No Castellanos? No problem.
On Saturday afternoon, the Boston College Eagles hosted the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers for their final out-of-conference match-up of the 2024 regular season. BC, coming ff of a big win against Michigan State in the Red Bandanna Game, came into this game without their starting QB, Thomas Castellanos, and instead started FIU transfer Grayson James under center. James was able to do just enough to squeak out of the afternoon with a victory for his Eagles, throwing a late TD pass in the fourth quarter to give the Eagles a 21-20 win.
Western Kentucky struck first on the scoreboard with a short TD pass after methodically working their way down the field with a lot of help from their tight end River Helms. BC soon caught a break when Khari Johnson intercepted a poorly-thrown pass on WKU’s next possession, setting the Eagles up with good field position, but Grayson James threw an INT of his own right back to the Hilltoppers. So the Hilltoppers kept throwing it to Helms and marched right back down the field to take a 14-0 lead a few minutes into the second quarter. WKU was slicing up the BC zone defense, while BC’s new QB really was struggling with the pressure that WKU was bringing with their blitzes. And Grayson James couldn’t improvise with his rushing ability nearly as much as Castellanos is able to. Another empty BC possession followed and they seemed to favor throwing the ball with James rather than using their deep backfield of RBs.
Boston College’s offense started to figure some things out towards the end of the second quarter, though. Grayson James was getting the ball out quicker and the running backs were bouncing to the outside with speed, chipping away at the WKU defense, finally. They made it all the way down to the goal line and punched it in with Kye Robichaux to bring the game back within 7 points.
Western Kentucky came right back at them though, spreading the ball around the field and doing a good job of getting their players the ball in open space. They managed to drive all the way into the redzone before running out of time in the first half, settling for a field goal to go up 17-7 at halftime.
BC’s first possession of the second half ended just about as quickly as it started, when Lewis Bond fumbled the ball while trying to leap over a defender. WKU took advantage of the early mistake and drove back down the field, not quite reaching the endzone, but kicking a field goal to extend their lead to 20-7. Grayson James started to look more comfortable with more opportunities on the next drive, though, as WKU tried to blitz him and he was able to get the offense moving faster. James’s passing was accurate to receivers when they could get some space against 1-on-1 coverage and he was able to bring BC down the field for a while. But the pass rush was eventually able to hit home for a sack, forcing the Eagles to punt yet again.
From there, Western Kentucky kept plugging along with their midrange passing and short runs until BC’s Kam Arnold was able to come up with an interception on a bobbled pass, giving the Eagles an important opportunity to get back into the game. Treshaun Ward got wide open on a wheel route to get the Eagles into the redzone, which was followed by a quick pass to Jaeden Skeete at the goal line and then a short TD run by Grayson James to bring the Eagles back to just a 20-14 deficit.
After a couple of empty possessions from both teams, Donovan Ezeiruaku made a huge play when he strip-sacked Veltkamp and gave BC the ball back in opposing territory with just minutes left in the game. Ezeiruaku was all over the field on Saturday and capped it off with that huge individual play to give his team another shot. Grayson James made a couple of great passes on the ensuing possession and got it to Jerand Bradley in the endzone to take a 21-20 lead with 3:33 remaining in the game. Despite struggling for long stretches, BC was able to string together a turnover and short offensive drive to take a late lead, not giving up on a game where they were trailing by two scores.
WKU quickly went nowhere in their first three plays of their next drive, but converted a huge 4th down while backed up against their own goal line. With a flag for defensive pass interference following that, the Hilltoppers suddenly were threatening to take the lead back. But the pressure kept getting to Veltkamp and he couldn’t get on the same page as his receivers, as the BC defense held strong on another 4th down attempt that allwoed them to ride to a 21-20 victory.
Takeaways
- Are we the team that everybody else hates losing to? That’s two weeks in a row where BC kind of got outplayed, but kept pushing in the trenches and took advantage of lucky breaks, staying close enough to eventually pull out a close win. Great coaching job by BoB yet again, even if the playcalling seemed a bit odd at times.
- Grayson James did what he needed to. He looked like a solid passer when he had an open receiver and could get the ball out quickly and in tempo. Not always accurate, but serviceable. But when the play broke down and he was in the pocket for more than a couple of seconds, he struggled to improvise and really was not a threat with his legs. And WKU quickly realized that they could just send a blitz and pressure him every play.
- The BC offensive line works well when they have a QB that can scramble like Castellanos, but today they let a lot of pressure get through to James. And the running game was much less effective when the WKU defense knew that the QB wasn’t a threat to run. Hopefully this won’t be a relevant weakness in future weeks, and BC will go back to a run-heavy scheme when TC gets back.
- Donovan Ezeiruaku WHAT A GAME! Multiple sacks, including the huge strip sack in the final minutes of the fourth quarter that flipped the game on its head. He’s been a huge leader for the BC defense this year and a big reason why they’ve been so competitive in close, messy games.
- Zone defense is not it. WKU was slicing up the BC secondary all day, and were often only stopped when they made a dumb turnover. Until the end, when the pressure was just too much. But when Ezeiruaku and the DL can’t get to the QB fast enough, it seems pretty easy for opposing offenses to find an open receiver.