Why Boston College Will Win Exactly Seven Games

Friend of the site Heights and Low jumps in with his perspective.

Today we have a special guest writer, Heights and Lows a must follow site and Twitter for all BC Eagles fans. Thank you to Heights and Lows for stopping by and spreading your wisdom! Go Eagles!

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I got challenged by AJ to follow-up on his excellent two-part series on why BC will win more *and* win less than seven games with the least-valuable-take of all: why BC will continue to do what it does best and win *exactly* seven games this year.

1. The Schedule is a Momentum Killer - BC will likely start out with a strong September thanks to a cupcake heavy opening month, not to mention what may be the best home opponent of the year in VT. It would not be surprising to see the Eagles get out the gate at 4-1 or at worst 3-2 and maybe even receive some votes. Once that calendar turns, though, it starts to look really hard to pick up two or three wins, let alone find a rhythm between road games and bye weeks leading into a brutal November.

2. No Room For Error - It's not that the Eagles will definitely beat a team they shouldn't be beating and definitely lose to an opponent they should handle (the latter this year will be Louisville, and the former will be Syracuse on the road). It's that you make more than one mistake like that, you can't make it up on the other side. You drop the NC State game at home, there aren't any more "toss-up" wins floating around until you get to Heinz Field in November.

3. Where BC is Good, It's Hardest Opponents Are Better - BC returns a really great number of skill players on offense next year, and you're going to see them probably do some silly numbers in the cupcake games. Which is fine in those situations, but if you want to beat some on the top of the league, they have our number in those situations. The hardest matchups will not be the defenders AJ Dillon will face. It's that he can't stop Travis Etienne. I love Anthony Brown, but he's not going to get much pressure on Tommy DeVito. It's a gap in talent that you can't make up on the field.

4. The Seventh Win will be in a Low Tier Bowl Game - The schedule slices up really nicely into quadrants - there's the "Better Wins" of Richmond, Rutgers and Kansas; there's the "Win on the Table" for Louisville, NC State and Wake; there's the "Maybe We'll Steal One" for VT, Florida St. and Pitt; and then we've got "Prove Me Wrong" from the Notre Dame, Clemson and Syracuse set. You can swap those any way you like, but that's most likely a 6-6. Which means, sure, a Bowl Game (pending acts of God) - but it's not going to be convenient or against a major opponent.

5. I Have Eyes - Look, we've all been doing this far too long and we don't *like* being cynical. But this is generally a pretty predictable sport, and we're starting to believe Tom O'Brien. So prove us wrong. But until then, I have to go with what I see.