It's a weird week for BC, which means a higher sense of focus.

The Eagles travel on Wednesday to Blacksburg, which means there's a lot to do the next two days. Bill O'Brien's squad got back to practice on Monday heading into a big one against the Hokies.

BC used the bye week to self assess, but all eyes are now ahead. At 4-2, in many ways it feels like this game and the Louisville game at home next Friday night could determine how the rest of this season goes.

It was hard not to like a lot of what the offense did on Tuesday. Other than Will Lawing raising his voice a few times the ball rarely hit the ground. Kye Robichaux also looked explosive, with O'Brien confirming that he's ready to go after practice.

Admittedly, I completely forgot Amari got hurt last week (covering 15 other D1 teams will do that) and didn't do much watching of the defense, but am effecting to see if anyone will tell me whether he practiced or not. Trevor Haas was the only other guy there with me and he didn't catch it either. I trust that side more than the offense right now, which is why I was on the other end of the field.

Here's some of what stood out:

-Saw a Commanders scout and (I think?) a guy from the CFL.

-Early on there was a brief five-ish minutes of 1-v-1's. Both Bradley and Harris had wins on routes over the middle (now that I think of it, I can't believe I didn't even notice if either of these were Jackson or not either). They had a good collective day overall. Throughout practice, it looked like the same talented room we saw throughout training camp and that we've seen flashes of so far this season.

-Deep PBU for Bryquice Brown vs. Dino on a ball down the left sideline into the end zone.

-Montrell Wade beats Tommy Cusick (FR) over the middle.

-Scout team period where the 1 offense went against the 2 defense and vice versa. TC had a deep TD Harris and James had a deep shot to Ward down the middle that he one-handed near the goal line.

-Saw some 7-v-7's with the D-line going against the O-line down in the far corner in front of the weight room. TC had a few nice throws here in the 7's period. A tight post-corner to Bond, a deep TD to Harris again and a ball with a ton of zip to Jonathan Montague fairly deep downfield. James also had a deep TD to Montague and hit completions to McLaughlin and McGowan.

-BC also worked red zone 7-v-7. TC missed Bond open for a TD by maybe half-a-step and knew it. He also hit Bradley again (who made another sick grab) for a TD and had another to (I think) McGowan on the backline of the end zone. He missed Ward at the goal line right before the final TD. James had TD's to McLaughlin (right pylon) and one to Datrell Jones. McGowan also hauled one in on the backline again.

-Bruce Springsteen and Toby Keith were blasting during the 7-on-7 and scout team period. Toby was awesome, man.

-More team work before a little red zone team period. Bond had a great leaping grab near the right sideline during the 'regular' team period, When the Eagles moved into red zone work, 'Enter Sandman' from Metallica started blaring to officially signify it's V-Tech week.

-TC had a tD to Franklin (I think?) and James had a rushing TD and a passing TD to Danny Edhegille. Turbo had a rushing TD too.

-Sprints to wrap things up before letting the guys know they'd have a walkthrough later in the day. The condensed schedule shouldn't be too much of an issue though after having a week off to refresh both body and mind.

O'Brien did deliver a pretty tough piece of news after practice regarding the linebackers when I asked him about Jaylen Blackwell. He said both he and Bryce Steele are "probably" not going to be seen this season, but both will be in spring ball.

This was the only bit of media availability for us until after the game on Thursday night with the short week, but I've have plenty of stuff the next couple days.

Thursday isn't 'must win,' but it's about as close as you can get, or this season could head south in a hurry.