Boston College Preview: Virginia Tech Ships up to Boston to Find a W

If you've caught wind of any sort of preview for Virginia Tech's game on Saturday versus Boston College, you probably know the best way to characterize the Eagles this season is by the strength of their defense and struggles of their offense. From what I saw on film when Boston College play Florida State and Duke, those descriptions certainly hold true. The Eagles have a big, athletic defense that is very good against the run. However, their offense is anemic at best, grasping to find any sort of identity moving into the final third of the football season. If the Hokies are to return to Blacksburg as a 4-win team instead of a 6-loss team, it is critical for them to maximize every offensive opportunity they can, while making sure not to give the Eagles the help they desperately need on offense.

Quarterback Play

Part of the reason for Boston College's lackluster offensive performance all season is their weakness at the quarterback position. Sophomore Darius Wade is out for the season after suffering an injury versus Florida State, leaving signal calling duties to freshman Jeff Smith and redshirt-freshman Troy Flutie (yes, related to that Flutie). It is unclear who will start the game due to Jeff Smith's concussion last week, but both quarterbacks have seen playing time in the games since Wade went down, and freshman walk-on John Fadule is an also an option. Flutie is considered more of the "passer" although he really hasn't even shown to be that strong of a thrower so far. For the most part, Flutie plays like a redshirt freshman, where it appears the game moves just a bit too fast for him. His throws tend to be inaccurate, and most of the completions he does get come on jump balls won by his wide receivers. Although he isn't afraid to tuck the ball and run, I don't think anyone would compliment him on his speed.

On the other hand, Jeff Smith brings a more athletic approach to the game. I'm hesitant to classify him as a "dual-threat" quarterback, because I think he still has a lot to develop with his passing game. However, he is a reasonable threat running the ball and a lot of Boston College's offense is designed to take advantage of this. The Eagles draw up plays to give Smith the opportunity to run the ball through a design of jet sweeps, decide plays out of pistol, and QB counters. The QB counter is a play the Hokies' defense has struggled with all year, so I would expect to see a good amount of that from the Eagles on Saturday.

Off of the jet sweep action, Smith (No. 5 - BC) takes a step to the right, then follows the pulling guard and tackle to the left (counter motion). Smith seems very comfortable running the ball, and likes to rely on his speed to beat defenders to the edge. With that mindset, he tends to be very willing to bail on a pass play the moment he feels pressure or sees an opening. I think this next play is a perfect example of that.

From a defensive perspective, the benefit to the Hokies here is that Smith may be giving up on the opportunity to move the ball far through the air a bit prematurely. However, the drawback is that Smith is now in space with an opportunity to move the ball quickly on the ground. If the Hokies' defenders are downfield in man coverage with their heads turned, and no one is directly responsible for the quarterback, BC may be able to break off some big plays.

Boston College is well aware of Smith's running ability, and therefore caters their play calls to give Smith guided run/pass options. In the next clip, you'll see Smith half-roll looking to pass, then taking off down field immediately after he recognizes an opening.

The Hokies' defense will need to make sure they have a defender spying on Smith at all times, otherwise plays like this may be common in Saturday's game. As a side note, I think Smith (especially on a play like this) sort of reminds me of a young Tyrod Taylor in the way he looked to run at any sign of trouble. Anyone agree? Maybe it's just the No. 5?

Offensive Line Play

Outside of their inexperience at quarterback, the Eagles have an unseasoned offensive line. According to the Boston College Athletic department, the Eagles are one of two o-lines in the country in which all five linemen did not start a game last season. As such, inconsistency has been a big part of their play so far. I've chosen one clip where the Eagle offensive line looked pretty good, just to show what they are capable of. This is an isolation run versus Florida State.

A thing of beauty. French would be proud. Double teams create space, blockers move on to the second level, and bodies are being positioned to maintain the hole. You don't need a film analyst to break that one down.

While they may have done great on that play, the Eagle offensive line has some serious flaws as well. One of those is their susceptibility to being beat from the back side. For whatever reason, on some of their runs the leave the back side (even to an open end) completely vulnerable to a speed rush.

The formation is open to the bottom (no tight end or receiver). Right tackle Jim Cashman (No. 72) is responsible to hinge and protect the back side of the play, which he kind of does, although he chooses to take the LB instead of the DE. That gives the Duke DE a free path the the RB to make a play in the backfield. I saw this happen numerous times in the two games I watched. Virginia Tech should be able to use their speed off the edge to catch plays from the backside.

Tackling the Running Back

I highlighted the next offensive clip because of a quote from Virginia Tech defensive tackle Corey Marshall. He said, "As long as we're fundamentally sound and we wrap up, it's not a problem". I think Marshall may have been referring to the running of Boston College running back Tyler Rouse (#35, 5-8, 194). In this clip, he breaks a couple of tackles on a long run versus Duke. While I didn't catch that happening a whole lot of what I saw, I wouldn't be surprised if it was still an emphasis for the defense this week.

