After the first two performances of the year, it is difficult to know what to expect from this year’s Boston College team - especially when matched up against a first time opponent like Central Florida. With that in mind, BC will look to keep things simple and play mistake free football focusing on these 5 keys to victory:
1. Chris Crane
Prior to the season, any national attention that BC was receiving focused on the absence of Matt Ryan and the questions surrounding incumbent 5th year starter Chris Crane. Although he opened with a serviceable performance against an out-manned Kent State team, he suffered greatly against a stout defense against Georgia Tech. In Saturday’s game, the Eagle’s won’t need an All-World performance from Chris Crane, but one in which he limits turnovers, bad decisions, and bad throws.
2. Special Teams
One of UCF’s main threats is Joe Burnett, their primary return man on Punts and Kickoffs. This guy is a burner has the potential to break one every time he touches the ball. Therefore, kick and punt coverage will me even more important than usual. On the BC side of things, Coach Jags will look to Sophomore kicker Billy Bennett to continue to boot kickoffs into the endzone and Ryan Quigley/Billy Flutie to avoid any mental errors on the punt team.
3. Defensive Secondary
With Deleon Gause still nursing an ankle injury, BC may once again be relying on true freshman cornerback Donnie Fletcher. While he won’t be asked to be spectacular, he will be counted on to avoid giving up the big pass play on defense. Despite giving up a couple of big runs in the Georgia Tech game, our front seven should be able to limit the Knight's running game forcing them to look to make big plays through the air.
4. Red Zone Offense
If you were asked to look back and point to one specific fatal flaw in the Georgia Tech game, it had to be BC’s anemic red zone performance. At the end of the first half, instead of putting 17-28 points on the board after our 4 trips into the red zone, we scored only 9 points on four filed goal attempts. If BC wants to win more than 6 games this year, that will have to improve.
5. Early Momentum
In a game like this, especially being 10.5 point favorites at home, BC needs to come out strong in the first quarter and, hopefully, get both the crowd and the team into the game. The longer and underdog opponent keeps a game close and hangs around, the more difficult it will be to prevail late.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hey just wanted to say great job - those keys to the game were insightful and very original - you know usually you see the same 3 or 4 things but you did a good and informative job of highlighting some key areas I hadn't really thought of (e.g. early momentum)
You're definitely right too, i remember coming to the BC-Maine game in '07 at half time (I had been taking LSAT) and couldnt believe how close it was and how bad we looked all game....a slow start will make this the usual nailbiting affair
Post a Comment