Tamed by Tigers

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Clemson’s Christian Wilkins pancakes BC QB Anthony Brown, sending him out of the game.

Clemson, ranked #2 in the country all season, had outscored its opponents 163-20 in the three games previous to last night’s game against the Eagles at Alumni Stadium. Obviously, that offense was what BC had to worry about.

Think again. It was Clemson’s defense that shut BC down and led to its 27-7 win over the Eagles. The Tigers were no slouch, mind you, when they had the ball. They gained 424 yards in offense. On defense, Clemson almost didn’t let BC play.

The picture above shows Clemson defensive tackle Christian Wilkins — 6-4, 315 — compressing BC QB Anthony Brown on the field at Alumni Stadium. It was BC’s sixth play, a little bit more than five minutes into the game. BC had gained 14 yards at that point. In the rest of the first half, BC ran 17 plays and gained 9 yards. At halftime, BC had fewer yards total offense (23) than number of plays (24). Clemson had gained 260 yards on 42 plays in the first half.

But the halftime score was only Clemson 13, BC 7.

When Clemson had punted to end the possession following Brown’s injury, BC’s Michael Walker fielded a ball, in a crowd of Tigers, that had bounced off a Clemson player. Walker made a career move and scored his first-ever touchdown on a punt return, bringing it to the end zone in a scintillating 74-yard run.

Clemson had opened the game with only a field goal on its opening drive, a boost to Eagles morale. Walker’s punt return had put the Eagles ahead. On Clemson’s next possession, freshman QB Trevor Lawrence was 7-7 passing in a 9-play drive for 70 yards and a touchdown. The Tigers added a second-quarter field goal.

In one series late in the second quarter, with BC backup QB EJ Perry playing, the Eagles had gained rare consecutive first downs. On the next play, a high snap sent Perry back to retrieve the ball, for a loss of 32 yards. Perry was then sacked for another five yards and followed that up with a completion for a loss of two additional yards. BC then punted on 4th down and 49. That’s half the field.

Speaking of punting, BC’s redshirt sophomore Grant Carlson punted 12 times for 520 yards. An awesome statistic no team wants to see.

After a three-and-out by BC to open the second half, Clemson scored its second touchdown following a three-play, 64-yard drive, consisting of a 25-yard run, 33-yard pass reception, and a 6-yard run by Lawrence for his first rushing touchdown.

Clemson added a punt return for a touchdown to make the final score, 27-7. Removing the special teams touchdowns by each team, the score would be 20-0, which was exactly the betting line for the game.

The Eagles finished with 113 yards total offense. Running back EJ Dillon, whom everyone seemed to acknowledge was not fully recovered from previous injuries, carried the ball 16 times for 39 yards.

BC’s defense was substantially better than its offense. Clemson’s 424 yards total offense pulled their season’s average total offense down to 528 yards per game. The Eagles defense was also out on the field almost 11 minutes longer than the BC offense during the game.

Video highlights

Next up: Florida State, in Tallahassee

 

GameDay on game day!

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On Saturday morning, when no one really knew the outcome of the game to follow that evening, the BC campus was quite excited as ESPN’s GameDay experience came to Chestnut Hill. It was the third time ever and first since 2009.

As “the dustbowl” as a term describing the open area surrounded by McElroy, Carney, Fulton, and Lyons halls seems to have gone into the dustbowl of history, GameDay’s stage and crowd were on Stokes Lawn.

And such a crowd!

Sam Apuzzo, center, and Walker-Weinstein, right.

In addition to the somewhat routine perusal of college football games coming up that day, GameDay also took a bit of time to acknowledge one of BC’s very successful women’s teams — lacrosse — ranked #1 nationally preseason. GameDay interviewed senior Sam Apuzzo, winner of last season’s Tewaarton Award as the nation’s best collegiate female lacrosse player, and BC coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein.

Chris O’Donnell ’92

And GameDay finished, as it traditionally does, with one of the host school’s graduates participating in game predictions. For BC Saturday, it was Chris O’Donnell ’92, current star of NCIS: Los Angeles.

And eight hours after GameDay, BC-Clemson kicked off.

 

 

 

Hounding Hokies

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San Diego’s own Ray Smith (96) joins teammates in saluting BC fans at VaTech. Frank Selden photo

After playing one of the sorriest second quarters ever(?), falling behind 14-7 at the half, #22 BC turned it on in the second half, outscoring Virginia Tech 24-7 in Blacksburg, Va., yesterday to make the final score 31-21.

The 7-2 Eagles will likely move up into the top 20 in the College Football Playoff rankings. They meet #2 Clemson Saturday night in Alumni Stadium on national television, preceded that morning by the third appearance ever by ESPN’s GameDay crew on Chestnut Hill, first since 2009. Can you say Big Game!?

Following unsuccessful drives by each team to open the game, the Eagles actually scored first, a 3-yard run by AJ Dillon concluding a 13-play, 75-yard drive. VaTech went right back down the field to tie the game, 7-7, as the first quarter ended. QB Anthony Brown was 4-8 for 35 yards and Dillon had rushed for 54 yards. Things didn’t look that bad.

Brown opened the second quarter by overthrowing a wide open Michael Walker on a deep pass, a portent of things to come. In the quarter, Brown ended up 4-10 for 24 yards. Dillon added 3 yards rushing. At halftime, the Hokies had pretty much doubled BC’s number of 1st downs and offensive yardage, as well as the score, to lead 14-7. The Eagles had gained 126 yards in the half.

RB Travis Levy. Frank Selden photo

BC held the Hokies on their first two drives of the second half, but Brown fumbled on BC’s possession to squelch the Eagles’ drive. On BC’s next possession, things looked like they could go badly for the Eagles when Dillon appeared to be injured on being knocked out of bounds on the Hokies’ 29. (Dillon played sparingly in the rest of the third quarter and sat out the fourth.) On the next play, however, RB Travis Levy blew through the VaTech line and scored on a 29-yard run.

BC scored another touchdown in the third quarter and added another in the fourth on a 1-yard Levy plunge, in which he appeared stopped short but, not being down, lunged over the goal line. Following a VaTech touchdown with less than 5 minutes remaining, the Eagles added an insurance field goal for the final score.

Levy went on to gain 70 yards in the second half, getting 75 total for the game. After falling behind VaTech, to the tune of 119 yards in offense, in the first half, the Eagles gained 270 yards in the second half, finishing with 396 yards total offense, 4 more than the Hokies.

Video highlights

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