blitzes and some different coverages, and we just focused on putting guys where we felt we could stop their run."
The pounding rain along the Hudson River grounded Castellanos to less than 10 attempts, and neither team committed itself to passing the ball with any type of regularity. The six combined first downs via the pass were less than the number of first downs either team achieved with its running game, and the 178 combined passing yards were marginally better than the 163 yards gained by Army's running game.Â
The combined passing yards and Army's rushing game were around what BC gained with its forward rushing game, and the 31 runs from BC's quarterback were more than the combined attempts of the next two runners (BC's Patrick Garwo and Army quarterback Bryson Daily each had 14 carries). There were almost as many BC punts as Castellanos had completions.
The adverse conditions impacted both teams, but BC avoided a disappointment after Army's second half rally by simply sticking to the stripped down plan. Castellanos threw two passes and completed one throw for eight yards in the fourth quarter while Daily wound up having thrown seven times out of an offense more readily recognized by its running prowess. The Eagles bled the clock with over nine minutes of possession time with 20 carries, and the final, game-winning drive took the fourth quarter into its final seconds by going 62 yards over 12 plays and just under five minutes.
None of those plays required a pass, and the final run from Castellanos illustrated exactly how BC set up Army for the last score when he ran off-guard on the right side and allowed both tight end George Takacs and running back Kye Robichaux to blow the road initially cleared by the offensive line. Having burned the first two plays from inside the Army five-yard line, the run was different because the Black Knights' entire eight-man front bailed left against a shifty block by the offensive line, to which a hole inadvertently opened for Castellanos.
It was the fourth and final score for a quarterback who became the first BC player to score four rushing touchdowns since the infamous AJ Dillon Game against Louisville in 2017, and it capped a day in which BC finished with two 100-yard rushers in Castellanos and Pat Garwo, who averaged eight yards per carry en route to 111 yards on the ground. He broke off a 50-yard run earlier in the game, but plowing through the teeth of the Army front allowed him to crack 100 yards for the fifth time in his career.
"There were some monster holes the whole game," Hafley said. "We ran the ball for [almost] 300 yards, and that doesn't happen very often. Ozzy [Trapilo] was out, and Jack Conley gets in the game. Jack played all of last year, so we have a lot of trust in him, but I really thought [the offensive line] did a good job."
Having two 100-yard rushers hadn't happened for BC since Dillon and David Bailey gashed Syracuse during a 2019 game, but it became a requirement against the stinging precipitation. The Eagles had wanted to start fast, but the definition shifted into more of a prevention mode against an offense that scored on its first drive in every prior game this season. Holding Army to a three-and-out preceded the first touchdown by Castellanos, who rolled to his right on a pass play before breaking off a 20-yard run through traffic.
"That kind of play is on me," Castellanos said. "The coaches would probably want me to keep rolling out and find a guy on the edge and probably throw the ball away, but that was just me making a play and getting to put points on the board for our team."
It wound up kicking off the start of a good old-fashioned, old-school football game, and nobody who watched the game thought one team escaped or shot itself in the foot. BC won a second consecutive game for the first time since the 2021 team beat Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech within an eight-day span, but Army didn't exactly walk itself lightly into the night. The Black Knights forced BC to earn the win, and the respect was evident after the final whistle when the Eagles assembled with the cadets for the playing of West Point's Alma Mater.
The action, simple as it looked, tinged the game with the right kind of emotion, and the post-game reaction offered a merging of the two programs into the right kind of competition so often missing in modern sports. It wasn't a moral victory for an Army team that fell to 2-3 on the season, but the Eagles, now 3-3 entering a bye week, struck the tone of a roster honored to have battled the cadets for three hours.
"Just a ton of credit and respect to Army and the way they play on the field," Hafley said. "I can't say enough about Coach Monken, that staff, those players. I appreciate everybody who comes to West Point and the sacrifices they've made. We are very grateful and very appreciative. I'm a big fan of what they do…We knew they weren't going to quit, and I told the team all week that this team prides itself on being the toughest, most disciplined team in the country. They'll never quit, and you can't make them quit."
The early part of the week helped them understand how they beat Virginia, and the midweek's transition helped them plan for Army's idiosyncrasies. Yet all of that changed near the end of the week when the weather forecast forced them to strip the game plan of all but its component parts in the hours prior to their departure for West Point. They eliminated their complexities and approached the Black Knights knowing that the slippery rain would make the game unique to the degree that they had to counter strength with strength, but the general digestion enabled them to pave a quick road to a 27-24 victory that felt respected and earned from the Michie Stadium faithful.
