Boston College vs. NIU: Grading The Eagles

With win number one in the books, Boston College can now look ahead to #therivalry and their matchup with Wake Forest. But before we turn the page, let’s look at Friday’s results, by position. Below are the polls, where you the readers slash fans can go ahead and give your grade to the Eagles. Make sure to vote, and leave your comments below.

Quarterbacks

AJ’s Grade: B. Anthony Brown looked good as you could hope for a quarterback taking his first snaps at the collegiate level. Was he perfect? No. But he certainly looks promising and that’s exciting. If he hits that pass to Michael Walker and sees that WR wide open in the end zone we are talking a 300+ 3-4 touchdown game.

Running Backs:

AJ’s Grade: D. Completely a non factor for large portions of this game in fact probably causing the offense to sputter more than it had any reason to. Jon Hilliman looked like the the running back of 2016 again which isn’t a good sign, Davon Jones didn’t see the field and AJ Dillon didn’t get enough touches.

Wide Outs/Tight Ends:

AJ’s Grade: B. Other than the big drop by Michael Walker, the wide outs did a pretty solid job of making some nice catches. Kobay White had a monster game, and Walker recovered nicely. Chris Garrison and Ray Marten chipped in with some nice catches as well.

Offensive Line

AJ’s Grade: A Very Low C. Look they still had massive problems run blocking, Jon Baker’s botched snap was brutal, and they got called with some horrendous holding calls. That being said Anthony Brown had a relatively clean pocket for most of the game.

Defensive Line

AJ’s Grade: C. Harold Landry was held in check and Zach Allen blew a tackle that led to a 60 yard gain. However Allen recovered with a blocked kick, and they started to make decent pressure at points.

Linebackers

AJ’s Grade: B. Max Richardson and Connor Strachan both made a nice play. Other than that, I didn’t really notice the linebackers, for better or for worse.

Secondary

AJ’s Grade: A Low B: Lukas Denis made two nice plays including an interception. Will Harris had a particularly rough game including a brutal personal foul and a missed tackle.

Special Teams

AJ’s Grade: B: Colton Lichtenberg went a perfect three for three. Ben Glines didn’t do much on kick returns, and Mike Knoll wasn’t anything special on punts averaging around 38 a punt. Zach Allen also blocked a kick

Coaching

AJ’s Grade: C+. Loved the use of tempo and Addazio was ballsy with his end of the half coaching. However, the “run the dive” play on 1st down was vomit inducing.

Overall Grade

AJ’s Grade: C. Good start, lots to build off of, but certainly the team has loads to improve on if they want to stand a chance against some of the teams they are facing coming up.