Boston College vs. Virginia: Grading the Eagles

A position by position break down from Saturday's game

Boston College lost their season finale in disappointing fashion, dropping the game 43-32. It was a game marked by some big plays, but also poor defense, and turnovers. Let's take a look and grade out each position group.

Because of COVID-19 this evaluation was done using the network TV feed. There certainly were moments the video missed. We did the best we could to evaluate what was visible. Also for grading: A: Great Game, B:Good Game, C: Average Game D: Below Average F: Poor Game)

(Because of COVID-19 this evaluation was done using the network TV feed. There certainly were moments the video missed)

Quarterback: B+ Dennis Grosel got the start due to the knee injury to Phil Jurkovec. He delivered, probably more than anyone else on the team. Throwing for 520 yards and four touchdowns, he did everything possible to keep BC in this game. The only issue was that he tried to do too much at times. Two of his interceptions were ball that he either underthrew (to Zay Flowers), or never thrown in the first place (when he was being pressured.). 

Running Backs: C- Non existent game in the rushing attack, actually finishing with negative yards. What gets them out of a really poor grade? Travis Levy had seven catches for 70 yards. Positive in the passing, negative in the rushing. 

Wide Receivers: A. Another monster performance out of this group that finished with 16 catches on the day. Zay Flowers had the star performance with a pair of touchdown catches, while Jehlani Galloway had one as well. Jaelen Gill and CJ Lewis played the complementary role to a tee, with 50 receiving yards each. This group continued to build a level of consistency all season long, and this was just taking it to the next level.

Tight End: A. Talked about this in the game recap, but Long was targeted 11 times in this game and brought in eight of them. Had good chemistry with Dennis Grosel, while grabbing a touchdown. If this is indeed his last game with the Eagles, the game results probably weren't what he hoped for, but he had a strong game.

Offensive Line: C-. They had moments where they were able to hold their blocks and create time for Grosel. But there were large chunks of time where Grosel was running for his life. They couldn't get any run game going (even before they fell behind), and had a handful of penalties, and mistakes (bad snap by Alec Lindstrom). Also allowed four sacks. This was the definition of a below average game. 

Defensive Line: D-. Luc Bequette had his one sack, and Chibueze Onwuka had a big third down stop. Those two plays were probably the only big positives I saw out of this group. They struggled, again failing to get any sort of surge to stop the rushing attack or pressure the quarterback. The group as a whole was not disruptive, and had a very tough game. 

Linebackers: C. I think that Max Richardson and Isaiah McDuffie are asked to mask a lot of the weak spots on this defense. If some disruption was happening in front of them they themselves would be making bigger plays. But that isn't happening. It's been the same story all season, this defense struggles against mobile quarterbacks. I just don't see the speed there to stop those types of players. 

Defensive Backs: C-. Big interception by Jahmin Muse that kept the Eagles in the game. But in run support they struggled, and let up too many big plays in the passing game. The injury to Deon Jones was huge, and the Eagles were down to their fourth string safety, true freshman Jalen Williams who struggled. 

Specialists: D+. Punts were not of the typical booming type that flipped the field. Grant Carlson averaged 41 yards a punt. There was a mistake on a kick return on a dropped kick return by Levy, that was fixed by Peter Stehr. They allowed a 71 yard kick return that almost resulted in a special teams touchdown. Onside kicks always look like they are getting the right bounce but this is yet another time they just couldn't time it right. Sloppy game by this group. 

Coaching: C. On offense it was basically the air raid offense for the last half of the game, which was fine, it almost worked. Defensively, I don't know how you scheme around the deficiencies in depth and speed that the team lacks. Certainly that side of the ball was disappointing.