Defensive Looks

I expect Boston College's defense to present quite the challenge to Virginia Tech's offense. For one thing, the Eagles' defense has been successful showing numerous looks to opposing offenses, both in alignment and in movement at the snap of the ball. Additionally their interior linemen play very well on the individual level, allowing for flexibility in how personnel is allocated on defensive calls.

Let's start with their defensive looks. In the series of three clips that follows you'll notice that the plays all begin with 6 or 7 defenders on the line of scrimmage for Boston College. But you'll see very different results as the plays develop. In the first clip, the Eagles crowd the line, then bring everyone on the rush.

As everyone who lined up to rush ended up rushing, Duke's offensive line was able to adjust pretty well, making sure to pick up every defender. In the next clip though, although the Eagles begin to rush with everyone, two of their defenders pull back to drop into coverage underneath.

In this third clip, again BC lines up in a pressure look. The defense is aligned more towards the outside edges of the offensive line, leaving the middle more open. However, at the snap of the ball two defenders from the outside loop inwards towards the middle.

While this may be based on the alignment/movement of the Duke TE. the point is that even from a look that indicates a straightforward result, the Eagles are set up to provide a bit of surprise in their defensive strategy.

This focus on disguising their rush is further solidified by the tendency of the Boston College defense to run stunts with their defensive line. By stunts I mean they loop and switch their linemen as they rush the quarterback to try and confuse the offensive line and their blocking assignments. Again I have selected a series of three clips that highlight a few of the situations seen on film so far.

In the first clip, you'll see the two defensive tackles for Boston College switch, then loop around the defensive ends on their rush to the quarterback.

Florida State was not numb to the effect of the stunts either. The second clip shows a slightly different approach. Here, the defensive end to the bottom of the screen shoots inward, while the defensive tackle to his side follows around behind him. To the top of the screen, the stand-up defender loops inward as well, on the heels of the defensive tackle to that side of the field.

The final clip again shows a stunt by the Boston College defensive line. Here you see the defensive tackles switching while a walked up linebacker on the edge of the line drops into coverage underneath the middle of the field.

If that all seemed confusing... good. Because it is. And that's the point. The Hokies' offensive line needs to recognize that Boston College is going to stunt their d-line and bring rushers from different points on the field. It's not necessarily numbers they rely on (although they do that too), but more so the origination of their rush that creates problems for opposing teams' offensive lines.That being said, two out of three of those plays didn't really cause too much trouble. That's because stunts take a bit more time to execute and if blocked correctly, put the defense at a disadvantage.

Defensive Line Standouts

Outside of worrying about blocking assignments and where Boston College is bringing the rush from, the Hokies' o-linemen will also need to focus on the 1-on-1 battles with the Eagles' stout d-line. Based on production, they are a deep group at d-end, and can generate pressure inside. Boston College is T-5th nationally in sacks with 26.0 and the d-line accounted for 12.5 of them.

These next few clips highlight DT Connor Wujciak (No. 90, 6-3, 304).

In the first play, Wujciak is aligned as a 1-technique DT. Watch as he sheds the guard's cut block to make a play. If the Hokies utilize cut blocks in the same way as last week, Wujciak has the chance to make more plays like this one during Saturday's game.

Next, watch how Wujciak is strong with his hands and swims the FSU blocker to get to the QB.

On the next clip, Wujciak locks out with the blocker, strings the play to the sideline, and finishes with a one-handed tackle.

On this last clip, take a look at how backup DT Evan Kelly (No. 99, 6-1, 285) doesn't budge against FSU's center and right guard. He clogs up the middle and spills the play to other defenders to make a tackle for no gain.

The Hokies' o-line is certainly going to have their work cut out for them trying to handle this skilled combination of Eagle defensive tackles.

Is there any hope?

While Boston College's defense is strong, they are not the Steel Curtain. While not a complete liability, the Eagles' pass coverage is not as formidable as their run defense. The BC secondary is good, but I'd say they are able to cover receivers, not blanket them. I think BC's biggest vulnerability on defense is short routes over the middle that attack the space between the linebackers (either vacating space from a blitz or recovering from a blitz fake) and the secondary. Duke found some moderate success with the play shown below.

Here's the same shake route I highlighted in my Duke preview last week. The reason it works is that it catches the BC linebacker off balance just enough to create space for the completion and run upfield.

Florida State was able to find success passing the ball through slant routes over the middle. On this TD pass shown below, FSU found the window between the linebackers and defensive backs that I talked about above.

Ultimately though, Tech can't win a game hoping for short completions and long runs after the catch. Some of Michael Brewer's throws are going to have to go downfield. As I mentioned, BC corners are good in coverage, but they don't shut down the receivers. Brewer needs to be willing to throw contested routes to his receivers, and expect them to make a play on the ball. Otherwise, the Hokies will really have to pull a 180 on their tendencies so far to move the ball on the ground against a very strong Eagle defense. While Boston College may not put up many points on offense, the battle between the Eagle defense and Hokie offense will surely decide the outcome of this game. Enjoy it everyone.