Three Keys to Victory for Boston College this Saturday at SMU

One of Boston College football’s toughest challenges of the year comes up this Saturday with a road matchup against the No. 21 SMU Mustangs, who possess one of the top passing offenses in the country under senior quarterback Kevin Jennings.

Slowing Jennings down through the air is nearly an impossible task — he has thrown for over 430 yards twice this season with 12 touchdown passes to only five interceptions — but the Eagles’ passing defense has limited opponents to just 165.8 passing yards per game, good for fourth in the ACC.

“I’ve played Kevin since my freshman year, so just knowing that he’s going to extend plays,” senior defensive back Max Tucker said on Tuesday. “I feel like we have to defend everything. … I feel like we got to guard it all, because they’re not going to run the same plays they ran last week. … This week they’re just going to see what they can attack us with, and they’re going to attack us the best they can.”

Here is how the Eagles can pull off the upset in Dallas, Texas.

1. Pressure Kevin Jennings to the Max

One thing most pass-first quarterbacks often despise is having to avoid loads of pressure in the pocket. This is what BC must throw at Jennings.

While he is somewhat of a mobile quarterback, Jennings relies on having a clean pocket to be able to step into his throws comfortably and progress through his reads, but if the Eagles’ defensive front can force him to the boundaries of the field, he becomes less effective and more turnover-prone.

When Jennings has ample time to sling the ball, he’ll be able to massacre nearly every secondary in the entire country, but forcing him to execute under the duress of a heavy pass rush adds another layer of difficulty, and BC’s secondary has performed well enough this season to hold its own with additional players in the box and less in the back end.

Whether it’s sending exotic blitzes from the secondary or simply just playing with five or more players at the line of scrimmage instead of the base package, defensive coordinator Ted Roof will need to make sure Jennings does not feel like he can just sit in the pocket and wait for routes to develop.

2. Sustain Drives on Offense

Keeping the Mustangs’ offense off the field as much as possible is just as key to how BC actually defends the offense, and it ultimately does so by sustaining its own drives with the ball.

The Eagles have struggled in a multitude of areas offensively this season, most of all in the passing realm, which ranks 16th in the conference, as well as third-down conversion rate, an essential part of sustaining drives.

As BC’s offensive play-caller, it is paramount for Bill O’Brien to find avenues for quarterback Mason McKenzie to go to outside of his most dangerous weapon — his legs — if the Eagles want to keep drives alive.

"We have to be better offensively,” O’Brien said on Tuesday. “We know that. We’re working hard together to really try and improve it, whether it’s schematically or techniques or maybe different players, whatever it is. We’re all in it together."

In order to get to the place O’Brien is talking about, McKenzie needs to start developing more chemistry with his receivers and tight ends in the passing game, which, to be fair, he couldn’t do much of against the Hokies due to the weather.

It hasn’t helped that BC’s top available tight end for the first two games of the season, Brady Clough, has been injured the past two weeks, as he was a reliable check-down target for the first-year signal caller.

But McKenzie also needs to do his job of distributing accurate passes, limiting turnovers with his arm, and, most importantly, trusting his receivers to make plays, even in contested situations.

It is quite obvious by now how much of a safety blanket a receiver like Lewis Bond was for the Eagles’ offense last year, and the wideout room doesn’t possess a talent like that, unfortunately, which O’Brien has admitted himself.

It does, however, carry a proven weapon in the run game in Evan Dickens, who has been limited to just 11.3 carries per game, so maybe O’Brien could turn there for an increased share of opportunities to try something different.

3. Execute in the Red Zone

There’s no other way to put it: when BC gets into the red zone, it needs to come away with points.

The Eagles couldn’t seem to put the pieces together in that department against Maine, as they failed to score a single touchdown on five red-zone trips, but they did better against the Hokies this past weekend with McKenzie doing most of the work, as he notched a pair of short rushing touchdowns.

Limiting penalties in this area is crucial, because BC is just shooting itself in the foot when it gets backed up as a result of mental mistakes.

Fourth down will also be an area of notice, as there have been instances when O’Brien could have elected for a field goal instead of trying to convert, but that is more of a feel-it-out type of thing in the moment that it arises.

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