Thursday, October 23, 2014

BC-Wake Forest preview

Time for another rebound. My pipedream of us making a run at the Division is probably over, but there is still much on the line. BC needs this game to get closer to bowl eligibility and to keep momentum going into the tougher second half of the season. BC also needs to prove that we have a killer instinct. Wake is struggling right now and leaning on a freshman QB coming back from injury. We need to put them away early and not let another game come down to the wire.

What's on my mind (not totally related to this game) 
You don't always need a long history or bad blood to make a series interesting. Think back to the Wake games when we first started playing them. They were close, memorable and once we were in the same conference, important for both teams. As both declined the past few years, the games lost much of their juice. I hope that Clawson gets the Deacons back to consistently winning. I don't think Wake-BC will ever be Ohio State-Michigan or even BC-Syracuse or BC-Notre Dame, but it was fun having competitive, relevant games against them for a few years.

Three Simple Keys
1. Murphy needs to rush for more than 100 yards. It can't get more simple than that. I want him to pass. I want the other players to step up. But the reality is that he is our best playmaker and our best player. Just like Andre Williams last year, if he gets going, everything else opens up. Clemson did a good job on him, but we also got away designed runs a bit. Don't overthink things this week.
2. Bring Wolford down. He's not afraid to get out of the pocket and try to make a play. Wrapping him up will be important.
3. No drops. They are drive killers.

Gambling Notes
-- Clawson is 0-3 in ACC play
-- Addazio is 4-4 on the road
-- Addazio is 1-1 in the state of North Carolina
The current line is BC-13

Factoid
BB&T Field is the smallest stadium in the ACC at 31,500.

Scoreboard Watching
Syracuse at Clemson will be a good indicator of what we can expect from the Orange. It wouldn't be a bad thing to see the Tigers stomp them. I want their season to be over and their players checked out by the time they get to Chestnut Hill.

I hope to see...
One game where the placekicking is not an issue. It wasn't the only reason we lost, but missing the extra point last week did impact the play calling late in the game.

BC is in trouble if...
We cannot establish the run. The Deacons have a decent pass defense. If we cannot grind it out on the ground, I worry about trying to win it in the air.

Bottom Line
Wake is not a good team. They barely beat Army and haven't been competitive in most of their ACC games. My only real fear is facing them on the road. But I think like our last road game in North Carolina, BC will put a huge emphasis on running and overpower them. I think we control the clock and the ball and win comfortably.
Final Score: BC 28, Wake Forest 13

13 comments:

CT said...

Not to go off-topic, but...this should be an uneventful game against a bad team. In other news...

How 'bout them Tar Heels?

Guess the conference can step down from the soapbox now. Wait, I'm sure it was ESPN's fault. The SEC?

This is embarrassing. But I guess we crossed the Rubicon when Louisville joined.

UNC is in big trouble.

Erik said...

Also somewhat off topic, but it seems unfair that we only get to enjoy Murphy for one season, after sitting through a generation of Crane, Tuggle, Uncle Dave, Rettig, and all. He is so much fun to watch. He comes though time after time.

I hope Wade or Flutie can be like Tyler.

Fenwick 111 said...

Did you see MLB dedicated last night's game in Peter Frates' honor?

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/10/22/notebook-frates-family-honored-for-fighting-als/j2x9gN6bqgypzxcoNuewhL/story.html

Hoib said...

I hope it doesn't come to this, but we can't trust the kicker w/ the game on the line. If we are in a do or die last possession we need to play for the end zone. In that way I think missed PAT Last week wasn't as important as it was made out to be.

Big Jack Krack said...

Not much buzz about this game, plus a small crowd in Winston Salem = potential problems like the CSU game. Don't get caught in a state of complacency, Eagles.

Let's go, BC - don't let these guys hang around. Send the fans who actually do show up back to their tailgate at half time.

I'm with Eric re Mr. Murphy and CT about UNC. What a disgrace. What did SMU do in order to get the death penalty? Cheating for 3100 "student-athletes" must rank right up there.

It was nice knowing you, Tar Heels. Wasn't Swofford the UNC Athletic Director during some of that time?

Oh my, the plot thickens.

Big Jack Krack said...

One thing, Erik. Logan designed an offense for Crane - and we may well have won the ACC Championship if Crane didn't break his collarbone at Wake Forest. Dominique Davis wasn't ready at that point.

Crane was playing very well at that stage in the season, IMHO, and his injury was too bad for BC.

Big Jack Krack said...

Check out ECU at Yukon.

This is what I'm talking about - BC at WF.

Don't let them hang around.

Meanwhile, VT looks quite beatable for us, and wouldn't that be nice?

Not saying we will win in Blacksburg, but it's certainly possible.

eagleboston said...

I agree with Big Jack. Crane was really coming around at the end of the season and I have no doubt we would have won the ACC had he not been injured.

SaturdaysOnShea said...

The end of the 2008 season shows just how much you need literally everything to go perfectly to have a good season.

I agree with everyone that a Chris Crane led team goes to the Orange Bowl that year. That defense was dominant and the offense was able to adapt to the teams they played.

You have to think that if Jags won the ACCCG that year, he probably would have kept his job even if he did interview with the Jets.

Hoib said...

BJK

It wasn't just the Crane injury, but we lost a LB in the game before that we badly needed against Tecl. This kid, whose name I can't remember, played on the line, and even some safety, he was a great athlete. By then he was just playing LB. He could have been the spy on Tyrod Taylor, who killed us that day on broken plays w/ his legs. I think we would have beaten them in the title game the year before if our long snapper hadn't gotten hurt the game before. Remember we scolded, they blocked the PAT, and returned it for 2, completely changing momentum.

I think you are making too much out of this UNC thing. I think some form of this happens everywhere. Why else all the jokes about jocks majoring in basket weaving. The whistleblower there talked about a big percentage of the kids there being illiterate. You think that's the only school where that's the case. I don't think so. There must be some shortcuts taken to keep these guys eligible. I remember when I was at BC, granted a long time ago, there were a couple of Jebs who would give As whether you showed up or not, and no work of any kind was required. All the football players took those classes.

CT said...

Sure. Ok, Hoib. Read the report and then get a nanny to write papers. Institutionalize 20 yrs of paper classes.

If that's not a lack of institutional control...

But whatever. Your last paragraph. Ever to excel.

Hoib said...

CT


In your beloved SEC, I'm sure all the football players are engineering majors.

laptop repair in raleigh said...

So where can you get your http://deedoc.com NC fast and efficiently? The very best laptop repair in Raleigh! Either onsite or pickup/drop off works out great. Yes, there are a lot of PC repair places in the whole Triangle area, but when you want skill and experience, you need a company that’s been around for a while – and sometimes even more importantly – one that knows what being a small business is all about.