Shock stage: Initial paralysis at hearing the bad news.
Jeff: BC was hardly ever in this game it seemed as we watched it live. Watching the replay Sunday the first half could've turned out a lot differently if Gunnell doesn't have that fumble and Tyrod Taylor doesn't make two plays with his legs on third downs with his legs.
Brian: I didn't get the chance to watch the game back but it seemed like on Taylor's first two touchdown runs the Eagles defense was "oh so close" to catching him and dropping him for a loss. If those plays go a little differently, who knows if the outcome might have been different.
Denial stage: Trying to avoid the inevitable
Jeff: Unfortunately its official. We accepted a bid to the Music City Bowl.
Brian: Nice consolation prize!
Anger stage: Frustrated outpouring of bottled-up emotion
Jeff: As you mentioned and everyone saw on TV there were plenty of empty seats yet I still got yelled at by old men behind me for stading during a few seemingly big plays. Eff them too.
Brian: The "down in front" crowd knows no bounds.
Bargaining stage: Seeking in vain for a way out
Brian: Good point. And I guess we will be the odds-on favorite to win the Music City Bowl and extend our bowl winning streak to nine. We seem to like to play bowl games that are de facto road games for the Eagles (Boise State, North Carolina, Vanderbilt).
Depression stage: Final realization of the inevitable
Brian: Your BC football attendance record this season (2-2) is depressing enough.
Testing stage: Seeking realistic solutions
Acceptance stage: Finally finding the way forward
Jeff: Brace and Raji are our biggest pieces to replace next season but we saw the defense do pretty well without Raji last season and they are not as big of a piece to replace as replacing Matt Ryan was this year. There is every reason to be optimistic about next year and the years following. We might not go to the ACCCG every year but we will certainly compete for the division crown annually. Are other teams in the division improving? NC State, FSU, Clemson? Sure, but they know that the road to the championship game goes through Chestnut Hill.
6 comments:
Don't know about next year (I'm an optimist also) but I'll see you guys in Charlotte for the ACCCG in 2010.
It will take awhile to gey psyched to play a 6 and 6 Vanderbilt team. If they were 8 and 4 it would be great - now we have nothing to gain and everything to lose.
As Jags says, it's either win the thing or we're going to a 5th or 6th tier bowl - such is our fate in the ACC. The Gator loves a 7 and 5 Clemson and the Outback loves a 7 and 5 South Carolina.
Just doodling and thinking on a Monday morning - Reel in ECU, UCF, Notre Dame and Navy and form the Super ACC.
ACC North:
Syracuse
BC
UCONN
Rutgers
Navy
Notre Dame
Pittsburgh
West Virginia
Louisville
Cincinatti
Maryland
Virginia
ACC South:
Virginia Tech
UNC
NC State
ECU
Wake Forest
Duke
Clemson
Georgia Tech
Florida State
Miami
UCF
USF
Just checking to see if we're awake :-)
I posted this over on atleagle as well, but I thought I'd share it with you guys:
"They were down 14-7 at the start of the 2nd half. Take a look at the 2nd half box score. 2 rushes for 13 yards, excluding the 2 Davis scrambles. Davis went 2 for 8 otherwise before the INT, followed by 3 Davis incompletions to end the 3rd quarter.
At that point, BC is down 24-7. At the 1st and goal, 3 passes, all for incompletions, after the VT fumble. Aponivicious hits the FG, score 24-10. We all know what happened after that. So, to summarize, 3 rush attempts from the RB on 21 plays (excluding punts and BC turnovers) in the 2nd half before the game was out of hand at 30-10. Personally, I call that a failure of playcalling, especially given that on the 2 rushes he had in the 3rd, Harris had 13 yards."
As for the defense, there was little they could do after so many 3 and outs and incompletions stopping the clock. It's hard to blame them when the offense is so inept. Granted, they let Tayor get away on some easy ones, especially on his 2nd TD when 3 BC defenders hesitated in the endzone when he was clearly scrambling.
Vtech's First Drive of the game, our defense wasnt flying around BC style, getting to balls. That set the stage, and gave V-tech's inept offense the confidence needed to go up against a D that they could tell was tired. I will never question the heart of our defense after the performances they put together this season. But really Paul Anderson, you let the QB tackle you?
I would love to be a BC optimist, but i'll expect 8 wins next season and be happy with anything over. I am also hoping that Tom O'Brien doesnt ride this wave of "success" into next year and bring back a team that is competing for the ACC crown. (it could happen, russell wilson is the man)
Andrew - I agree a little bit about the running game, although Haden was not available should Harris get hurt.
Logan might have run Harris on first down instead of second (6 yards and 7 yards). We went 3 and out coming out of the gate in the 2nd half. Then we went 4 and out followed by another 3 and out; then the interception leading to the quick VT TD and basically the game was over - although we still had hope. 1st and goal and no TD? - come on, BC. I guess that surprised me the most. Our complete inablitiy to score. We really missed our blocking fullback.
Bottom line is that this was not the BC team that we've seen in the last four weeks. I can't explain and I don't think any of you can explain it, this was just a different team, call them Bizzaro BC. I was at Maryland and saw a solid Dominique Davis under center and then Saturday his passes were going everywhere, his fumbles were reminiscent of Wake Forest and he just didn't play well and admitted himself (check out the article on atleagle). Furthermore, I don't know where our game changing, play making, quarterback sacking defense was. Other than forcing those two fumbles in VTech territory, there were no big defensive plays. VTech was able to run all day, we couldn't control Tyrod Taylor and we just let them throw and run all day.
We saw on Saturday some other BC team, a team that we haven't seen in a long, long time, really since UNC. But, I do have hope. We really don't lose that many key players. Of course Brace and Raji will be gone, but Raji wasn't here last year and we had the same top defense last year that we do this year, so I'm sure that we can fill that hole. We lose Brandon Robinson, but I think Rich Gunnell (fumble excluded) is a highly, highly underrated wide receiver and will be a huge play maker next year. It's not going to be easy, especially with resurgent teams at FSU, Miami, and Georgia Tech, but a trip to the ACCCG in 2009 is not out of the question.
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