Without a stammer in his voice, Bill O’Brien told it as it was. He did not lie. He did not try to hide it. He did not pretend like the outcome was something it was not. Boston College football had blown away its Week 5 matchup at Virginia.
O’Brien’s disappointment showed, and he directed the anger onto himself for preparing his team so unsuccessfully.
“Put it on me, blame it all on me,” O’Brien said. “We got to do a better job. We got to coach better, we got to play better. We got a long way to go.”
The Eagles flew out of the gates to start the affair. Quarterback Thomas Castellanos completed his first 11 balls for 135 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, and a 14–0 BC lead early in the second quarter.
But from that point on, the inconsistencies mounted. The Eagles saw a 14-point lead evaporate into a 10-point loss after surrendering 24 unanswered points. Castellanos finished the game with two interceptions, a fumble, and negative rushing yards. Turnovers, messy penalties, lack of a run game, and weak third-down effort all contributed to BC’s meltdown.
Here are three observations from the loss.
Forgetting His Roots
Just over a year ago, the college football world was introduced to Castellanos’ wild play-making style. One play in particular, in a 27–24 overtime loss to Northern Illinois, that arguably put Castellanos on the map more than any other.
On a broken fourth down from BC’s 46-yard line, Castellanos escaped pressure and dropped all the way to his 10-yard line while zigzagging past a pair of defenders. He managed to creep up the field and throw a dot for a first-down conversion so miraculous that the commentator called it “Fran-Tarkenton-esque.”
All of last season, Castellanos thrived because of his legs. While he’s improved as a passer and developed his pocket awareness, Castellanos’ greatest asset is not being utilized to the extent it was last year, especially recently.
Whether it is because of a new offensive style or a mistaken desire to prove his pocket-passing abilities, Castellanos is stuck in purgatory, and it’s costing the whole team. This Saturday, Castellanos finished in the negatives for rushing yards for the first time in his career (-9).
On 3rd-and-8 with 6:18 to go, down 17–14, Castellanos surveyed the field and could not find a man open. He ditched the pocket and ran to his left, only to find himself surrounded by five Cavaliers. He had room to get out of bounds and protect the ball, but he attempted the hero throw instead.
Castellanos lost control of the ball, which he flung over his back shoulder in Jameis Winston Rose-Bowl fashion, and Virginia scooped and scored to make it 24–14, a brutal way to put the nail in the coffin.
On the Eagles’ next offensive drive, with plenty of time left to make a comeback, Castellanos faced two consecutive one-yard downs and was unable to convert either, throwing back-to-back incompletions. He danced around the pocket looking for an unmarked receiver, but once again, there was no open room except for the relatively empty field ahead.
The shift away from the run game has proven to be a disaster for the Eagles when it comes to playing the full 60 minutes. Apart from Duquesne, the passing scheme has not held up for an entire matchup thus far.
The Eagles finished with 65 rushing yards total on just 29 attempts, down significantly from the season-opening win at then-No. 10 Florida State, in which they accumulated 263 yards, 73 for Castellanos alone, on 52 attempts.
The stats never lie, and there are some key instances where trusting his scrambling ability would have worked more effectively than forcing the ball through the air. That is not asking for 10-to-15-yard gains every time Castellanos runs the ball, either. But four-to-five-yard gains, which should be manageable to attain, are better than an incomplete pass.
Penalty Woes and Lack of Discipline
The Eagles came into their second ACC matchup of the season ranked second in the nation in average penalties a game (3.4). They accumulated five in the first half alone, including a targeting call which disqualified Khari Johnson with 1:40 left in the half.
“We’ve got to understand the rule,” O’Brien said. “If you hit with the top of your head, it doesn’t matter where you hit him … It’s a safety issue. We have to learn to look the tackle in. I try to explain that to our players. I don’t think I’m doing a good enough job.”
BC finished the contest with eight penalties for 85 yards compared with the Cavaliers’ five for 28 yards, and the Johnson occurrence was not the most upsetting one.
One drive after fumbling the ball in the fourth quarter to give Virginia its two-score cushion, Castellanos did not snap the ball in time, resulting in a 1st-and-15 and eventually a three-and-out.
On BC’s next offensive drive—which turned out to be its last— the Eagles needed to take a timeout because there were only 10 players on the field with 3:54 to go. After completing two passes for a gain of 20 yards, Castellanos had a complete miscommunication with Jerand Bradley downfield, seemingly forgetting the receiver’s route, and fired the ball right into the hands of Virginia’s corner.
Out of frustration, Castellanos decided to try and clobber the defender after he had already stepped out of bounds, which resulted in an unnecessary roughness penalty. Poor execution led to poor body language as Castellanos threw up his hands in disgust.
“It was pretty significant,” Donovan Ezeiruaku said. “Coach O’Brien preaches playing disciplined, penalty-free football. Those are things we can control.”
Preventing Third-Down Conversions
Much of the second half revolved around the offense’s errors and total collapse, but the defense’s ability to stop third-down attempts was lacking in the final two quarters as well.
The Cavaliers converted seven of its 16 third-down attempts, a few of them from more than 10 yards.
On 3rd-and-13 with 9:15 to go in the third quarter, Virginia quarterback Anthony Colandrea completed a short pass to Malachi Fields which the wideout brought up the field for a 19-yard first down. Five plays later, Colandrea found Tyler Neville for another 19-yard pickup on 3rd-and-9. While the drive resulted in a turnover on downs, it brought the ball all the way into BC’s endzone, which put the offense in a tricky situation.
Just as the third quarter was ending, Colandrea picked up another third-down conversion on 3rd-and-10 with a 17-yard pass to Neville. The drive resulted in a field goal for the Cavaliers to inch them closer to the lead.
O’Brien did not offer any insight into the breakdown of those defensive alignments because he needed to watch film first, but he still described the problem as inexcusable.
“Thank God we got 12 days before our next game,” O’Brien said. “Maybe we can get some things corrected.”
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