By Derek DeBurger
Louisville will head to Chestnut Hill to face the Boston College Eagles.
Both teams are at a breaking point in their seasons’ after getting out to great starts.
One-man show
BC’s offense comes and goes with the performance of Thomas Castellanos. The dynamic quarterback possesses all the physical tools to wow audiences and keep his team in any game.
While Castellanos has enormous big-play potential, he’s not immune to mistakes as he’s thrown four interceptions in just five games played. Castellanos has also taken his fair share of sacks, due in part to his attempts to extend plays but also due to the porous play from the Eagles’ offensive line. And if Castellanos has kept his team in games, his O-line has taken them out of games, struggling to keep him upright.
The Boston College O-line struggles in the passing game, but holds their own in the running game. A strong feature of their running attack is Castellanos escaping the pocket and making things happen with his legs.
In the traditional running game the Eagles have a backfield by committee with Treshaun Ward, Turbo Richard and Kyle Robichaux all being heavily featured in the running game.
Each back offers a different fold to their skill-sets, but none of them are the fastest backs in the ACC, which should make things significantly easier on the Louisville linebackers who have struggled thus far in the season.
The backs are, however, one of the best options in the receiving game for Boston College, which is an element the Cards have had a real difficulty stopping.
Outside of the backs, the Eagles’ wide outs have not been too impressive with only Lewis Bond and Jaedn Skeete emerging as consistent targets.
Louisville has not lived up to their hype on the defensive end, but BC is a team only averaging 21.3 points per game against FBS opponents. The Cards have a chance to find some momentum on that side of the ball for the first time since the early season.
Yet another one-man show
The other side of the field for the Eagles is eerily similar to their offense: it’s Donovan Ezeiruaku and a bunch of other guys. Boston College has 13 team sacks, and nine of them have come from Ezeiruaku. No player at any other position on the team has even come close to putting up the same level of production as Ezeiruaku.
Despite the lack of stars on defense, Boston College has only given up more than 27 points one time this season, averaging 20.7 points given up per game.
Louisville has one of the highest scoring offenses in the country, but the O-line has continued to be the single biggest weakness of Louisville’s offense. Finding ways to slow down Ezeiruaku while not sacrificing too much elsewhere is going to be a major key for success Friday night.
The Cards have a receiving corps that should simply be vastly more talented than BC’s secondary, and a quarterback in Tyler Shough who is one of the most pro-ready in the college ranks. But Boston College does have two extra days of preparation and rest coming into the matchup, so it’ll be interesting to see what Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien can scheme up.
This is not a sexy matchup, but a very important to prevent the Cards’ season from spiraling. If Louisville can bring some energy on the road with them, they should win no problem.
Photo by Vinny Porco