Football S&P+ Update: Defense still strong; Offense, not so much

(Editor’s Note: Please welcome our newest contributor, Tom Greenberg, BC Class of 2017!)

The Football S&P+ rankings are updated weekly by FootballOutsiders, presenting a statistical analysis of each college football team’s offense, defense, and special teams. The rankings use pure numbers and statistics to give you a sense of where each team sits at this point in the season.

The rankings combine Bill Connelly’s Five Factors of college football (efficiency, explosiveness, field position, finishing drives, and turnovers) to rank each team.

In the latest rankings, Boston College, fresh off a 21-14 win over NC State, is ranked at #82. Surprisingly, the team dropped three spots despite getting its first ACC win in 700 days. BC is ranked at #18 on the defensive side of the ball, but is down at #123 for offense and #97 for special teams. NC State, meanwhile, is ranked at #44 overall, dubbing the latest BC win an upset.

According to the S&P+ rankings, Boston College faces its toughest test of the season this Saturday against Louisville. The Cardinals are ranked at #3 overall, behind only Michigan and Alabama, and boast the #1 offense and #10 defense.

After Louisville, the Eagles face Florida State (#14), UConn (#104), and Wake Forest (#61). That puts BC as underdogs at Florida State and against Wake Forest, but favorites to beat UConn.

According to the S&P+, Boston College certainly has a chance to go 2-2 the rest of the season and make a bowl. To do that, it’ll probably need to beat both UConn and Wake in the last two weeks of the season, a daunting task for the #123 offense in the country. We’ll see if the #18 defense is up for it.