What a start to the Bill O’Brien era!
On Monday night, the Boston College Eagles football team traveled down to Tallahassee to face off against the #10 Florida State Seminoles to open up their 2024 season. FSU had already played a game in Ireland the weekend prior, a loss to Georgia Tech, while BC was debuting their new coaching staff under head coach Bill O’Brien. It was a shocker right from the start, as Boston College jumped out to an early lead that they would never relinquish, punishing the Seminoles at the line of scrimmage all night and claiming a 28-13 victory down south.
The first half started about as well as anybody could’ve imagined. The Bill O’Brien-led Eagles, in their first 15-minute quarter, controlled the ball for 14 minutes and 9 seconds. They dominated in the trenches and punished the FSU defense, especially on 3rd & short situations. Thomas Castellanos, Kye Robichaux, and Treshaun Ward took whatever the FSU defense would give them and methodically marched down the field for two touchdowns before Florida State even knew what had hit them. Meanwhile, the FSU offense looked discombobulated and couldn’t complete even some basic plays.
As the second quarter progressed, though, FSU started to pull some things together. Thomas Castellanos and the Eagles offense finally started getting some pushback at the line of scrimmage, unable to advance very far down the field in the second quarter. The FSU special teams were very solid, giving themselves great field position to set up a score. Donovan Ezeiruaku came up with a big sack to stifle that drive, though, resulting in just an FSU field goal to cut the lead down to 14-3. And a big couple of chunk plays helped FSU get down to the goal line once again on their following drive, but they couldn’t complete a couple of basic throw-and-catch plays, forcing them to kick another field goal before halftime to make it a 14-6 Boston College lead. Seminoles quarterback DJ Uiagalelei missed a wide open receiver in the endzone and seriously hurt FSU’s chances on some badly thrown balls, alongside some equally-bad drops by his receivers.
But just when FSU was starting to make things more manageable, they shot themselves directly in the foot. The second half started with a baffling decision from the Seminoles to go for it on 4th down in their own territory, followed by an even more baffling INT thrown by DJU into triple coverage. Boston College returned the pick to near the goal line and punched it in for the score, taking a 21-6 lead almost immediately to start the second half. It was a devastating turn of events for Florida State, who seemed way too desperate to get something going on their opening drive.
After a few drives that went nowhere for either team, FSU finally managed to get going thanks to a trick play. DJU was able to hit a receiver way downfield on a ball reversal, and then hit another deep pass down the sideline for a quick touchdown to cut BC’s lead to 21-13. With Amari Jackson sitting out with a cramp midway through the drive, the Eagles’ secondary started getting very exposed. But the BC offense wasn’t about to just go away. The Eagles went right back to their ground-and-pound style and smashed FSU’s defensive line into submission. Castellanos, Ward, and Robichaux once again combined for a deadly smashmouth rushing attack, driving all the way down the field for an eventual Kye Robichaux punch-in TD to expand their lead to 28-13.
Florida State, facing a double-digit deficit as the 4th quarter began, had to get things into gear. DJU started completing more long passes down the sideline and took serious advantage of a cramping BC secondary. But an intentional grounding penalty, an unforced error by DJU, forced FSU into a bad situation and stalled out their drive near midfield failing to convert on 4th & 16. After a quick BC drive that went nowhere, FSU once again tried to rally. But a sack by Neto Okpala on the very first play of the drive immediately made things more difficult, followed by a George Rooks stuff at the line of scrimmage. The BC defensive line looked incredible compared to their lackluster performance last season, and forced a quick FSU punt in crunch time.
When BC’s offense stalled out again and FSU got another shot at the ailing Eagles secondary, they failed once again, capping off their drive with a terrible unsportsmanlike penalty when an offensive lineman shoved Neto Okpala to the ground after the play. Thomas Castellanos led the Eagles to a first down on the next drive as FSU used up all of their timeouts, and that was all she wrote. Boston College ran the clock down to a convincing 28-13 win over a ranked team.
Takeaways
- This is the rushing offense we were all hoping for! Thomas Castellanos, Treshaun Ward, and Kye Robichaux dominated an FSU defensive line that was one of the most highly-touted in the country. The offensive line deserves a lot of the credit, too, after losing two important starters from last season. BC finished the night with 263 total rushing yards, a terrific performance.
- Bill O’Brien has already whipped this team into shape. FSU looked like a Hafley-coached team out there with how many bad penalties they were taking, while BC dominated in the trenches, stuck to the fundamentals, and was simply the better prepared team. They took what FSU gave them and capitalized on their opportunities. What an incredible start for BoB’s regime.
- How ‘bout that BC defense! DJU isn’t exactly a formidable quarterback these days, but they did a great job of pressuring him at the line and keeping the FSU RBs in check. BC’s defense did struggle in the secondary, though, especially with how much some players were cramping up. That’ll be a bigger problem against better QBs.