Boston College, a two-touchdown underdog, was a two-point conversion away from forcing overtime against the No. 12 team in the country on Saturday evening. Despite falling to 2-1, the Eagles turned heads over the weekend. After all, BC had lost to AP Top 25 opponents by an average of 30 points from 2016-19. Things have changed with Jeff Hafley at the helm.
It’s not just the team’s brand and energy, though. Schematically, these Eagles are much different from past iterations of the program. And it’s showing on paper.
Here are some significant stats and trends through three weeks of play.
70.3 rushing yards per game: BC’s rushing attack is almost non-existent. That’s not a typo. Three games into the 2019 season, the Eagles had already racked up 735 yards on the ground. In other words, they were averaging 245 rushing yards per game—that’s 34 more rushing yards than BC has totaled so far this fall. The Eagles have ran the ball 42.9% of the time in Frank Cignetti Jr.’s offense but have averaged a meager 2.4 yards per attempt.
274.3 passing yards per game: BC is a passing team now. There’s no way around it. Phil Jurkovec threw the ball 56 times against the Tar Heels, and although Hafley said that wasn’t the game plan going in, it’s clear that the offensive emphasis is on the air attack. Jurkovec already has a pair of 300-yard passing games under his belt. Only one Eagles quarterback threw for 300+ yards in a game during the Steve Addazio era: Anthony Brown at Wake Forest in 2018.
68.4% completion percentage: Not only is Jurkovec dropping back to pass 39 times per game, but he’s doing so with better accuracy than Eagles fans are accustomed to. BC hasn’t had a quarterback complete more than 60% of his passes in a single season since 2013. The Notre Dame transfer’s been on the money when it’s mattered most, completing 11-of-12 second-half passes at Duke, 12 of his final 14 throws in the comeback win over Texas State, and 8-of-10 on the Eagles’ last touchdown drive against UNC.
11 sacks: Last year, the Eagles had the second-worst pass rush in the ACC. Struggling to fill the void left by Harold Landry, Zach Allen, and Wyatt Ray, BC rounded out 2019 with 19 sacks. Defensive line coach Vince Oghobaase has helped the Eagles return to their havoc-wreaking ways in the backfield. BC has 11 sacks through three games. Its 3.67 sacks per game average is good for fifth in the ACC and tied for 12th nationally. Linebacker Isaiah McDuffie leads the team with 3.0 quarterback takedowns. Maine grad transfer Maximilian Roberts trails with 2.5.
11 sacks allowed: While BC has revamped its pass rush, it has gone backwards in the trenches on the other side of the ball. Coming off a season in which the Eagles’ offensive line gave up just 13 sacks all year, it has already let up 11 in three weeks of competition. Even though BC returned four All-ACC starters, O-Line coach Matt Applebaum shifted the composition of line, and the chemistry hasn’t carried over. It’s natural for the O-Line to crack more often in an unusually pass-heavy BC offense, especially with Jurkovec looking to extend plays. Still, some of the blame lies on the guys up front, not just with sacks but penalties, too.
6 red zone field goals: BC has been able to find its way to the red zone, but penalties, dropped passes, and poorly-timed sacks have often forced Hafley to trot out his kicker to cap drives. This past weekend, the Eagles had the ball inside UNC’s 20-yard line on five separate occasions. They scored every time, however, three of those possessions ended with a measly three points. BC has seven red zone touchdowns and six red zone field goals to its name this year.
22 penalties: There were yellow flags everywhere on Saturday, for both teams. But the Eagles took the cake with 12 infractions, including five false starts and back-to-back defensive personal fouls, for a total of 110 yards. BC has shot itself in the foot each of the past three weeks, wiping a touchdown off the board because of a penalty up front in all three games. Already, Hafley’s Eagles have 22 infractions on the year. The team is tied with Miami, East Carolina, and UTEP for the 19th-most penalties in the FBS.
223.7 passing yards allowed per game: Quarterbacks dissected BC week after week last season. The Eagles’ first year without defensive backs coach Anthony Campanile wasn’t a pretty one: BC gave up 285.5 passing yards per game, the most in the ACC and the ninth-most in the country. Enter, Hafley—who has seven years of NFL experience coaching DBs—and defensive backs coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim. This past weekend, the Eagles’ secondary, despite missing Maryland grad transfer Deon Jones, limited Dyami Brown and Dazz Newsome to a total of 66 receiving yards. Those two both cleared the 1,000-yard mark last year.
25 receptions: Hunter Long had 28 catches and two receiving touchdowns all last season. The NFL hopeful already has 25 receptions in 2020 and has crossed the plane twice. Long also leads the team with 270 receiving yards. His 25 grabs are the most of any tight end in the nation and the third-most of any player period. Before this season, Long had never logged more than four catches in a single contest. He’s tallied at least seven in all three games this fall.
17.7 points per game allowed: BC conceded 32.2 points per game in 2019, the highest single-season defensive scoring average in program history. What’s more, the Eagles reset the single-game school record for yards allowed twice. Hafley was brought in to pick up the pieces, and he’s done that much quicker than most expected. At the moment, BC ranks 25th in total defense. To put that in perspective, the program clocked out last year at an embarrassing 125th. This year’s Eagles are only allowing 369.7 yards and 17.7 points per game.
