Game Observations (Offense): Boston College 24 Texas State 21
It wasn't easy, but Boston College came from behind to defeat Texas State 24-21 on Saturday evening.
Here is my instant analysis of the performance by the Boston College offense:
* The offensive gameplan felt very disjointed until the fourth quarter. Frank Cignetti tried to let Phil Jurkovec do his thing, but it took three quarter to get that going. The offense seemed to hot potato around from shotgun, to some runs with Levy, to a wildly ineffective wildcat, to a very successful short and intermediate game. Hopefully as the team begins to gel and play more the playcalling will adjust as well.
* Jurkovec needs to get rid of the ball quicker, and be more selective on his passes. He has thrown the ball into triple coverage a handful of times now, good defenses are going to eat him up if he continues doing that.
* That being said, he is a winner. When the going got tough, he made plays and was very effective in the fourth quarter. Hafley joked about it post game saying that he was going to have to tell Jurkovec every quarter is the fourth quarter. There are players that kick up their game in tougher situations, through two games it is clear Jurkovec is one of those players.
* Where was David Bailey? He only had two rushes at halftime, and eight on the game. I thought this would be a game he would be featured, and he was an afterthought. Hafley had no answer to this after the game, saying he needed to watch the tapes to get more of an answer.
* Jaelen Gill is starting to ease into the lineup. When Zay Flowers and Hunter Long weren't open he was the primary target and had some nice catches. Had four catches on the day. Can easily see Gill growing in this offense.
* The offensive line still doesn't look fully comfortable. Now some of the pressure on Jurkovec was because he held on to the ball too long, but the line still doesn't feel as dominant as they could be. Not sure if there was a change in blocking scheme from last year, or because of the change in positions.
* BC is going to need to figure out how to attack defenses when Zay Flowers and Hunter Long are getting extra attention. Opposing coaches are going to watch game film and say "Ok we have to cover Flowers and Long, throw help out there too". So where does the ball go now? Jaelen Gill? CJ Lewis? Travis Levy?
* Hunter Long is going to be one of the Top 3 tight ends in the country. Clearly #1 is Kyle Pitts of UF who had four touchdowns today, but Long should be in that group right under him.