Game Summary: Boston College 41 Missouri 34 (OT)

The game got out to a quick start as Mizzou was able to wear down the Eagles’ defense with ease, completing several short passes for gains across the middle. BC had them stopped around midfield, but ran into the punter on the ensuing punt, which resulted in a converted 4th-and-1 by the Tigers. They proceeded to march down the field in 2 more plays and cap it off with a 9-yard TD pass to Barrett Banister to make it 7-0 Tigers.

BC got the ball back, but it was short-lived. The first play from scrimmage was a deep pass from Dennis Grosel while he was getting hit, which resulted in a fairly easy interception by the Mizzou defense. They took over at their own 38 yard line. The Mizzou offense struggled to communicate, as Bazelak consistently was looking to the sideline and the Tigers burned two of their timeouts not even halfway through the 1st quarter. It resulted in a 3-and-out and BC’s offense went out to try again at their own 1 yard line following the punt.

It was no worries for BC, though, as Zay Flowers took a big 28-yard pass to get out of the corner, and then Pat Garwo III ran it all the way down for a 67-yard TD on the very next play, making it a tied 7-7 game.

Mizzou took the ensuing kickoff and was able to take some shots downfield, making a few big plays that took them into BC territory, including a very deep flea flicker play that brought them to 1st and goal at the BC 4 yard line. Tyler Badie punched it in on the very next play making it 14-7 Mizzou still with 5:03 left on the 1st quarter clock.

Boston College responded with some classic power running. Mizzou had a lot of difficulty stopping Pat Garwo and Alec Sinkfield as they brought the ball deep into Tigers territory. Dennis Grosel came up big with a 4th-and-1 QB sneak to make it 1st and goal for BC. All it took was a short pass to Jaden Williams at the edge of the endzone and the Eagles were able to tie it up at 14-14 to start the 2nd quarter.

Mizzou got the ball back and reached a quick 1st down, but BC came up with a few big stops to force a 3rd down and 15. Mizzou ran the ball for just a few yards and forced themselves to punt back to BC. The Eagles couldn’t get anything going after Jaelen Gill had a bad drop on 2nd down, so they were forced to punt back away in short order.

Mizzou worked down the field in bunches, switching off regularly betwen getting stuffed at the line and then ripping a few 10 or 20 yard passes down the field. A late hit from a BC defender resulted in a penalty bringing Mizzou up to 1st and goal. After a couple failed running plays, both thanks to big plays by Isaiah Graham-Mobley, Mizzou failed to convert and kicked a field goal to take the 17-14 lead. Boston College proceeded to launch a 5+ minute drive downfield, aided by a huge 38-yard CJ Lewis reception, and kicked a 49-yard FG to tie it up heading into halftime.

Boston College received the ball to start the second half and went back to where they were good: running the football. After several big gains on the ground and a couple nice short passes, BC found themselves deep in Tigers territory. Pat Garwo III punched it in from 3 yards out and BC led for the first time, 24-17.

Mizzou got the ball back and proceeded to quickly turn it right back over, as Bazelak tossed an INT to Josh DeBerry and Boston College was able to take back over. After lots more running, BC brought it into Mizzou territory and converted a short 4th down with an incredible Grosel dive on the sideline. The BC offense did end up stalling and settling for a field goal, extending their lead to 27-17. BC possessed the ball for almost the entire 3rd quarter.

Mizzou finally got the ball back entering the 4th quarter, and they came up big with a big 40-yard completion to Tauskie Dove that brought them deep into Eagles territory. A few plays later and it was punched in by Michael Cox for a TD to narrow BC’s lead to 27-24. Boston College quickly got stopped on their next drive after a couple of bad throws as Grosel was getting hit and they had to punt back to Mizzou.

Mizzou created another impressive drive, driving down the field easily against BC’s defense with plenty more short passes. An 8-yard punch-in by Tyler Badie gave Mizzou back the lead, 31-27, and left BC with just about 6 minutes to come back.

An unnecessary roughness penalty and then an offsides gave BC some yards early on the drive and allowed them to cross midfield with ease. A few impressive short passes from Grosel and a couple runs brought BC down into the redzone, where they were finally able to punch it in for the go-ahead score to take a 34-31 lead with 25 seconds remaining. Mizzou came back out on the field and drove it down rapidly to the BC 39 yard line, where they kicked a 56-yard line as time expired to send it to OT.

Boston College was up first on offense and scored a pretty floater TD to Zay Flowers in the back of the endzone. Shortly thereafter on Mizzou’s drive, Brandon Sebastian picked off Connor Bazelak and iced the game for BC.

Takeaways:

• BC got the ground game going good. Pat Garwo rushed for 175 yards, and Grosel, Levy, and Sinkfield added on for another 99. There were times that BC passed a little more than they should have, but for the most part they knew their strength against the Mizzou defense and they capitalized.
• Connor Lytton is legit. He kicked a 49-yard FG. That would’ve been unthinkable under previous head coaches.
• Clock management and gameplanning were on point. Perhaps a little too much time was left on the clock during regulation, but otherwise BC knew its gameplan, dominated time of possesion, and knew exactly what they needed to do to keep the Mizzou defense on the field and gassed.
• Grosel is an effective game manager. He wasn’t looking spectacular, but he made the throws he needed to, established a tempo for BC’s offense, and knew when he needed to scramble out and extend plays. This season, BC may not win games because of Grosel, but he’s certainly talented enough to keep them competitive against anyone.