5 takeaways from BC football’s signature, season-extending win over Pittsburgh
AJ Dillon “went into a different zone” in the fourth quarter to help the Eagles outlast the Panthers.
COMMENTARY
Moments after his team had solidified its most gratifying win of the season, Boston College head coach Steve Addazio – clearly overcome with emotion and beaming with pride – shared why this one meant so much.
“All I care about is watching my players experience what they experienced,” he said in an ACC Network interview. “That’s why I got into coaching.”
Addazio then strolled down a Heinz Field hallway and into the locker room, where his team was anxiously awaiting his arrival. When he got there, they formed a mosh pit, jumped in jubilation, and shoved one another to celebrate the occasion.
In the past few weeks, and really for much longer than that, rumors have swirled about Addazio’s future with the Eagles. Time will tell whether he coaches them next season, but Boston College’s signature 26-19 road win over Pittsburgh on Saturday certainly helps his case.
AJ Dillon finished with 32 carries for 178 yards and a touchdown, willing BC (6-6, 4-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) to victory via several clutch, late-game runs. The defense registered four turnovers and four sacks, delivering in the second half against the Panthers (7-5, 4-4 ACC) after wilting against a more explosive Notre Dame team a week prior.
This wasn’t necessarily the best game the Eagles have played, but it was unquestionably the most important – and it was the most impressive when considering the stakes and the opponent. They’re now bowl eligible for the sixth time in seven seasons under Addazio, and they’re hoping this game doesn’t get cut short due to lightning like last year’s Cotton Bowl against Boise State.
BC’s path to this point was anything but linear, yet the Eagles found a way to reach the six-win plateau and extend their season. They’ll find out their fate Sunday, Dec. 8.
“They had great faith,” Addazio said. “I couldn’t be more proud of this football team.”
Time to go 🎳‼️#WeAreBC pic.twitter.com/FqoioKPDJk
— Boston College Football (@BCFootball) November 30, 2019
AJ Dillon “went into a different zone” with the season on the line.
Anyone who’s watched BC play this season knew exactly where the ball was going in the final minutes.
With the Eagles nursing a seven-point lead, and in need of a couple first downs to preserve the win, they turned to the person who had powered them to that point.
Dillon dove forward for one first down, delivered a stiff arm and dragged a defender for another, and then picked up another one to clinch it. On one of the gains, he screamed in excitement, showing much more emotion than he typically does.
If he had been stopped on any of those first-down carries, the Panthers would have likely gotten the ball back with time to try and tie the game. Instead, they never got a chance, as Dillon masterfully combined strength and speed, as he often does so well.
“I have never seen a guy run as hard as he ran at the end of that game,” Addazio said on the ACC Network.
32 carries | 178 yards | 1 TD@ajdillon7 was an absolute workhorse for @BCFootball!#WeAreBC pic.twitter.com/gO1c7kpclC
— ACC Digital Network (@theACCDN) December 1, 2019
The end-of-game heroics were monumental, yet Dillon’s productive afternoon began far earlier. He was steady in the first half, then he broke free for his longest run of the season – a 61-yard touchdown run down the left sideline in the third quarter.
Pitt had scored late in the first half, then taken its first lead, 16-13, early in the second, however Dillon’s score just 51 seconds later squelched that momentum immediately. BC then tacked on two more field goals, and Pitt was unable to rally.
This was Dillon’s 20th career 100-yard game. His 1,685 yards on the season are a career-best and ranks fourth for a single season in program history.
Even the ever-modest Dillon acknowledged there was something different about this performance, especially in the fourth quarter.
“I went into a different zone,” Dillon told reporters. “I don’t know how to describe that.”
The defense made several game-changing plays.
The Eagles won the turnover battle, 4-0, recovering three fumbles and intercepting a pass. Not only was the overall margin significant, but the takeaways also came at key moments.
Midway through the first quarter, Vinny DePalma punched the ball out and Nolan Borgersen made the recovery, which eventually led to a BC field goal to make it 3-0. The Panthers lost the ball again later in the first, and Tanner Karafa pounced on it to set up another field goal from Aaron Boumerhi.
