Simply offensive

We know that in the first third of the season, Boston College football's offense has been bad.  I decided to take a closer look at just how bad, and the results are disturbing.

The first thing we'll look at is a chart of Boston College's total offense from 2007 until now.  My apologies that the Blogger picture uploader is broken, which means I had to do it manually, so hopefully you can see all of the stats I have listed.  Try and see just how far we've fallen since Matt Ryan left:



When we had a quality quarterback in 2007, Boston College had the best offense in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Today, just three years later, we have the worst.  You can see that obviously, following Ryan's departure, the offense took a big hit.  In 2010, however, now being ranked at the bottom of this conference, we've hit new levels of suck.

The points scored chart shows an equally bleak picture:



98th in both yards and points in FBS football this year, and now under 20 points per game. Inspiring, isn't it? Clearly, the decline began after 2007, where BC muddled around for a few years in relative offensive mediocrity, until this year when the decline accelerated. They're now the bottom-feeders of the conference on that side of the ball.

Some other 2010 stats concerning BC’s offense for your viewing displeasure:

Rushing offense
87.5 ypg (108th in FBS, 12th in ACC)
Number of BCS AQ schools that are worse: 2

Passing offense
221.5 ypg (64th in FBS, 7th in ACC)
A number of AQ schools are worse; good news?

Passing efficiency 
116.88 (94th in FBS, 11th in ACC)
Number of BCS AQ schools that are worse: 8

INTs thrown 
7 (T-101st in FBS, 10th in ACC)
Number of BCS AQ schools that are worse: 5

Sacks allowed per game
3.25 (T-109th in FBS, 12th in ACC)
Number of BCS AQ schools that are worse: 5

First downs per game 
16.25 (T-95th in FBS, 12th in ACC)
Number of BCS AQ schools that are worse: 6

3rd down conversions 
27.59% (116th in FBS, 11th in ACC)
Number of BCS AQ schools that are worse: 3

Red zone offense 
69% conversions (T-111th in FBS, 12th in ACC); 3 TD, 6 FG
Number of BCS AQ schools that are worse: 1 (Penn State)

Average time of possession 
28:49 (82nd in FBS, 9th in ACC)
Again, a handful of AQ schools are worse

No matter how you slice it, the numbers are very bad overall.  This isn't just a case of BC's offense being mediocre of below average; it's a complete disaster. Nearly across the board, this offense is one of the worst in the country, and is almost certainly the worst in the conference.  These are the kind of stats that, if maintained through the course of the season, will get us to 3-9 or 4-8.  BC simply cannot win games with an offense this bad.

If BC has an offensive fever, is the only prescription more cowbell Chase Rettig?  It could be, but stay tuned.  Hopefully, we get the chance to find out, because let's face it, there's nowhere to go but up.