Boston College at Florida State: Opening Line & The Basics

Greg M. Cooper-US PRESSWIRE

Despite the Seminoles being 5-1 and the Eagles 1-4, both of these teams have something in common.

Both spent last Saturday getting kicked in the face at the last minute.

Florida State’s defeat was far more costly, as the Seminoles all but lost their chance at a national championship when they fell to NC State, 17-16. Boston College’s 34-31 loss to Army was merely a matter of pride.

It was the Eagles’ first loss to the Black Knights in 17 years, since the dark days of Dan Henning in Chestnut Hill. Now sitting at 1-4 and just having lost the second-easiest game on their schedule, Boston College appears to be going nowhere fast. The offense, though improved, could not do enough while the defense is on-track to be BC’s worst in more than a decade.

On Saturday, FSU returns home to host the Eagles, who will play the second game in their three-game road trip which took them to West Point and will send them to Atlanta later. That the Eagle defense is struggling mightily is not a good sign against a Seminoles offense that, until they played NC State, was shredding their opponents at will.

Florida State lost some of their air of invincibility when they were defeated at Raleigh on Saturday night, but that has not impacted the bookies’ view of this game much. Boston College opened as 27-point underdogs to the Seminoles, who will no doubt be anything but amenable after suffering a gut-punch loss. That has already moved to 28 or 28.5 at some sports books.

Coming into this season, this looked like it might be a difficult contest. As of the last few weeks, it has seemed to be about as certain of a BC loss as we have seen in a very long time. Though FSU proved themselves mortal, as Boston College has just lost to Army, that outlook probably has not changed drastically. Perhaps the Seminoles are not as good as everybody suspected, but it is hard for fans to think “major upset” on the back of an embarrassing loss in a 1-4 season.