Jahmin Muse picked off a pass in the third quarter, and Boumerhi drilled another one. Then with the Panthers driving early in the fourth quarter, Brandon Barlow forced a fumble and Karafa corralled it once again, setting up yet another Boumerhi kick to extend the lead to double digits, 26-16, with 9:41 left.
Boumerhi was the first Eagle with four field goals since Nate Freese in 2011, as BC scored 12 points off turnovers that ultimately made the difference. Isaiah McDuffie, who missed the first nine games of the season, finished with 13 tackles, including 10 solo, and two sacks, and Karafa and Marcus Valdez added a sack apiece. Pitt finished with 323 passing yards, which was enough to keep it tight but not enough to ravage the Eagles.
The Eagles had 13 takeaways and 12 sacks in 11 games coming in, and they finished with four and four Saturday.
The defense wasn’t perfect, but it provided several momentum-shifting plays. It was a rewarding end to the regular season for a unit that’s shown flashes of promise after taking lots of criticism throughout the year.
“I could definitely feel like we had a different energy, and we played with that all game,” Valdez told reporters. “It means everything. The past two weeks, we found a new motivation and we started loving each other more, telling each other, communicating, ‘We love you. Let’s play for each other.’”
The passing game did enough to keep Pitt honest.
BC’s passing game wasn’t electric by any means, but it didn’t have to be. The Eagles were able to keep Pitt’s defense – which came in sixth in the nation in stopping the run – unsure of what would come next.
Quarterback Dennis Grosel finished 9 of 19 for 123 yards and a 25-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Long. He hit five different receivers – Long, Kobay White, Zay Flowers, Dillon, and Korab Idrizi – and didn’t turn the ball over.
Grosel’s start to the day wasn’t anything special, as he nearly threw an interception while fading out of bounds on one play and missed a wide-open Idrizi on another. He then settled into a rhythm, with Dillon and David Bailey by his side to do the bulk of the heavy lifting, and made plenty of clutch plays.
On one completion in the second quarter, Grosel was drilled, yet he still managed to deliver a perfect ball. In the third, he found Long for a key fourth-down conversion that ultimately led to a field goal. Late in the game, he fed White and Flowers and let them make plays. BC dominated possession – 34:52 to 25:08 overall and 9:49 to 5:11 in the fourth – and kept putting points on the board.
The Eagles deserve credit for never letting the season crumble.
The BC seniors have now qualified for a bowl game every year they’ve been with the program.
At the beginning of the season, BC was hoping to finally reach that elusive eight-win plateau after finishing with seven each of the past three seasons. After losing starting quarterback Anthony Brown and several other players along the way to injury, expectations outside their bubble shifted.
Uncertainty crept in about whether or not this team would reach six wins, never mind, seven or eight. The Eagles were 5-4, and in prime shape, before suffering a tough home loss to Florida State and struggling in the second half against Notre Dame.
It all came down to this one, which, if nothing else, is an enticing opportunity for a team that doesn’t mind embracing its role as a pesky underdog when it has to. Of course, the Eagles would have preferred to already have six or seven wins, but they never let the season crumble or unravel.
The Panthers were 8.5-point favorites, and winning at Pitt is no easy task. BC deserves a tremendous amount of credit for pulling this game out.
“That’s a special moment,” Addazio said. “Money can’t buy that moment. Nobody understands that moment. You’ve got to be in that. That’s one of the great feelings that there is.”
The boys get one more game with their brothers this season!#WeAreBC🦅 pic.twitter.com/3AiJq33Zbm
— Boston College Football (@BCFootball) November 30, 2019
They wanted this one for Steve Addazio.
After the game, Addazio understandably chose not to comment about his future with BC.
“All I cared about was getting this team to six wins and getting another month with them,” Addazio said. “Watching what I watched, that was the greatest gift that I got. I’m grateful. I don’t know what to tell you. All that other stuff, I’m not avoiding questions, that’s just how I feel.”
While reports have surfaced about his future, he’s prioritized focusing on this game. The result was fruitful, as the Eagles earned one of their bigger wins of his tenure.
They’ll quickly shift their focus to the bowl game in the coming days, but for now, they want to make sure they soak this one in as much as possible. They know Addazio will.
“I know he wanted this one badly, and we wanted it for him,” Grosel told reporters. “So it was nice to see him let some emotion out.”
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