Bye Week Breakdown: Boston College Defense

Overall analysis

Frankly, it is shocking to see a Boston College defense ranked 95th in total defense and dead last in the ACC in said category. It is also sobering for Eagles fans to look objectively at the numbers and realize, in spite of how good they’ve been in previous seasons and exceptional talent like Luke Kuechly and Kevin Pierre-Louis, that the BC defense is almost as bad as the BC offense at this point in time.

The cushion scheme is one that nobody complained about in the past, but is clearly not working for the Eagles now. Opposing teams are completing two-thirds of their passes against the defense, and what makes it worse is that the run defense is drastically worse than last year, which leaves two suitable avenues for the offense. Finally, throw in an inability to rush the quarterback and you have an Eagles defense that does not rise up to par.

Boston College has netted seven turnovers over the course of the season, but four came in the aforementioned UMass game, leaving only three turnovers (all interceptions) in the other five games. Not only can they not stop either phase of the other team’s offensive game, they also cannot force turnovers, which only adds to their plight.

This bunch is going to have to play much, much better if the Eagles are going to salvage any sort of pride this season. The offense seems incapable — what else is new — so it will once again be incumbent upon the defense to clamp down. Unfortunately, however, with the offense looking worse than ever (so to speak), a slight improvement defensively might not get the job done this time.