A rainy thriller!
On Saturday night, the Boston College Eagles football team hosted the Michigan State Spartans for their annual red bandanna game in Alumni Stadium. It was a very rainy night as BC donned their red paisley uniforms to honor Welles Crowther, a Boston College alum and hero who sacrificed his life on September 11th, 2001 to save others. And BC pulled out a thrilling win in the downpour, scoring a last minute TD to take the lead and win the game, 23-19.
The game started slow for the Boston College offense, going three & out and kicking a meager punt that set-up the Spartans with excellent starting field position. But the Eagles’ defense stood strong to start and held MSU to a field goal that had them take a quick 3-0 lead. BC responded well by driving downfield with some great running outside of the tackles by Treshaun Ward and Turbo Richard, but Ward fumbled the ball in the redzone and gave possession right back to the Spartans before BC could put up any points.
The Boston College defense stepped up in response, though, and gave BC the ball back almost immediately with a stop. That allowed Thomas Castellanos, Treshaun Ward, and Turbo Richard to gash the Michigan State defense once again, running the ball down their throats and bouncing it outside for big gains, this time capping it off with a Turbo Richard touchdown. A bad snap on the PAT led to a miss, so the BC lead was only 6-3 as the second quarter got underway.
The Boston College defense couldn’t continue to hold strong, though, as they finally let MSU QB Aidan Chiles hit a receiver 40 yards deep, setting up a short touchdown to take a 10-6 lead back for Michigan State. Chiles had missed a couple of those passes earlier in the game, but finally hit one to make the Eagles’ secondary pay, who had been letting Spartans wide receivers run a little too free in the defensive backfield. After a three & out by BC’s offense, Sparty once again started marching their way down the field, but a lousy throw by Chiles went into the middle of the field for an interception by BC’s Carter Davis. Thomas Castellanos took a bad sack on the next BC possession, forcing a punt back to MSU, who drove down the field once again and pulled out a field goal to take a 13-6 lead into halftime.
As the first half progressed, it became very clear that the Boston College defense was struggling to defend MSU’s receivers downfield, and Chiles was doing a great job running around to extend plays and finding open receivers. They were lucky to escape the first half with only 13 points on the board against them, in large part due to the interception and the timely stop at the end of the half. Meanwhile the BC offense couldn’t find its groove, outside of its one touchdown drive, and their special teams was putting them at a tactical disadvantage in more ways than one.
The second half started very badly for Michigan State. Their returner fumbled the football on the kickoff and BC recovered the ball at the five yard-line, setting them up with prime field position. But the BC offense couldn’t punch it in and Castellanos ran backwards by about 12 yards on third down, setting up a long field goal that Lombardo knocked in to cut the MSU lead to 13-9. Then Aidan Chiles threw his second INT of the night shortly thereafter, giving the ball right back to BC, who immediately gave it to Treshaun Ward for a 36-yard TD run down the sideline. All of a sudden, BC was leading 16-13 fewer than three minutes into the second half.
On the ensuing possession, Michigan State showed off a lot of what we had already seen. Chiles threw a pass directly into the arms of BC defender Max Tucker, who couldn’t hold on to the INT. Then Chiles missed a wide open WR down the sideline for what would’ve been a surefire touchdown, giving BC a huge break. Sparty instead had to settle for a long field goal to tie the game up at 16-16. A couple of back-and-forth possessions didn’t result in much for either team as the third quarter progressed further, especially as the rain poured down and the wet football was getting flung all over the place. But the Eagles did finally manage to drive into the redzone again and capped it off with a wild play that saw Castellanos fumble at the goal line, recovered by the OL, and then TC failed to punch it in on the ensuing fourth down.
Michigan State, starting at their own 1 yard line, then drove way down the field well into FG range, giving their kicker the opportunity to give them the lead. He nailed the short kick to put Sparty up 19-16 with just about 4 minutes remaining. The BC defense had stood strong against the run for most of the night, but a few bad breakouts let MSU run down the clock and continue that drive much further than they had been.
So BC basically had one drive to march down the field and either tie or win the game, but things developed more quickly than they perhaps anticipated. A few short passes to Lewis Bond got the Eagles to midfield, and then Bond blew the top off of the MSU defense and took home a 42-yard bomb that was a bit underthrown by Castellanos. It gave BC a 23-19 lead with just 1:28 remaining.
MSU drove the ball down the field with scary efficiency, getting into BC territory with plenty of time left. But an ill-advised deep pass, like so many Chiles had thrown all night, went right into the hands of Max Turner and he iced the game with an INT. Boston College would go on to win the game, 23-19.
Takeaways:
- What a win! These guys struggled at times and had some messy plays, but they trusted the gameplan and fought hard for a really meaningful win. Huge props to this culture that BoB has already built.
- Where was Kye Robichaux? He wasn’t on the injury report, but BC decided to go with Treshaun Ward and Turbo Richard all night. I’ll be curious to hear what the coaches say after the game. Treshaun Ward looked phenomenal, though, despite the fumble.
- Thomas Castellanos had a very inconsistent game. Sometimes he was doing exactly what was needed, completing short passes to an open man or running it himself for a modest gain. But way too often he was holding onto the ball for longer than he should have and took some ugly sacks, as well as making some bad throws that went into the dirt.
- The BC defensive line is clearly the strength of their defense. Between Ezeiruaku, Horsley, Okapala, Rooks, and even Bam Crouch at LB, they did a great job of pressuring the QB and mostly keeping the MSU runners in check.
- The BC secondary once again was getting majorly exposed, and would have had an even worse game if it wasn’t for the opposing QB missing a bunch of wide open throws.
- Lots of miscues from the BC special teams in this game, which has been a worrying trend. It doesn’t seem like Bill O’Brien has found a punter especially that he can trust.