Game 594: Boston College rushes past “clueless” Rutgers, 30-16

The Birthplace of College Football – I never thought I could say this in a Collegefootballfan.com game review, but the Rutgers Scarlet Knights actually had a chance to defeat Boston College yesterday, despite the Eagles 30-16 victory which could have been challenged had the clueless RU coaching staff picked up on an evident weak spot to exploit.  Rutgers (1-2) trailed 17-13 at halftime. 

However, the coaching staff seemed to show no sense to take advantage of a definite Eagles’ weakness in their secondary.  Following BC’s rout by lowly Kansas at home a week ago, the Knights could have picked up on some areas of weakness and taken advantage as the Jayhawks scored three TD passes against this team.  Replacement QB Art Sitkowski played a hot passing hand for the Scarlet Knights (23 of 33, 304 yards, one TD) that could have taken advantage of some evident, slow, secondary reactions certainly noticeable early on.

 Find a weakness and take advantage

   The Eagles ran roughshod against the Knights’ D on their first possession with David Bailey rambling 42 yards over right tackle for an early 7-0 lead.  RU’s second offensive series, like their first, finished in three plays, but unlike the first, it resulted in a touchdown instead of a punt as Sitkowski tossed a short pass to Raheem Blackshear who faked DB Mike Palmer out of his jockstrap with some fakes and raced 74 yards down field to tie, 7-7.  After that, Palmer’s inability to cover tightly should have been as easy to notice from the coaching box on top of SHI Stadium as it was from my vantage point eight rows up from around the 20-yard line.  The Knights could take advantage.  They never did despite Sitkowski’s accurate performance on this beautiful, sunny fall day.

As surprise Guest Game Analyst Shawn, RU season ticket holder from Westfield pointed out, Rutgers has no confidence in Sitkowski’s long passing capabilities.  The time seemed ripe to let him take advantage of some playmakers who could easily get open under these circumstances.  They continued to throw short, or at best intermediate range passes throughout this game.

  Keeping it close

   The next Rutgers drive continued into the second period after starting from their ten.  Justin Davidowicz gave his Knights a 10-7 lead with a 23-yard FG.  The subsequent RU drive starting from the nine gave BC great field position when their defense caused Blackshear to fumble with DB Mehdi El Attrach recovering to start Boston College at Rutgers’ twelve.  QB Anthony Brown (Cliffwood, NJ) plunged over from the one to give his Eagles a 14-10 advantage.  Davidowicz put RU within one, 14-13, with only :44 left in the first half. 

However, Brown clicked with his receivers to get Aaron Boumheri in position to take BC into intermission up, 17-13.  We figured some halftime adjustments would be made to take advantage of some evident weakness in the BC secondary.  Shawn, his wife, and daughter, however, had to leave for some other commitment at halftime.  A lot of other RU fans must have made other plans as well.  Many didn’t stick around for the second half even thought their beleaguered Knights seemingly had a shot to win here.

Do what you do best

     RU started the second half from their 40.  However, no long passing game emerged to exploit an evident weakness.  BC on the other hand returned to its strength.  They turned to RB AJ Dillon (32 carries, 150 yards, two TDs) to run the ball starting with a drive from their 18 until he took it over from the one-yard line.  The teams exchanged punts.  RU continued to run the ball and throw short passes basically in front of BC defenders for short gains.

    Into the fourth, the Scarlet Knights closed to within a score of 24-16 with Davidowicz’s 50-yard field goal.  With 13:09, Rutgers still had a chance.  Would they look to open things up further down field? BC had other plans to stick with their ball control offense first.  They churned out a 75-yard drive with 18 plays, mostly with Brown, Bailey, and Dillon chipping away converting third downs and even a fourth down into a fresh series each time.  Dillon scored from the four with 6:32 left and after a failed two-point conversion, RU trailed, 30-16.  Sitkowski converted a 28-yard completion to Bo Melton to keep scoring drive hopes alive.  However, Palmer came up with an interception on a short pass attempt right at the line of scrimmage.  BC controlled the ball and time to run out the clock for the win.

Tales of Two Teams 

    BC, with a heavy contingent of players and fans from the Garden State, went home with a 30-16 victory.  However, Rutgers had a chance to take this one if they made some adjustments to their game plan as far as collegefootballfan.com determined.  After the Kansas loss, BC Head Coach Steve Addazio is lighting a fire under his team to avoid mental mistakes moving forward and getting ready for ACC foes coming up.

With Big Ten foes (and improved Liberty) on the horizon, a second win for the Scarlet Knights could be challenging to say the least.  Recruiting against the likes of “sharks” at Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan is difficult enough, but if the coaching staff cannot identify weaknesses of opponents to take advantage of, we can’t see Chris Ash returning for another season at The Birthplace despite the extension he received two years ago.  This program is going nowhere and the fans are leaving at halftime three games into the season despite down by only four. What does that say?

Next!

     Rutgers travels to highly embarrassed Michigan next Saturday where Jim Harbaugh now joins Chris Ash on the proverbial hot-seat.  Harbaugh can’t beat anybody in The Top 25, but Ash can’t beat anybody.  Harbaugh’s Wolverines’ will take it out on RU.  Rutgers can probably best retaliate by starting a new coaching search before Michigan does.  If RU wants to make a significant hire to make a move before Michigan decides to make a change, they better get out in front before the Michigan program is “available”.  BC hosts 4-0 ACC foe Wake Forest next week, a team we will see play Louisville on October 12 with WFU fan and alum Jim Harton.

 History

    After this game, we drove 40 minutes south of The Birthplace to Princeton, possibly the same route but by different mode (horse and buggy, we assume) traveled to and from 150 years ago when Princeton and Rutgers started all this crazy, traditional, college football stuff we love to see played every fall.  Princeton (10-0 and Ivy League champs in 2018), like all of the Ivy League teams this weekend, just opened the their traditional 10-game slate only focused to win the Ivy League championship.  At 5 pm, they kick off their season against the Butler Bulldogs who they “wasted” last season, 50-7, in their opener in Indiana. Regretfully, we expect to see a similar outcome.  This would be much more competitive if they played each other in basketball.   We have to go though to keep pace to celebrate game 600 on October 19.  Look for our Princeton-Butler game review report next.