Eagles look to rebound at Florida State
In most years, a visit to Tallahassee would be an unpleasant experience for any team.
But this year is a bit different.
This year, Florida State is … well, NOT Florida State.
The Seminoles are 4-6, 2-5 in the ACC and 3-2 in Doak Campbell Stadium. They have lost three straight and have been outscored 148-51 during that stretch.
That’s why the Eagles, coming off a respectable 27-7 loss to No. 2 Clemson, were an early one-point favorite to earn their eighth win of the season.
The Seminoles need wins over BC and rival Florida to earn the program’s 37th straight bowl bid — and Boston College coach Steve Addazio knows what is waiting. He also knows his offense is not at 100 percent heading into this next-to-last regular season game.
“Heading down to Tallahassee, playing a really talented football team, at home, highly motivated to be able to get to bowl eligibility, and an offense that has a quarterback that has a great arm, great skilled player, and a defense … very few people have been able to get much going early in the game,” coach Steve Addazio told his regular Monday media briefing.
“It appears later in the game some people are able to make some hay against them. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the defense is on the field a little bit longer.”
The Boston College offense, shut out and invisible against powerful Clemson, might have had a better shot had it not lost quarterback Anthony Brown early in the first half — Brown winding up in the hospital with what Addazio called Monday “an abdominal injury” that has him day to day.
On top of that, star running back AJ Dillon is hobbling again — and likely to go at less than full speed for the final road game of the season.
“He’s day to day but doing well,” Addazio said of Brown, who gave way to EJ Perry. “So I think we are prepared to have a great week this week, with great focus and need to get prepared to bring that down on the road with us.
“EJ is going to get a bunch of reps, then we will see how that is going each day, but Anthony is doing well … but I’m not a doctor. What does that exactly mean? I guess tomorrow morning I’ll get another update and be able to figure out, does he take active reps? If so, how many? And we will go from there?”
The Boston College defense played a strong game against Clemson, allowing the Eagles to hang around and not become the Tigers’ usual road kill.
BC ran up just 113 yards, with a net of nine yards on the ground. This after Clemson came in yielding just 269.2 yards per game.
