Colorado State 24, Boston College 21: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

The Good

Jon Hilliman: The offense wasn't pristine, but it was hard to find any faults in the game that Hilliman played. He was consistent, and averaged 5.3 yards per carry on his way to two touchdowns. He had one monster rush of 52 yards, and had one series where he was completely stuffed, but for the most part he was pretty solid.

Josh Bordner: For all the whining about the offense (much of it deserved, some of it not), converted wide receiver Josh Bordner had a pretty good game. The senior led the team with four catches for 75 yards, and showed some solid hands, and good power in the open field. Bordner had this to say about the passing game: "We are working on it," he said. "It’s getting better every week and I felt we did pretty well today."

First Half Interceptions: One of the keys going into this week was the turnover battle, and BC jumped right out with two quick INT's in the first half. Bryce Jones and Dominique Williams both made big plays that, at the time, made us feel good about where the game was heading. How wrong we were.

The Bad

3rd Down Defense: CSU basically did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, but it was most glaring on 3rd downs. CSU was 8/14 on third (and of course 1/2 on 4th). This has been a criticism of Don Brown's defenses in the past, and something we have seen in multiple games over the past year and a half. The defense looked horrible yesterday, but when it couldn't get off the field it highlighted how bad they really played.

Manny Asprilla's Drop In The End Zone : We all saw it: Garrett Grayson throws a pass into the end zone, Manny Asprilla is right there to make the interception to end the game. And he drops it. Should we blame him for the loss? Absolutely not, but it certainly was a gut shot on a play that could have easily given BC the win.

Offensive Line Play: When Bobby Vardaro went down last week, I started to get concerned about the dwindling depth on the offensive line. Just watching this week it was clear how much BC missed both Vardaro and Harris Williams. There were no holes for the running game and the Colorado State defense was all over Tyler Murphy. True freshman Jon Baker got the start, which was interesting. If BC's offense is going to to fire on all cylinders, the play of the line is going to have to improve drastically.

QB Pressure: BC could not get to Grayson the entire game. It was tough to watch as BC would endlessly blitz and almost always fail to get to the quarterback. They had one or two sacks in the game, but for the most part Colorado State's offensive line kept him on his feet and allowed him to pick apart BC's defense. Josh Keyes was gobbled up every time he blitzed, and the defensive ends appeared to be double teamed all game. BC's defense is predicated on the blitz, and when that didn't work they never adjusted, and that stubborness allowed Colorado State to move the ball at will, take up huge chunks of yards and move the clock. Bad, bad, bad.

The Fans: Look, I know it was Parents' Weekend, but my god was Alumni Stadium a morgue yesterday. Dan will get to it later, but a large chunk of students were gone after halftime. The atmosphere in the stadium was awful; no matter the situation, the cheering was muted. My section was a complete joke. The game was early enough that parents could make their dinner reservations--maybe the school needs to give parents a reason to stay the whole game. Some sort of event that kicks off after the game? Or just schedule an FCS school every Parents' Weekend, which would probably make this easier.

Where Was Sherm Allston? I don't know why Allston was not out there the entire game. Haven't heard anything out of The Heights explaining, and the mainstream media didn't bother to ask.

The Ugly

Defending The Underneath Stuff: Probably the most frustrating thing about watching this game was watching Grayson throw to wide open receivers who were always 6-7 yards out and then moved it another 5-6 yards after the catch, and Don Brown's stubbornness to adapt to it. I would have much rather seen BC jam the receivers closer to the line of scrimmage, and get beat deep than what we saw yesterday. Why didn't the Eagles dare them to beat them deep?

Alex Howell: Another example of "college kicking." BC offense went conservative before the half, and looked to be playing for the field goal, which was mind boggling given the difficulties of our kicking game. Howell is now 3/7 on field goals, not good. At this point, I almost would rather see BC going for 4th down on anything three yards away from the first yard sticks. Odds are almost better for a first down than a field goal at this point.

The Tyler Murphy Paradox: This offense is a rushing offense, and is built to control the line of scrimmage and control the clock. When BC is allowed to move the ball at their leisure, Tyler Murphy is a solid quarterback and game manager. But when the game is on the line and he is asked to throw the ball, we all knew what was going to happen. Murphy does not have the arm, and he certainly does not have the weapons to move the ball quickly down the field. It doesn't matter who the wide receivers are, they were not going to get the ball down field quickly. BC just can't do it at this point in the season. This is the paradox we are going to have to deal with concerning our quarterback. There are going to be situations where he is going to look all world, and there are going to be times where he looks completely lost. Yesterday we saw the latter.

The Entire Second Half On Both Sides Of The Ball: It has been said in posts before, but BC went super conservative on both sides of the ball in the second half and the Rams made them pay. Tyler Murphy threw another terrible interception and the defense couldn't get off the field. Just an awful effort all around.