Boston College vs. Syracuse: Reviewing The Game Film (Powered By WePlayed)

What did a second showing of the film show us?

Boston College completely dismantled Syracuse on Saturday 58-27, in a game where the Eagles gained over 650 yards, and only allowed seven points in the second half. But what did a second viewing of the game film say about the game? Using WePlayed I annotated game film and created a highlight reel of some of the big plays of the game. Here are some of the notes I took away from the game.

* Boston College's offense line played an incredible game. Lots of talk this year has been about how good the front five have played but this game was the icing on the cake. Watch some of the long runs by AJ Dillon and David Bailey. They blasted holes that Steve Addazio could have run through, and were either knocking defensive linemen back five yards or crushing linebackers and defensive backs at the second level. Alot of the talk this week was about the backs, who believe me, had a great game, but the hogs up front played out of their minds. 

* In terms of an individual play, a lot of the talk on line was the play where AJ Dillon trucked Alec Lindstrom to gain extra yardage, but my favorite play was a play that didn't end up in the highlight reel. Early in the second  quarter David Bailey looked like he was about to be wrapped up for a six yard loss. Zion Johnson ripped him from the defender, and basically bear hugged Bailey and dragged him forward about five yards to the line of scrimmage. It wasn't a game changing play, but a perfect encapsulation of how much more physical BC was up front. 

*Want to see why John Phillips will be playing in the NFL next year? Watch him on this block. 

*Another highlight. Dennis Grosel goes forward for the QB dive for the first down, which usually only gets a yard or two, he gets six, and he was dangerously close to breaking loose for a touchdown. The offensive line absolutely owned the Syracuse front. 

* Speaking of Grosel, he did what BC fans have been yelling about for years, Syracuse loaded up the box and he made them pay for doing it. On the first touchdown pass to Zay Flowers I counted nine defenders in the box, meaning there was just single coverage on the wide outs and an easy touchdown pass. Grosel may not be the flashiest QB, but he hit at least six big time passes during this game. 

* Now back to the running backs. A.J. Dillon found his holes for big gains, but he also was extremely powerful. Watch on this touchdown run when he drags about five defenders into the end zone with him. 

*In terms of areas of concern I thought the big one that has killed BC sort of cleared itself up in this game. The quick outs to the sides, and stretch runs/sweeps were cleaned up much better in the second half. I have to credit two players for this improvement. Nolan Borgersen and Max Richardson. Borgersen was super quick coming from the safety position and had a fantastic hit on a quick screen, while Richardson was able to get across the field much quicker than John Lamot. If BC gets Isaiah McDuffie back they should be markedly good at preventing these type of plays. 

* Syracuse's offensive line was really bad, and BC got some pressure on Tommy Devito, though it wasn't as much as I had hoped. Most of the pressure came from the front and two of the sacks were due to TJ Rayam either getting in Devito's face, or forcing him to step up into the pocket. His play made the defensive ends like Brandon Barlow much more effective in their pass rush.