The Home Opener for BC Against Duquesne

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Opening night could not have gone any better for the Boston College Eagles (1-0, 1-0). Their road win at Florida State to begin the Bill O’Brien era was a thing of beauty. Now the Eagles get to play in front of the home folks at Alumni Stadium on Saturday afternoon, as BC welcomes the Duquesne Dukes (0-1).

Duquesne is an FCS school that began its season on the road at Toledo. The 49-10 loss was the fifth time that the Dukes opened their year vs an FBS school. It was also the 10th time in school history that Duquesne played an FBS school. They are now 1-9 against FBS teams and 1-2 vs teams from the Mid-American Conference. This is the second time in program history that the Dukes have started the season playing FBS teams in back-to-back games to begin a year.

Duquesne is coached by Jerry Schmitt and his defense had problems with a Toledo offense that was on target all afternoon. The Dukes allowed 448 yards of offense, and 167 on the ground, which will play into BC’s strength. They had 279 through the air. Toledo was 50% on third down 6-for-12, and a perfect 3-for-3 on fourth down. On defense, the Dukes had a difficult time getting off the field. They would pay for it. They gave up four scoring drives of at least seven plays. Two of those drives ended in TD passes, the other two were rushing touchdowns. On offense, the Dukes moved the ball ok. 161 yards in the air, 123 on the ground. They were also perfect on fourth down (2-for-2) but struggled in two areas. One was third down in which Duquesne was only 3-for-12/ The team hurt themselves with nine penalties for 75 yards. Both will have to improve if they want a shot at an upset on Saturday. QB Darius Perranttes was 15-of-26 for 143 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. He also gained another 33 yards on four carries. John Erby was his favorite target, with seven catches for 69 yards. On defense, Antonio Epps and Derron Moore led the unit with eight total tackles. The unit did make five tackles for losses. However, they could not force a turnover.

There are plenty of things to like about Monday night’s win for the Eagles. The running game finished with 264 yards on 52 carries. They averaged 5.1 yards a carry and scored two rushing touchdowns. The offense was 4-of-5 in the red zone and 9-of-16 on third down. They held the ball for just over 39 minutes. Best of all, they committed only one penalty for the game. On defense, they kept FSU in check all night. The Seminoles were only 3-of-14 on third down, had the ball for twenty minutes, gained 283 yards of total offense, and ran the ball for only 21 yards on 16 attempts.

Quarterback Thomas Castellanos was 10-of-16 for 106 yards and two touchdowns. He ran the ball for another 81 yards on 14 carries. He was one of three runners who gained at least 70 yards on the ground The other two were Kye Robchaux 19-for-85 and a score, and ACC Running Back of the Week Treshaun Ward, 12 carries for 77 yards. He also had three catches for 61 yards and a score. The only bad news was that Castellanos was getting sacked three times in the game. However, it gets overshadowed by all the good they did.

On defense, Carter Davis led with nine tackles. If you added last season’s bowl win over SMU, Boston College has now won back-to-back games over ranked teams. It is the first time they have done this since 2008. With two of their first three games against ranked teams the home opener against Duquesne could be considered a trap game. On Saturday we will find out.