BC Runs OVER The Yellow Jackets...And Around, And Through...
A fellow by the name of John Heisman once said, " when you find your opponent' s weak spot, hammer it."
That's good advice for winning football games. Heisman won quite a few in his day. I don't know if Boston College coach Bill O' Brien even knows of that quote from Heisman, but he certainly seems to ascribe to that philosophy, as evidenced aplenty this past Saturday against Georgia Tech.
The Eagles came to town with a mediocre 3-3 record and a run game that ranked near the very bottom of the 17- team ACC . They were slated to use their third string QB, and Tech's radio team opined pre- game that Tech had a good chance to win if that back- up BC QB Mason McKenzie was held under 50 yards rushing for the game.
Well, McKenzie passed that mark in the first quarter, and it quickly got worse from there. The Eagles tromped through a Tech defense that seemed disorganized, dis-spirited and by the late fourth quarter, maybe somewhat disinterested? BC cruised up and down the field , generating yardage in easy gulps at a rate that would have thrilled Paul Johnson.
As a consequence, Tech saw its slender half- time lead of 13-12 evaporate fairly quickly in the third quarter. And though Mendoza and company tried to keep up, they could not honor that productive pace and thus lost the second half , 37- 14 to get to the 49-27 final tally.
" Embarrassing", said Brent Key post- game. That word seemed fitting. When asked about his team's overall efrort, Key paused and then said " They gained 400 yards rushing", That was answer enough.
Granted, Tech's halftime lead hinged on two missed PAT's by the Eagles. Plus BC chipped in 90 ysrds of penalties to the GT cause. But the lead at the half did belong to Tech. Then came yet another sour second half.
BC ran for 278 yards in the second half alone. On 25 running plays. That's an average of a first down on each snap. There are occasional " no contact" drills in practice that are less bountiful.
Their QB said post- game, with slight amazement ," we kept running the same plays". [ please see Heisman quote above].
Tech was powerless to stop the run, and it was unclear to onlookers ( including a good number of boo birds in the West stands) what Tech tried to stem the bleeding.
Whatever it was– if it was– it did not work. And with Tech's offense then becoming one- dimensional by necessity, a couple of Mendoza picks only made things worse.
There are all sorts of sad side effects for Georgia Tech from a game like this.
The record falls to 2-5. They must win four of their last five to be bowl- eligible, whatever that phrase means these days. Though in the weird world of college football, with ' parity' everywhere around you, anything seems possible.
But prospects aside, there's a point at which simple personal pride is at stake. Pride for your personal effort. Where is that?
On this picture- perfect day in late October, against a beatable foe, Georgia Tech that should have been fortified by a rocky first six games and the tough lessons thus imparted, played as poorly as they have in a long, long while. The same fans who were pulled in last year certainly noticed the poor product in front of them, and they left early with something better to do with their time.
As for Key and his staff, it's back to the drawing board. Tech travels to Pittsburgh for a game on Halloween night. Tech faithful are hoping to see their team awaken from a long nightmare– or at the very least, try something new and different– to rescue a season that seems so sad so far.