#78 R.P.I. Virginia Tech @ #90 R.P.I. Boston College:

Today’s word of the day is… rally

(răl′ē)

verb, transitive,
noun. plursl. ral·lies

1. A gathering, especially one intended to inspire enthusiasm for a cause: a political rally.
2. reassembling, as of dispersed troops.
3. An abrupt recovery from a setback, disadvantage, or disease
4. A sharp increase in price or value after a decline.
5. Saturday at 12:30pm up in Beantowne???

Well I certainly hope so regarding bullet no.5.

Though how can I be sure?

How can you be sure?

As the only thing I’m sure of right now … is that I’m not that sure?!?
Though there were a few signs this week from the 24060.
Only thing to riddle out is: are they enough?

Boston College Defense: (starters back=6)

• 1st in Rushing D, 2nd in Total D, 3rd in scoring D,
• physical, multi faceted base 4-3 set, BIGGEST defense in the conference!
• 2nd best in Tackles For a Loss (TFL) and 9th best in sacks! B.C. lives in your offensive backfield.
• 6th in d-Line Havoc, 3rd in Lb Havoc, 2nd in Def.Havoc overall!

  

• prolly the 1 or 1a best dLine we see all year.
• ^^^that^^^
• as this is an very interesting Rhomboid shaped Umbrella D that sometimes only commits 6 (front 4-2) to stopping the Run; and then does stop the run! (that’s a damn strong front-6) As the Will offsets as almost a 3rd Safety with more pass emphasis at times.
• see what I mean? If that front-6 can whoop your Run, BeeCee effectively back-doors a Spread fighting full-time Nickle look. That does not 2015 suck. The Eagle dLine will stunt, twist and loop here-n-there as well.
• MB12 Surgeon General’s Warning: this Eagle d-Line will flat BUST that Qb!
• Rock solid Dt’s and borderline great De’s. Good, good, better, best, with 2 very good Lb’s (Mike and Sam) behind that.
• B.C. will run-blitz at least 1 Lb per play, seemed to be more so the Sam or short-side.
• B.C. has a lotta even looking Tampa-2 (1 Lb does not blitz) or Cover-1 help or old-school Rover-Free elements to it down the field. With Tight or at least Medium-Man on the edges. The Fs tends to have a first move deep(er) on the snap.
• best Cb (Kamrin Moore) done for the year (leg). God Bless.
• Tackling was better than average, physical, though it was also a little shallow on its run-fits here and there.
• D will tackle the football and go for the fumble creating strip.
• Kinda a black-n-blue junk-kicking defense, though it did not have the best recovery-speed if/when you could break front-6 contain; or beat B.C. to the edge.
• That very same black-n-blue makes this D very very tough in the Red-Zone where the field compacts any and speed disadvantages are hidden via N-S compression.
• REALLY like this brand of Defense. IF, you have the hogzilla’s up front to play it, as it is built to smash you in trench-fighting and simply disallow the HR play behind that. (code for making you tap, physically, eventually)
• and this D had four, that’s 4, single-digit vote geters for all-A.c.c. back in August?!? How about all-A.c.c. Assistant of the year for coach Don Brown? That or a new contract.

Defensive letter-grade:

Flying Eagle Offense: (returning starters=3)

• 125th (outta 128) in Total O! (and regressing, significantly in the last 2+games)
• 123rd in Passing O and in Passing Efficiency
• 119th in 3rd down conversion O. Although a decent 59th in Rushing O
• 61st in pass protect and yet a pitiful sieve like 125th in TFL allowed!

  

• only 2 rushes >37 and no runs >45; with 1 catch >39. Possibly the most inert A.c.c. offense I’ve ever studied.
• Bit more under-C non Spread Set(s) look.  Will deploy 2 Te’s early and often in a jumbo and just try to grind you into hamburger at the point of attack.
• Musical Chairs or a 3-way dance @Qb, including the legacy Flutie kid. Though I liked the Smith kid –more he is creative (and sometimes dangerous) with his feets.
• Qb d.Wade has a busted ankle and is done for ’15, Smith (concussed) just got kayoed last week by Louisville (God Bless). So a unsettled Pivot position has solution via reduction. Flutie does operate the ‘gun Spread Set more than the others do/did. Nephew Flutie is a 42%, passer since Howard.
• curious zoning scheme, that will at times cede ground and let you make a penetrating move and then simply take you wherever you wanna go. Lotta Shield or Turn blocking here. Still a physical oLine, though not quite the N-S baseball bat approach I expected.
• Run attack is keyed by dual Te Jumbo set Hook-blocks on the edge and getting that seal. Will short Power-I you at times. Almost has a mid 1980’s Nebraska/Oklahoma Big-8 feel to it.
• Best Rb (Jon Hilliman), an all-A.c.c. caliber Back, done for the duration (foot); Godspeed!
• The Passing O you ask? What passing O? 50%, 50% and 33% passing from these 3 B.C. Qb’s says so! Though the Flutie kid does provide some vertical stretch to an otherwise truncated short to shorter passing attack. And he can get plum scorching BIG-play hawt; with 2 games >212 Qb rating thus far this campaign.
• Smaller Rb’s and not very big Wr’s dot the skill position rotations.
• This Eagle O has been goose-egged twice (zero points); and held to 7, once.

