Boston College vs Pittsburgh Panthers: Three Stars
Tanner Karafa
After last week's loss to Notre Dame, Senior Defensive Lineman said this week's matchup with Pitt was "Do or die" and his play backed that up. With a sack and two fumble recoveries Karafa made plays for a BC defense that sorely missed turnovers all season long. Karafa also played tough up front against the run helping stuff numerous Panther runs.
The plan was originally to include Isaiah McDuffie as the "honorable mention," but it feels like a slight to his effort yesterday so lets place him as star 3B. The BC linebacker led the team with 13 tackles and 2 sacks. After struggling to get onto the field this season, its a nice sight for BC fans to finally get McDuffie back producing. Color commentator Mark Herzlich spoke about the Duo aspirations of McDuffie and Max Richardson finally coming to fruition.
Aaron Boumerhi
The Boston College kicker was a perfect 4/4 on field goal tries yesterday. Boumerhi able to accomplish something that hasn't been done since 2011, when Nate Freese had four field goals against Wake Forest. The Eagles Kicker hit from 29 and 32 yards to open scoring in the 1st quarter. After a 30 yard score as the 3rd quarter winded down, Boumerhi hit a 22 harder for his fourth and final field goal of the night. BC struggled to capitalize with touchdowns on Pitt's turnovers, but Boumerhi would not squander the opportunity to put points on the board for the Eagles. He also converted both of his extra point attempts.
AJ Dillon
Just what more can be said about this young man? 32 carries for 178 yards and a touchdown Dillon was magic once again for the Eagles offense. After Pitt scored to put the Panthers up 16-13 in the beginning of the 2nd half, AJ answered with a 61 yard touchdown of his own to put the Eagles ahead for good.
With a little over 6 minutes left in the game, Eagles running back coach Brian White knew what needed to happen to secure the win. "You're going to go in there and you're going to keep adding to your legacy here. You're going to be on the field when we do victory formation." Although six minutes was a lot of time and left Dillon questioning himself, AJ believed in his coaches words and played their brand of tough running football that has characterized the back his entire BC career. "It was honestly one of those situations where you line up and you've got to go beat the guy right across from you" Dillon said "That's just old-school, smash-mouth football and thats what we knew we needed to ice the game."
Honorable Mention - BC winning their first game in Pittsburgh since 1998, securing their 4th straight bowl game.