Wake Forest at Boston College: Opening line & the basics

Despite all of the celebrations from Saturday, which I’m sure went well into the night all across the BC campus (denote heavy sarcasm), it’s time for Boston College football to get back to work.

Week 5 for the Eagles will have them host a rested Demon Deacons team from Wake Forest in their last of three consecutive home games. This game opened with the Eagles being a 1.5-point favorite, but several sports books in Vegas have moved the line to either -1 or a PK.

I’d say that’s a fair spread because a) the Eagles have only shown enough to win one game against a bad team and b) Wake Forest isn’t nearly as bad as they were expected to be so far — which is to say, a team tracking towards a 3-9 season. If anyone’s on that course, it’s still probably us. (I feel compelled to apologize to some readers for excessive negativity, but while Saturday’s game was a good thing, I didn’t forget that the first three games happened, either. This is merely observation based on BC’s total body of work to this point.)

The truth is, however, that Wake’s schedule hasn’t been amazingly difficult, either. They began the season with a loss to Syracuse in overtime, but then won consecutive home games against putrid defensive team NC State (at least against Cincinnati they were) and FCS cupcake Gardner-Webb. Still, the Deacs have won two of those three games and looked relatively good in so doing. Quarterback Tanner Price has thrown six touchdowns and only one interception, helping to make Wake Forest 14th in FBS in passing yards. More on this matchup between their hot passing attack and BC’s thin secondary tomorrow.

Boston College, on the other hand, finally accomplished something positive. The UMass game on Saturday was the first game of the season where the Eagles played up to their potential. I’m not sure how much you can read into a game against an FCS team, but the donut in the win column is gone. For some, possibly including the higher-ups in Boston College football, that’s good enough, but for everybody else, we want to see more wins against better teams. Now what they’re looking for is a continuation of whatever forward momentum they gained from the UMass game.

Wake may not be the best team in the ACC, but they can score points and are mostly the same team that played the Eagles close at home last season. It may be one of the most likely victories on the schedule this season, and the Eagles are capable of winning, but it will not be an easy task.