The final of the three men's teams you will get to see on this busy sports weekend is our dearly beloved 4-5 football team, who travel to Durham to play the hapless 3-6 Duke Blue Devils.
If you're one of the people on the "BC can/will still get to a fourth-rate bowl game" bandwagon, then this is a game Boston College must win, no excuses. Like the Eagles, however, Duke has won consecutive football games, both of which were high-scoring affairs (65 and 103 combined points). The Eagles' two wins were low-scoring games, by contrast (26 and 36 combined points).
The Eagles defense continues to be extraordinary, ranked 16th in the country in yards allowed and 44th in points allowed. In another impressive statistic, this defense has picked up the third-most turnovers in the nation (26). Linebacker Luke Kuechly, a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, leads the nation in tackles with 13.9 per game. If he continues in this fashion, he should end up being a finalist.
As for the BC offense...yeah, OK. Moving on.
Duke gives up a lot of points. A lot. At 38.9 ppg allowed (114th in FBS), they're in Wake Forest territory with regards to defensive futility. Thing is, while the Deacs have one of the most godawful defenses that I've seen in a while, it only resulted in 23 points for BC last week. While it may happen, counting on the Eagles to put up big numbers against similarly-bad Duke would be counting on too much given how BC has played.
In Duke's two most recent wins, QB Sean Renfree has thrown no interceptions. In the seven previous games, he threw 15. It would seem that as Renfree goes, so does Duke. It doesn't help him that he faces one of the best turnover-plucking defenses in the nation.
Expectations going into this game should be a smallish BC victory, maybe as big of a point spread as last week's win, and with BC scoring about as many points as last week, give or take a few. Duke's offense is capable of putting up points, but they will probably have their hands full with the Eagles' defense. Boston College would have trouble scoring on a high school defense, but can get out of their own way long enough to win.
Enjoy your ESPN3 tomorrow afternoon.
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