Boston College at Clemson: Bottom Line and Pick

Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

It’s that time of the week. It should be fairly obvious what this outfit believes the end result will be for Boston College Eagles football on Saturday against the Clemson Tigers, but perhaps there are some reasons for hope.

Boston College Best-Case Scenario

We did not come up with Boston College’s best-case scenario. SCACCHoops did. A high-scoring slugfest in which the Eagles are able to figure out Clemson’s defense is quite possibly the only way in which they’re going to earn what would be their biggest win since the Thursday night they conquered Virginia Tech in 2007. Keeping in mind that the Tigers’ run defense is ordinary, and the Eagles run all day and all night, that could lead Andre Williams to another nice game with Myles Willis changing pace. This team scored 31 against Clemson last season with an offensive line not playing as well as this one, so it’s an outside shot, but it’s a shot.

Boston College Worst-Case Scenario

The worst-case scenario looks a lot like a mixture between the USC game and the 2009 Clemson game, only the 2013 Tigers will score more points. Worst-case would mean something like a 49-10 pasting in which the offense goes completely limp and the defense is shredded in demoralizing fashion by Tajh Boyd and Sammy Watkins.

Bottom Line

Boston College is going to have to score a lot of points to win this game. 40 seems like a good place to start. The problem is that beating up Army is great and all that, but this is the #3 team in the country and they have more weapons. Boyd and Watkins are all the Tigers need. The Eagles can make this respectable, and they just might to start, but eventually it may slip away from them and Clemson will get a comfortable victory to continue their march and set up and epic top-ten battle with Florida State.

Game Pick

• Score Estimate: Clemson 47, Boston College 21