Looking Back
Michigan State lost 45–31 to No. 25 USC on Saturday afternoon as quarterback Jayden Maiava lit the Spartans up, throwing three touchdown passes and running two in on his own.
Perhaps more importantly, Waymond Jordan ran for 157 yards on 18 rush attempts, averaging nearly nine yards per carry. BC’s starting running back, Turbo Richard, has 158 rushing yards through three games.
Plus, as a team, BC was only able to gain 82 yards on the ground in the Eagles’ loss to Michigan State a couple of weeks ago. What does that tell you?
Well, it tells you that USC is a better team than BC, but we already knew that. It also tells you that Michigan State’s defense wasn’t impenetrable on the ground, which is how BC made it look.
Jordan isn’t that much bigger than Richard—he’s listed just an inch taller. Better blocking alone could have closed the game-deciding two-point gap.
Some positive momentum going into Stanford would have been all the difference because, truthfully, BC could have, and should have, won that game. It’s still the Cardinal’s only win of the season, as it got destroyed 48–20 by Virginia this week.
Standouts and Sleepers
We’ve already established that BC’s run game needs to be more successful than it has been for the Eagles to win games. Moving on from that, there is the question of what exactly should be expected from BC’s defense at this point in the season.
It’s easy to say that the defense shouldn’t have given up 30 points to Stanford, but anyone who watched the game would probably say that the defense didn’t feel like the problem. The unit held the Cardinal to 10 points in the second half, which is when the game was actually decided. Offensive turnovers had far more to do with that loss than any defensive mistakes did.
Going forward, the defense needs to keep doing what it’s doing. Consistency is key for the group—a little more quarterback pressure certainly wouldn’t hurt.
In other news, Dylan Lonergan has been a star through his first three games as an Eagle. He’s completed 73 percent of his passes and thrown for nine touchdowns and just one interception. There’s never a good time for an interception, but that was a particularly bad instance for a turnover, as it came during a game where the rest of the team was picking up very little slack.
The receiving core has also been consistently impressive—although there’s a chance that has more to do with Lonergan’s accuracy than anything else.
Lewis Bond has been about as good as anyone expected, but still hasn’t caught a touchdown pass. Keeping up with the scoring power of a team like Notre Dame is no easy task, and it’s going to take all the weapons BC has if the Eagles want to stay in it.
That means every offensive target has to think of himself as a threat, and tight ends need to be available for short swing passes when Lonergan is under pressure.
The Next Couple
Sep. 27 vs. California
This has the potential to be a bounce-back game, as California is coming off a shutout loss to San Diego State on Saturday.
The thing standing in the way of that bounce back is quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele. He’s a 6-foot-3, 225-pound lefty with a big arm who passed for 780 yards and six touchdowns in the first three games of the season. Shutting him down, or at least shutting down his targets, will be key for a BC win.
Oct. 4 at Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh had wins over Duquesne and Central Michigan before losing to West Virginia in overtime. The Panthers will likely be coming off a loss in their ACC opener against Louisville.
The Eagles should have a good chance of winning this game if they play like they did in the first two weeks of their season. Last year’s 7–0 start from Pittsburgh seems like years ago at this point, and Eli Holstein hasn’t yet been the standout quarterback his team needs him to be.
It’s one step at a time for the Eagles right now. First, they must revive their season and beat Cal. Then they can worry about the road matchup against the Panthers.