Offensive  letter-grade:

Bee Cee Special Teams: (both return)
4 guys have attempted P.A.T.’s and 3 guys have attempted FG tries. Need I attempt to type more? As this just in, rain is rumored to be wet and that’s not good FG-kicking tradecraft folks. As Bee.Cee FGK’s have combined to make three, yes, 3 whole FGA’s on the season with a long of 31! No I’m not making that up; and no this ain’t Boston High School it still is Boston College. It’s just that B.C. K’s can not make a “3” with a pencil.

Ginormous 6’6” Punter Alex Howell -with his higher release point on Punts- has even slid over to try to sure up Place-Kicking. And he is aided and abetted by the 9th best Punt Coverage unit in the land. As 20th in Net Punting is pretty dang tight. Return teams shake out okay enough at 64th in KO Returns and 47th in Punt Returns. The Eagles are a serviceable 51st in KO coverage.

Boston College has allowed zero punt and kick blocks alike; and yet has snuffed out 3 kicks and 3 punts thus far. WOW! (lotta Middle-Block full looks as B.C. will out number your up-men +1 on Punt Block, (see: above pic))

Special Teams letter-grade: (If not for this K s.n.a.f.u., the Eagles would field some great special-teams and they field a pretty good special-teams overall thanks to so many game changing blocks. A downright solid B+++ accordingly)

X-factor(s):

• motive: gotta be in favor of B.C., at home, less travel, less indecision; although both are fighting for their post-season …lives!
• weather: looks, cool, clear, crisp: a signature autumn football kinda day.
• health: Push, both squads are pretty lame in spots, plural.
• penalties: BeeCee is 49th in Penalty Yards. Eagle edge.
• fatigue: these are 2 plum tucked-out looking teams to me with 3 short work-weeks combined coming in. (BC=1, VT=2) Or 2 teams in search of a BYE weekend.
• surface: AstroTurf! Why B.c. went back in time to this ligament hating stuff I do not know? I do know that gives them the familiarity check-mark here.

Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:

The call…

This one looks like a simple call, depending however upon where you come out on this match-up:

1. Either, the better Qb wins: hands down, full-stop, game over! This one is code for MB12 presenting a vastly more balanced offense than that which BeeCee can field and comparatively winging Tech to victory.
2. Or, the more decisive, more mentally motivated, less tired, healthier football team wins at him in an ugly World Series race to 10 kinda game. (first one there, wins)

As I do know that Virginia Tech has just enough match-up advantages over on offense to eek out a oaf of a game physically speaking.

I’m just not such which Virgina Tech shows up mentally speaking? IF, Tech is ready and balls all out, Tech wins. If Tech has wishy-washy checked out between the ear-pads; a more emotionally focused Boston College will win. Take thy pick.

“We take a lot of pride in putting that together every year, making this a great program for coach Beamer, because he takes a lot of shit, excuse my language, that he shouldn’t have to take. We feel for him and we want to win for him. I came here five years ago because that was the guy I wanted to play for. And I feel like that and I feel like he is fully capable of leading this program.”
-VT Dt, Corey Marshall-

---

YAH! That’s what I’m typing about! Give ’em (the Frank haters) HELL Corey! Rally to the O&M flag son!

“Attack, attack, attack! Listen to this guy! That’s the kinda fighting spirit I was talkin’ about! If he’s a major he’s a colonel now!”

-Carol O’Connor as Major General Colt-

Cop this ‘tude and we win!

***

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is…  if you love low-scoring defensive football? You Sir have come to the right place. All fingers point to that.

And other than that?
I have no earthy idea???

I foresee a 1-score, 1-play; maybe even a half-play or less football game.
A fugly football game, either way.

Frank is 128-6-1 at Virginia Tech when his team allows fewer than 14 points; Boston College is averaging 8.2 ppg in A.c.c. play. And my spies say that the Smith Qb is not practicing at all this week. Guess -pun very intended, guess I’ll go with that.

upset Index=51%

Virginia Tech=12, Boston College=1o

“LETS GO!“

“HOKIES!“

bourbonstreet**