Curtis: Wow what a win! Boston College came out of a rollercoaster ride on Saturday afternoon with two different QBs and emerged with the victory over Syracuse. For me, the #1 thing that’s now staring us in the face: is it time to bench Thomas Castellanos? Grayson James got the ball moving through the air in the second half just a bit, leading BC to move down the field more effectively and score a couple of late touchdowns.
Curran: In our preseason roundtable, my hot take for the season was that James would replace TC as the starter. My thinking was that O’Brien would import a heavy pass-first offense and it wouldn’t necessarily play to TC’s strengths. Castellanos has had flashes as a passer, but his rushing threat has been virtually nonexistent this season and this BC team is never going to win with 25+ dropbacks from TC. Bench him. I don’t think he’s the type of QB O’Brien wants, but we’ll see where O’Brien goes from here.
Kieran: It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. Given that O’Brien has stuck with Castellanos this long and they’ve won some games, I wouldn’t be surprised if he just sticks with him. James did look good, but didn’t he only throw the ball 6 times? I’m not sure if that’s enough to give him the starting job. But even if Castellanos is able to return next week, I’m sure James is going to get some run with the first team this week in practice.
Curtis: Even just the threat of a passing quarterback with 6 completions was enough to get the Syracuse defense to respect the pass, and it opened up a lot of room for Jordan McDonald and Kye Robichaux to run. The BC offense under Castellanos was becoming ineffective because the opposing defense always stacked the box and TC can’t pass the ball consistently downfield. I think bringing in Grayson James as the starter will at least allow our RBs to shine. James doesn’t even have to sling the ball very much to open up some space.
On another note, the BC defense really stepped up and is clearly one of the major success stories this season, despite the thin roster. Donovan Ezeiruaku and the pass rush was really effective on Saturday and helped flip the game, especially with that late safety.
Curran: It seems like we say this every year, but there are some young guys to build around on this defense. Quintayvious Hutchins has been a pleasant surprise emerging opposite Ezeiruaku in the past few weeks, Max Tucker is a true sophomore who will have a lot of experience under his belt, and Daveon Crouch looks like he will lead the linebacker room for the foreseeable future.
Niraj: And where do we keep hiding these running backs? McDonald was a revelation – quick, strong cuts. Presumably Ward was banged up, but man with all of these guys, there should never have been games where they shifted away from running at times. Yeah really great work by both lines. Played with the physicality that was needed.
And sorry I have to go back the QB point because that’s all that really matters. Castellanos was missing open receivers. He needs to take a step back. If he’s not really running, he doesn’t bring enough to the table to justify. Maybe he still starts but O’Brien needs to be willing to pull the plug quickly. Everything needs to be thought of in a four-down mindset. Between kicking and punting, this is an abject disaster
Curtis: It was incredible how well McDonald was playing. I’m not sure how much of that was him versus the great blocking by the OL, probably a bit of both. Both him and Robichaux were incredibly effective and it reminded me of how the team started the season with their long ground-and-pound drives. That has been what leads this team to success this season.
Kieran: Yeah Niraj and Curtis, you’re both right about McDonald and the o-line. Seriously, where has McDonald been this whole year? Between him, Richard, Robichaux, Ward, and Castellanos, maybe Billy B should just say screw it and take a few pages out of Army’s playbook. It would certainly make them more fun to watch.