Just another week in the ACC. This week our remaining opponents finished 3-2 with Central Michigan, Virginia and Wake Forest all victorious. The most surprising results from the ACC this week came from our upcoming opponents. NC State dropped their home game against Duke (that Duke?!) while the Virginia offense exploded for 47 points against lowly Indiana.
Let us take a trip around the box scores for BC's remaining six opponents.
Duke 49, NC State 28. Despite the final score, all indications are that this was a Blue Devil beatdown. Duke quarterback Thaddeus Lewis absolutely torched the Wolfpack secondary en route to 5 passing touchdowns and 469 yards on 40-of-50 passing. Lewis also chipped in a rushing touchdown on the day. It was a day of firsts for the Blue Devils. Duke snapped a 20-game road losing streak in ACC play, and it was their first win in 11 tries against the Wolfpack, and their first win in Carter-Finley stadium since 1984. Russell Wilson led the way for the Wolfpack, throwing for 172 yards and a touchdown and rushing for 58 yards and another score. The story of the day, though, was the poor performance from the NC State secondary. If you want to read a good breakdown of how bad the NC State secondary has been playing, check out Backing the Pack's latest post. The Wolfpack are now 3-3, 0-2 ACC and need to win four of their remaining six games to get back to the postseason. NC State travels to Chestnut Hill this weekend, followed by the off-week before traveling to Tallahassee.
Central Michigan 56, Eastern Michigan 8. All-universe quarterback Dan LeFevour keeps rolling. LeFevour just scored 6 touchdowns, is all, in a 56-8 rout of Eastern Michigan. LeFevour finished the day 16-of-22 passing for 318 yards and three TDs. He also rushed for 48 yards and another three touchdowns. WR Kito Poblah had five catches for 126 yards and a TD while Antonio Brown caught four balls for 110 yards and a score. Central Michigan's defense only gave up 255 yards on the day. The Chippewas are now 5-1, 3-0 MAC and have won 5 straight. The road gets a bit tougher for CMU as they have three straight road games against Western Michigan, Bowling Green and BC.
Virginia 47, Indiana 7. Suddenly, the Cavaliers have an offensive identity. An offense that rattled off 47 points and 536 yards on Saturday at home vs. Indiana. Virginia quarterback Jameel Sewell became UVA's first 300 yard passer in 3 1/2 seasons, completing 20-of-30 for 308 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback-turned-wide receiver Vic Hall was the Cavaliers leading receiver on the day, catching 6 balls and scoring his first collegiate touchdown as a receiver. Senior running back Mikell Simpson rushed for 83 yards and four touchdowns, although he did leave the game in the third quarter with an undisclosed injury. UVA will proceed with caution, but it's not thought that the injury to Simpson will be long term. Virginia has now won 2 in a row. Virginia travels to College Park this week to take on the 2-4 Maryland Terrapins.
North Carolina 42, Georgia Southern 12. One way to solve your offensive woes? Give the offense a short field in which to work. The Tar Heels defense did just that, capitalizing on 6 Georgia Southern turnovers to build up a 42-7 halftime lead. Running back Ryan Houston finished with 56 yards and a career-tying 3 touchdowns, while Shaun Draughn rushed for 81 yards and a score. All of the Tar Heel touchdowns were on the ground. QB T.J. Yates threw for 14-of-20 yards for 118 yards. The win stops a two game skid for UNC who have now won all their non-conference games and lost all of their ACC games. North Carolina now has 10 days to prepare to host Florida State who travel to Chapel Hill for a Thursday night game.
Wake Forest 42, Maryland 32. Deacon QB Riley Skinner threw for over 300 yards for the third week in a row as Wake Forest knocks off Maryland 42-32 in a game where it wasn't nearly as close as the final score indicates. Skinner finished the day 24-of-33 for 360 yards and four touchdowns in a Deacon rout of the Terps. The Deacs scored five times in the first half (2 rushing, 3 passing) to build up a 35-10 lead at halftime. Maryland QB Chris Turner completed 22-of-44 passes for 307 yards and 3 touchdowns. However, two of those touchdowns through the air were in the second half when the game was essentially out of reach. The Terrapins were outgained 516-369. Maryland (2-4, 1-1 ACC) finished the month of October playing Duke and Virginia, before a brutal November has Maryland facing off against NC State, Virginia Tech, Florida State and Boston College.
Notre Dame was off this week. Weis was still bitching about how the Irish should be ranked in the Top 25. Jimmy Clausen was preparing his Heisman acceptance speech. Jack Swarbrick accepted an invitation to play in the Gator Bowl. And the rest of the team was preparing to get pantsed by Southern Cal.