BC Put Some Points on the Board

Well that was delightful.

You have to hand it to the coaching staff because this team was extremely well prepared for this game. Coming off a bye week, this Eagles flat out dominated. Domination is when your opponent knows exactly what you’re going to do, and are still helpless to stop anything. That is sort of performance we saw today. It started off a bit slow, and a missed field goal early on had to hurt the very fiber of your being, but it all went swimmingly afterwards.

In his first start, Dennis Grosel did just enough. He wasn’t asked to do much, only attempting 15 passes, but when he did, he had all the time in the world. This offensive line has been world beaters, and we will continue to praise them week in week out. They gave up zero pressures on the day, and boast the best pass block efficiency in the ACC per PFF. And we surely won’t overlook their contribution to the over 400 yards rushing. My lord. With this unit having been a major question mark due to turnover coming into the season, it’s really great to see how they flourished and how consistent they have been.

Back on Grosel, while he only completed six passes, he did not turn the ball over and he had three good runs of his own for about 20 yards. Coach Addazio explained that he still wanted to maintain on the same ratio of run:pass that they have been all season, but given how effective running the ball proved to be, they just stuck with what was working. I don’t know if I completely believe that, but either way I would have to imagine leaning even more on the strength of the team in a normal game would be the best course of action. Grosel looked comfortable today on few attempts, but to depend on his arm any more than you need to, especially against defenses that aren’t Louisville, might be foolhardy.

Against a team that was considered one of the best in the conference and country against the run, the Eagles ran wild. Dillon ran for 223 yards and three scores, and big David Bailey for 181 yards and two touchdowns. Both guys were just incredible running through contact. AJ found himself on PFF’s National Team of the Week, and David Bailey an ACC Player of the Week alongside OL Zion Johnson in his first start.

That’s five straight hundred yard games, and Dillon is now 75 yards short of Andre Williams’ school rushing record and two touchdowns away from that record. As we likely near the end of his career on the Heights, it’s important to take in a game like this and appreciate all he’s done donning the maroon and gold.

The team defense had by far their best performance of the season and gave the Wolfpack a sense of BC’s struggles all season. They held NC State to 4-17 on third down, and barely gave up any yardage until the late stages of the game. Bill Sheridan unleashed some promising freshman. Save for some small learning moments here and there, guys like Jason Maitre and Shitta Sillah came up BIG. Maitre opened up BC’s onslaught with the pick six and Sillah notched a sack and 2.5 tackles for loss. Max Richardson did Max Richardson things. He’s fourth in the nation with 47 solo tackles.

A few other general notes, good kick returns from Levy and Glines, but four kickoff infractions from Danny Longman were completely unacceptable. Yes, we barely get that many opportunities to kick off to begin with, but need to shore that up immediately. Hunter Long has been a revelation this season. The sophomore has 18 catches for 361 yards, enough to lead all tight ends in the ACC. He’s extremely effective per catch. We have a whole host of really capable tight ends, but Long is starting to see more an uptick in snaps and routes and rightfully so.

Great team win that could not have come at a better time. We will temper expectations for next week [and still for the rest of the season], but for now we rest easy.