Boston College Looks to Make it Two in a Row Saturday at Army

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The second month of the college football schedule for Boston College (2-3, 1-2) starts on the road on Saturday at West Point to face the Army Black Knights (2-2). They will do so after picking up their first league win of the season last weekend vs Virginia 27-24. The victory was also the first for the Eagles in FBS play. They did it on the ground, with a punishing running game that in the third quarter rushed for 136 yards on 18 carries. They finished the day with 222 yards on 47 tries. Their ability to run the ball opened up the offense for QB Thomas Castellanos (16-of-26, 183 yards,2 TDs, 16 rushes for 82 yards), who would throw two touchdown passes in the third. One was to Joe Griffin of four yards then a 33-yarder to Lewis Bond who had himself quite a day with 7 catches for 104 yards and a score, both were single-game highs for him. It was part of a 17-point quarter that gave BC the lead at 27-21. The defense also did their part with five sacks of Cavaliers quarterback Tony Muskett, and holding Virginia to just 59 yards on the ground in 29 tries. In that pivotal third quarter, the Eagles’ defense yielded just 12 yards of total offense on just eight plays. All through the air. They gave up nothing on the ground in three carries.

The first half was a different story. Virginia raced out to a 21-7 lead and at the time it looked like another long afternoon for BC. They were having trouble stopping Muskett in the passing game. He was 10-of-13, 146 yards, and two touchdown passes. The last of which was a hail-mary connection to Malachi Fields of 39 yards that BC head coach Jeff Haffley was not happy about after the game. Those have been the kind of mistakes that have hurt the Eagles in the month of September. This time it did not. The defense rose up and played maybe their best half of the season in the second half. A far cry from their performance a week earlier at Louisville. Eagles defensive end Donovon Ezeruaku (1 sack,1 tackle for loss) said as much after the game telling the assembled media “We owe the offense after the way we played at Louisville.”

Now it is on to West Point, to play a team they have not seen since 2013. Boston College leads the all-time series 25-13 and at Michie Stadium BC is 13-11. The Black Knight’s last home win vs a Power-five school was back in 2017 when they beat Duke. This will be the second ACC school Army has played, having already lost to Syracuse on the road 29-16. Two things of note about the Black Knights. First, they have committed the fewest penalties to date (9) in FBS. Second, they are one of only two schools, the other being Louisville that have not allowed a point in the first quarter this season. The Army offense scores on average 30 points a game and the defense allows 18. Their trademark is running the ball, in four games they have averaged 208 yards a game. They have shown an ability to throw the ball downfield, averaging 169 yards through the air. Army offense gets 377 yards a game. The defense gives up 320 a game. They face a BC offense that has racked up 400 yards of offense four weeks in a row, which surpasses last season’s total.

Boston College hopes to leave West Point with a win and head into their bye week at >500 overall. They will need to play Assignment football to get the job done.