College Football Game of the Week: 2 Clemson (9-0) @ 17 Boston College (7-2)
Game of the Week:
2 CLEMSON (9-0)
@
17 BOSTON COLLEGE (7-2)
The game of the week in the world of college football will take place tomorrow evening from Chestnut Hill, MA when the unbeaten and #2 -ranked Clemson Tigers take on the #17 Boston College Eagles. It has been a down year of sorts for the ACC in general, although don't tell that to BC fans, as their Eagles have put together a solid season to this point. Home and road victories over traditional powers Miami FL and Virginia Tech, respectively, have those in Massachusetts feeling pretty good about their Eagles. However, the Hurricanes, after opening the season ranked in the top 10, have sputtered to just a 5-4 record to this point, including just a 2-3 mark in conference play. The Hokies have been equally disappointing after opening the season in the top 15, and have faded to just 4-4 and 3-2 in conference play. That being said, BC boasts a solid running game, led by All-American AJ Dillon. There were some concerns over Dillon's health, but it looks as though the talented HB should be able to give it a go Saturday night.
As for the Clemson Tigers, they come in red-hot, as close victories early in the season have gave way to an absolute demolition of their opponents over the past four weeks. In their last four games, the Tigers have outscored their opposition 240-36! That's an average of 60.0 points per game and only 9.0 allowed in those contests. Wake Forest, N.C. State, Florida State, and Louisville all took big-time beat-downs at the hands of the Tigers, as Clemson will look to make it 5 straight blowouts.
Boston College won't be as easy an assignment as those previous four opponents, however, and a night game in their home stadium will be a tricky one for Clemson. The Eagles have shown marked improvement at-home this year and come in 5-0 in games played at Alumni stadium thus far, winning those contests by an average margin of 24.6 points. They had went just 3-4 at home in each of the past two seasons heading into the 2018 campaign. They will need the crowd to be electric and hope that they can run the football like they did in a night-time matchup with Florida State last season, where they torched the Seminoles on the ground in a dominating 35-3 performance. The sledding will be much, much tougher of course against this extremely talented defensive front of the Tigers.
We've got you covered with all the info you'd want to know about both teams below, including resumes and stat leaders on both sides of the ball:
CLEMSON
Key Wins -
@ Texas A&M (5-4) W 28-26
vs GA Southern (7-2) W 38-7
vs Syracuse (7-2) W 27-23
vs N.C. St. (6-3) W 41-7
Key Losses -
None
BOSTON COLLEGE
Key Wins -
vs Temple (5-4) W 45-35
vs Miami FL (5-4) W 27-14
Key Losses -
@ Purdue L 13-30
@ N.C. St. L 23-28
Statistical Leaders:
CLEMSON
QB Trevor Lawrence 1549yds, 18TD/3INT; 65.1 comp%; 162.2 rating
HB Travis Etienne 999 rush yds, 15TD; 6 rec, 47 rec yds, 1TD
HB Lyn-J Dixon 457 rush yds, 4TD
HB Adam Choice 354 rush yds, 3TD
HB Tavien Feaster 294 rush yds, 4TD
WR Tee Higgins 35 rec, 514 rec yds, 7TD
WR Amari Rodgers 32 rec, 390 rec yds, 4TD
WR Justyn Ross 22 rec, 476 rec yds, 5TD
DL Clelin Ferrell 31 tot tkls, 12.5FL, 7.5sks, 2FF, 1TD
DL Christian Wilkins 30 tot tkls, 8.5FL, 2.5sks, 1FF, 1FR
DL Austin Bryant 22 tot tkls, 7.0FL, 4.0sks
LB Kendall Joseph 51 tot tkls, 4.0FL, 2.5sks, 1PD
S Tanner Muse 23 tot tkls, 1.0FL, 1.0sk, 2INT, 3PD
BOSTON COLLEGE
QB Anthony Brown 1567yds, 16TD, 5INT; 57.9 comp%; 141.4 rating
HB AJ Dillon 897 rush yds, 8TD; 6 rec, 43 rec yds, 1TD
HB Ben Glines 376 rush yds, 3TD; 9 rec, 123 rec yds, 3TD
TE Tommy Sweeney 24 rec, 230 rec yds, 3TD
WR Kobay White 19 rec, 298 rec yds, 3TD
WR Jeff Smith 147 rush yds, 1TD; 17 rec, 275 rec yds, 4TD
DL Wyatt Ray 36 tot tkls, 10.5FL, 9.0sks
LB Connor Strachan 74 tot tkls, 6.0FL, 3.0sks, 1FF
DB Hamp Cheevers 31 tot tkls, 5INT, 1TD, 7PD, 1FF, 1FR
Preview:
This is without-a-doubt a dangerous game for the Tigers. For those who are hoping for them to stumble and open up another spot in the CFP, this might be the best chance for that to happen. It is looking like Clemson will face at the minimum, a 4-loss team in the ACC Title game, so this is it. They cannot afford a loss, as that could even possibly knock them out the ACC Title game as BC would win the tie-break. If BC is going to pull off the upset, they need a couple of things to be in their favor - 1 - the weather. The Eagles are built to ground-and-pound the ball, and 240 Ib HB Dillon can do just that. A cold, rainy, windy game would certainly benefit the Eagles who are used to playing in that kind of stuff. It would help to neutralize some of the Tigers' immense athleticism and play-making ability on both sides of the ball. 2 - they need to control the time of possession by churning out time-consuming drives that eat up clock. Clemson has gone up north and suffered an upset loss before, who could forget last year's 27-24 loss to Syracuse in the Carrier Dome? That being said, it seems as though Clemson has just too much going for them on both sides of the ball. The game will be closer than the 19.5 point-spread would indicate, and even if BC can curtail the Tigers' explosive offense, their defensive front is just too much with Ferrell, Wilkins, Bryant and co.
Prediction: Clemson gets a tough ball-game from a fired-up BC squad, but pull away late for a 10-14 point win.
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