Maryland at Boston College: Opening Line & The Basics

Evan Habeeb-US PRESSWIRE

The last time Boston College and Maryland met on the football field, it was in a virtually-empty stadium in College Park, Maryland in the snow. As the wet flakes fell onto the turf, the Eagles ran up high yardage totals on the ground while the Terps were seemingly powerless to stop it. The weather this Saturday looks to be much more agreeable to both teams, and the teams facing one another will also be quite different.

The Eagles and Terrapins meet at Alumni Stadium on Saturday afternoon, and Boston College will be wearing special threads as they support the Wounded Warrior Project. Perhaps these uniforms will be luckier for the Eagles, because their normal in-game attire has been anything but so far.

Boston College enters this game, their first home contest since Clemson in late September, at 1-6 (0-4). A loss here would officially eliminate the Eagles from bowl contention and send them to their worst eight-game stretch in many years. Interestingly enough, BC was 1-6 going into last season’s Maryland game as well, but won to stave off a losing season for another week. Meanwhile, the Terrapins are 4-3 (2-1), already much improved from their 2-10 season in 2011. Nevertheless, with their quarterback situation in peril due to injury — another parallel to last season’s meeting — nobody quite knows what to expect out of the Eagles’ opponents.

Las Vegas does not seem to know, either. As of Sunday night, the Terrapins were very modest one-point favorites on the road. This has now migrated to one favoring Boston College by a similar margin. It is a fair line, but also a depressing one for Boston College. This game was identified early on as one of the few games in which BC would be favored this season; they are now, but lines this small are generally considered even. Maryland is better, and BC is worse, which leads us to this situation now. Considering how the Eagles have lost five games in a row, they don’t particularly deserve to be favored, either.

One would not expect this to be a quality football game, as neither team is of a particularly high caliber, but if things continue on their current trajectory, this could be one of BC’s last chances to win this season. As of today, this game is a toss-up.