Kansas 48 Boston College 24: Stock Report

Boston College was crushed on Friday by Les Miles and his Kansas Jayhawks in a stunning upset in Alumni Stadium 48-24. There were problems in all three facets of the game for the Eagles, so instead of giving out individual stock evaluations, I'm going to give my reasons why each unit's stock collectively went down. For consistency sake I had three individual stocks go up in this game for AJ Dillon, Kobay White and David Bailey.

Offense: Stock Down

When Boston College got that opening drive and just punched it down Kansas's throat I thought "here we go Kansas doesn't have a shot". The offensive line was dominating up front and AJ Dillon was doing whatever he wanted, and there was nothing the Jayhawks could do about it. But after that drive they had two drives stall when they started leaning on the pass (which wasn't working). On the first drive after Mehdi El-Attrach intercepted Carter Stanley, BC got the ball in prime position and then went incomplete pass, run, incomplete pass. The next drive was even worse when they were moving the ball with Dillon and Bailey, and then on three straight passes Brown threw incomplete passes to Kobay White stalled the drive and forced them to punt it.

BC scored 14 more points in the game, but after that first drive they never seemed in rhythm. They scored a gadget play touchdown pass from CJ Lewis to Anthony Brown, and Brown hit Korab Idrizi for another TD, but it was the other plays that told the story. There were about 5-6 passes that Brown threw early in the game that should have never been thrown, were bad reads and almost intercepted. He was fortunate that Kansas didn't catch any of those passes because the outcome could have been much worse.

Enter the second half, and the offense was in complete disarray. Brown's body language showed a player that looked defeated, and BC couldn't move the ball at all as Kansas somehow was winning the battle of the trenches. Addazio started moving away from the run, AJ Dillon inexplicably only rushed it five times in the second half. BC instead went away from their offense and AJ Dillon, relying on risky passes from Brown which led to nothing.

Also Zay Flowers, who has been a weapon all year, was a complete non factor in this game.

Defense: Stock Crashed

There have been games in BC history that I can remember where the defense just lays an egg, and there have been a few against what should have been lesser opponents. Most recently it was Army in 2012, when Frank Spaziani's team looked completely lost against the triple option. They got gouged and it seemed like everything Army did led to a chunk play, and huge yardage. Last night's game against Kansas had that same feel.

First off, the rushing defense was abysmal. Kansas rushed for 329 yards, and 187 of that belonged to Khalil Herbert who had a string of long rushes that followed the same formula. He gets the ball, stutters to the outside, makes defensive end miss, there is no second level help within 20 yards, more missed tackles, huge gain. He finished the game averaging 17 yards a carry, which of course was helped out on the 82 yard run with 30 seconds left that gave Kansas the lead going into half. That run was the perfect encapsulation of BC's struggles last night. The secondary couldn't get to the ball carrier, they weren't even turned around until about 20 yards down the field, there were multiple missed tackles.

Oof. Immediately after Kansas gets the ball back, running back Khalil Herbet takes a carry up the middle...and goes 82 yards to the BC 3. pic.twitter.com/052O4k40RS
— Bradley Smart (@bradleysmart15) September 14, 2019

The linebacker group needs help as well, Max Richardson was a non factor, and Joe Sparacio still seems a step behind in some of the pass plays. Isaiah McDuffie's absence was very apparent yesterday.

The pass rush was another major problem. BC had zero sacks the whole game, and it didn't seem like they ever got a hand in the face of Carter Stanley. He had all the time in the world, and he picked apart the BC secondary like a seasoned vet, something he couldn't do against Coastal Carolina the week before when he only managed 107 yards passing. BC's pass rush is very weak this year, a huge drop off from the disruptive force they were last year, and this is becoming a major problem. They clearly don't have the strong rushers they had last year in Zach Allen and Wyatt Ray, but some of this has to go on the coaches too who need to start taking some more risks by bringing more pressure. They need to figure out a way to bring corners, linebackers or safeties in, because QB's who have all that time will pick you apart. Then again, that is hard to do when the secondary is struggling like they were.

All and all a lot of these issues we saw on defense has to do with preparation and coaching. BC sat in a soft zone coverage for most of the first half and Carter Stanley spread the offense out, ran the RPO and ripped it to shreds, and BC never adjusted. Even Mark Herzlich said on the broadcast that he was stunned BC was sticking with four down linemen up front given the struggles BC was having at linebacker and in the secondary.

Special Teams: Stock Slightly Down

There were certainly some positives here. Travis Levy had some nice kick returns, and set up the offense in solid field position, and Grant Carlson averaged a solid 41.5 yards per punt. Aaron Boumerhi however missed a field goal, but also made a 40 yarder. Nolan Borgersen also got called for a running into the kicker penalty that kept a drive going, but replay showed the punter jumping an extra yard to run into him, so I don't really blame him for that. It was a bad penalty call.

Overall Expectations: Stock Down

Looking at this game, and analyzing where BC goes from here there are a few things to look at. I don't know if the defense can be fixed, but it can't be as bad all year as we saw on Saturday. The coaches are going to have to figure out how to get the defense back on the right track, because if they don't there are some very potent offenses left on this schedule that will be a major problem, and as we saw Steve Addazio's offense seems to come unglued when he falls apart.

In terms of the coaching, this game and the outcome was a major mark against them. I watched the Coastal Carolina defense last week shut down Kansas, yet BC made them look like Oklahoma out there effortlessly moving the ball however they wanted. Steve Addazio didn't have his team ready for what they saw, and they couldn't adjust. This was only game three of the season, and there is a lot of football left to be played, but fixing this team lays on the feet of this staff. If they can't fix it, their jobs may be in jeopardy.