"We simplified it," said head coach Jeff Hafley after the game. "We threw some calls out because we kind of shrunk down what we were doing. If we went with all of our calls, we wouldn't have the time to [show] it against some of the stuff that they do that we haven't seen. So we condensed it. We threw out one coverage, we put in a couple of blitzes and some different coverages, and we just focused on putting guys where we felt we could stop their run."
The pounding rain along the Hudson River grounded Castellanos to less than 10 attempts, and neither team committed itself to passing the ball with any type of regularity. The six combined first downs via the pass were less than the number of first downs either team achieved with its running game, and the 178 combined passing yards were marginally better than the 163 yards gained by Army's running game.Â
The combined passing yards and Army's rushing game were around what BC gained with its forward rushing game, and the 31 runs from BC's quarterback were more than the combined attempts of the next two runners (BC's Patrick Garwo and Army quarterback Bryson Daily each had 14 carries). There were almost as many BC punts as Castellanos had completions.
The adverse conditions impacted both teams, but BC avoided a disappointment after Army's second half rally by simply sticking to the stripped down plan. Castellanos threw two passes and completed one throw for eight yards in the fourth quarter while Daily wound up having thrown seven times out of an offense more readily recognized by its running prowess. The Eagles bled the clock with over nine minutes of possession time with 20 carries, and the final, game-winning drive took the fourth quarter into its final seconds by going 62 yards over 12 plays and just under five minutes.
None of those plays required a pass, and the final run from Castellanos illustrated exactly how BC set up Army for the last score when he ran off-guard on the right side and allowed both tight end George Takacs and running back Kye Robichaux to blow the road initially cleared by the offensive line. Having burned the first two plays from inside the Army five-yard line, the run was different because the Black Knights' entire eight-man front bailed left against a shifty block by the offensive line, to which a hole inadvertently opened for Castellanos.
It was the fourth and final score for a quarterback who became the first BC player to score four rushing touchdowns since the infamous AJ Dillon Game against Louisville in 2017, and it capped a day in which BC finished with two 100-yard rushers in Castellanos and Pat Garwo, who averaged eight yards per carry en route to 111 yards on the ground. He broke off a 50-yard run earlier in the game, but plowing through the teeth of the Army front allowed him to crack 100 yards for the fifth time in his career.
"There were some monster holes the whole game," Hafley said. "We ran the ball for [almost] 300 yards, and that doesn't happen very often. Ozzy [Trapilo] was out, and Jack Conley gets in the game. Jack played all of last year, so we have a lot of trust in him, but I really thought [the offensive line] did a good job."
Having two 100-yard rushers hadn't happened for BC since Dillon and David Bailey gashed Syracuse during a 2019 game, but it became a requirement against the stinging precipitation. The Eagles had wanted to start fast, but the definition shifted into more of a prevention mode against an offense that scored on its first drive in every prior game this season. Holding Army to a three-and-out preceded the first touchdown by Castellanos, who rolled to his right on a pass play before breaking off a 20-yard run through traffic.
"That kind of play is on me," Castellanos said. "The coaches would probably want me to keep rolling out and find a guy on the edge and probably throw the ball away, but that was just me making a play and getting to put points on the board for our team."
It wound up kicking off the start of a good old-fashioned, old-school football game, and nobody who watched the game thought one team escaped or shot itself in the foot. BC won a second consecutive game for the first time since the 2021 team beat Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech within an eight-day span, but Army didn't exactly walk itself lightly into the night. The Black Knights forced BC to earn the win, and the respect was evident after the final whistle when the Eagles assembled with the cadets for the playing of West Point's Alma Mater.
The action, simple as it looked, tinged the game with the right kind of emotion, and the post-game reaction offered a merging of the two programs into the right kind of competition so often missing in modern sports. It wasn't a moral victory for an Army team that fell to 2-3 on the season, but the Eagles, now 3-3 entering a bye week, struck the tone of a roster honored to have battled the cadets for three hours.
"Just a ton of credit and respect to Army and the way they play on the field," Hafley said. "I can't say enough about Coach Monken, that staff, those players. I appreciate everybody who comes to West Point and the sacrifices they've made. We are very grateful and very appreciative. I'm a big fan of what they do…We knew they weren't going to quit, and I told the team all week that this team prides itself on being the toughest, most disciplined team in the country. They'll never quit, and you can't make them quit."
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