A 2011 BC Football Retrospective: Ranking The Games

Now that we have had a chance to lick our wounds, it's time to take a deep breath and look back at the Boston College season. In my never ending search of finding order in the world, and as a homage to the great Bill C. we will try and rank this year's games.

The season could be split into three categories of games. "The Abominable", "Middle Schmiddle" and those few games that were "Soaring To Glory" proud moments to be an Eagles fan.

The Abominable Games

12. UCF 30 Boston College 3: The perfect storm of Boston College ineptitude. In front of a rocking crowd at Bright House Networks Stadium, BC laid a turd of epic proportions. The offense only managed 141 total yards, and in the process lost Offensive Coordinator Kevin Rogers at halftime to a mysterious health problem. I'll take this moment to remind you to please respect his privacy The defense looked completely lost, and Jeff Godfrey looked like Robert Griffin III against BC, highlighted by trucking Luke Kuechly into the endzone. Looking at this game in hindsight, what made it the most intolerable was that UCF was a BAD team, and Godfrey wasn't much of a QB. By the end of the season UCF cleaned house, and Godfrey transferred. But you would have never predicted that watching this game, UCF set the tone for a season of lowered expectations.

11. Duke 20 Boston College 19: Losing to Duke is never acceptable, and the manner in which BC blew this one was inexcusable. Leading 19-7 in the second, Spaz threw the breaks on the offense only gaining 54 yards against a putrid Duke defense leading up to the final drive that spanned 74 yards and ended with the infamous "Middle Schmiddle" Nate Freese missed field goal. It could be easy to blame the place kicker, but in the end it was Swiss Cheese defense that allowed 465 to Sean Renfree and the Blue Devils along with the conservative play calling that led to this loss.

10. Northwestern 24 Boston College 17: The game that started the tailspin. Before the game BC fans were excited about a season with unlimited potential. Chase Rettig looked the strongest we would see all season, throwing for 375 yards. Northwestern played without Dan Persa, which led many BC fans to believe the defense would walk over Kain Colter. Oh how wrong we were. Colter ran the option with ease, showing big weaknesses all over the BC front line. And to top it off BC lost on a terrible false start penalty that ran off time deep in Northwestern territory, followed by a sack by Rettig

9. Wake Forest 27 Boston College 19: A showcase of bad defense, and an offense that couldn't convert when they needed it. Tanner Price torched the BC defense for 252 yards, and Chris Givens was unstoppable against a porous secondary. There was a lot of excitement in Alumni Stadium as Montel Harris made his 2011 cameo, running for 108 yards but never looked completely healthy. The game ends with Chase Rettig failing to pick up a 4th and 4. BC falls to 1-4 against a stretch of opponents that should have been easy wins. BC fans are panicking.

8. Florida State 38 Boston College 7: Going into the game BC was 2-7, and expectations of the season were at an all time low. No one expected much from this game, and that is exactly what we we got. Nothing. Spaz pulled the panic button early, throwing Josh Bordner to the wolves, and rotating him in and out with Rettig seemingly little rational thought. Both QB's looked completely lost, BC's offense was a complete mess, and E.J. Manuel did whatever he wanted to against the Eagles. Highlight of the game was Spaz's 7 minute drive in the fourth quarter in which he just conceded the game said "F*** It" and punted it on the forty yard line. Spazball at it's worst.

Middle Schmiddle

7. Clemson 36 Boston College 14: No one had much hope going into this game, and we were all shocked that BC stayed in this game, even if it was just for a little while. An injury to Tajh Boyd gave BC a glimmer of hope, but again this game was all Clemson. The 8th ranked Tigers racked up a mind numbing 500 yards against the BC defense, led by Boyd's 280 yards passing, Andre Ellington ran for 117 yards, and Sammy Watkins caught seven passes for 152 yards. Chase Rettig looked lost, BC turned the ball over twice, and left Death Valley totally eviscerated.

6. Virginia Tech 30 Boston College 14. This matchup only stays in "Middle Schmiddle" due to the fact that BC inexplicably had the lead going into the half. It was a game of two halves though, as Virginia Tech turned on the switch after halftime and completely annihilated the Eagles in the third and fourth quarter. The BC D had no answer to David Wilson and Logan Thomas, who combined for over 450 yards of offense. Chase Rettig was streaky completing only 13 of 30 passes, and turning over the ball once, but throwing two touchdowns passes to Chris Pantale and Colin Larmond Jr.

5. Notre Dame 16 Boston College 14: A game that showed a glimpse of what we had hoped for all season. True, BC allowed 417 yards of offense but they prevented Tommy Rees from throwing a touchdown pass, and kept MIchael Floyd from breaking off a big catch. On national television BC kept the game close, led by 14 tackles by Luke Kuechly and an efficient Chase Rettig who nailed Bobby Swigert with two minutes left to bring BC back. But in the end BC was not able to recover the onside kick, and Spaz fell to 0-3 against the Irish.

Soaring To Glory Games

4. Boston College 45 UMass 17: BC finally gets in the win column, against a team they had no business losing to. Lots of chatter before this game about the MAC bound Minutemen pulling an upset against the floundering Eagles. But BC dominated from the start. Rettig threw for three touchdowns, Andre Williams and Deuce Finch rushed for 160 yards, and Larmond caught two touchdown passes. The defense looked stout as well, forcing UMass into four turnovers, including interceptions by Hampton Hughes and Steele Divitto.

3. Boston College 28 Maryland 17: The Eagles' get their first win against an ACC opponent. In a battle of bad versus worse, down in the frozen mud in a mostly empty Byrd Stadium BC walked away with a victory. Because of the inclement weather, Chase Rettig was completely ineffective, but he wasn't asked to do much. Deuce Finch had a career game, running for 242 yards, and thrashed a completely overwhelmed Maryland defense. BC's defense forced the Terps into four turnovers, and Randy Edsall's offense couldn't figure out how to move the ball.

2. Boston College 14 North Carolina State 10: If there is anything positive to take out of this season, it's another victory at home against Tom O'Brien. BC jumped out to a 14-3 halftime lead, on a QB run by Bordner and a Rettig touchdown pass to Colin Larmond Jr.. Then in true Spaz fashion, he threw on the breaks on the offense and kept the play calling as conservative as a Catholic nun. In the second half, BC managed a whopping 3 yards of offense. But it didn't matter, TOB wanted to win even less, and BC walked away with their second ACC win. It wasn't pretty but "Hey we won didn't we?"

1. Boston College 24 Miami 17: BC hadn't won in Miami since the Hail Flutie pass, so this was a pride game for the Eagles. BC came up firing, led by an efficient Chase Rettig who hit Chris Pantale for two touchdown passes. Jacory Harris looked awful, throwing up four interceptions, one that led Luke Kuechly to have easily the BC play of the year, cement Kuechly's place in BC history, and give Eagles' fans at least one positive memory going into the offseason.