Boston College Begins ACC play at Virginia Tech

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Two teams that may have figured on being 1-0 before league play began, meet each other this Saturday night in Blacksburg, Va. Boston College (0-1) and Virginia Tech (0-1) will start their conference schedules at Lane Stadium hoping to put last week’s losses in the rearview mirror. For both teams that’s probably a good idea, since neither one can feel good about opening weekend.

For Boston College, their loss to Rutgers came down to a fourth-quarter drive that lasted over five minutes and was executed the old-fashioned way, smash mouth style. Rutgers took a ground-and-pound approach to that last drive and it worked like a charm. That came courtesy of a 12-play 96-yard drive all on the ground, as Rutgers offensive line outmuscled the Eagles front seven. For the game, the Scarlet Knights gained 212 yards on the ground without the benefit of a true quarterback. The bottom line is Rutgers won the battle at the point of attack. On the offensive side of things, it was the same story. The Eagles O-line started several new faces and had a hard time getting things done. They could only muster five rushing first downs and 29 net yards on the ground for the game. That measures out to a yard per carry. BC gained 77 total yards on the ground and lost 48. Those numbers must improve on Saturday night. The good news for the offense was the passing game. WR Zay flowers got his season off to a good start with 10 catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns. QB Phil Jurkovec threw for three touchdowns on the day which matched his career high for the third time in his Eagles career. For the game, he finished 23-of-41 for 283 yards and two interceptions. Simply put, for Boston College to leave Blacksburg with a win, both the offensive and defensive lines must be better.

Virginia Tech was on the road last weekend. Their game at Old Dominion ended with ODU scoring 10 fourth-quarter points to win by three 20-17. The Hokies were better on the stats sheet than Old Dominion in every phase of the game except one, turnovers. ODU’s secondary came up with big plays all game long. They intercepted Hokies QB Grant Wells four times which allowed them to keep the game close into the fourth. The VT offense gained over 300 yards on the day, but those turnovers would be the reason why they came away with a loss instead of a win. A cleaner game should be priority one this week vs BC.

Virginia Tech leads the all-time series with Boston College 19-11. Last year, the Eagles came away with a 17-3 win, as BC ran for 234 yards on the ground and gained 346 yards for the game. The defense held the Hokies to a third-quarter field goal and 235 yards for the game. VT did gain 162 of those yards on the ground. The last time BC was a winner in Blacksburg was in 2018 by a 31-21 score. At the time the Eagles were ranked #24 in the country.

It may be hard to believe, but the loser of this game Saturday night may find the road to a bowl game very difficult to navigate for the rest of the fall.