With Boston College back in the ACC win column, it’s time for the return of the weekly kickoff. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, this game could be the game of the season for Boston College and it could be the difference between Steve Addazio losing his job and the team making a bowl. To say it is huge would be an understatement.
The first thing to note is that this isn’t the slam dunk win like Virginia Cavalier teams of old. Bronco Mendenhall has the ship righted in 2017, and the Cavs have jumped out to an impressive 5-1 start. They have a middle of the road offense that is averaging 400+ yards a game, but more impressively their defense is 18th in the country only allowing a 312 yards a game.
But is UVA really as impressive as their record indicates? That is hard to say. They have beaten a very bad UConn team, a very bad UNC team, William and Mary, a solid Duke team and a good Boise State team while losing to Indiana. While nothing should be taken for granted with this Boston College team, I think it is fair to say that UVA hasn’t faced the caliber of opponents that the Eagles have.
Where does UVA get most of it’s offense from? You have to start with senior quarterback Kurt Benkert, who has thrown already for 1680 yards with a stunning 15 touchdowns to 3 interceptions. Luckily he is not an option or a mobile quarterback, something that has given BC fits this season. He is a standard pro-style quarterback who is more adapt at picking apart defenses, something he has done with great accuracy this year.
Benkert has two targets that will be challenging for the BC secondary in Olamide Zacchaeus and Doni Dowling. The two have combined for 72 grabs and 837 yards, along with 8 touchdowns.
The biggest question going into this week will be whether Boston College can build off of their offensive output from last week. Of course it may be unreasonable to believe that they will consistently get 500+ yards each week, but if they can establish A.J. Dillon against this defense and get the play action going with either Darius Wade or Anthony Brown that could be a good sign. It’s not going to be easy though, as they have only given up 400+ yards once this season to....UConn?!!!
This game could go a thousand different ways, and we are going to have to wait for Saturday to get some answers. Will this be team we saw against Louisville, able to make explosive plays and score points, or will BC revert back to the frustrating hard to watch team we saw through the first five games. Or somewhere in between? Leave your thoughts below.