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Box Score

-- Boston College leaned on its running game more than it had all season, and it was a success. Whitworth was 21-109 (5.2 YPC) and Callender was 11-54 (4.9). Neither running back was tackled for a loss. After giving up 172 rushing yards to BC tonight, State has given up 433 over the last two weeks. So, still a lot of work to do there. It's not as bad as '03, at least.

-- The bigger story to me (because it's the positive one) was the secondary's play. Maybe it's just that Boston College is less talented at receiver than Southern Miss, but whatever the case, the Pack looked much better against BC. I'm sure I wasn't alone when I worried that the ACC's best passing offense would tear us to shreds; instead, Matt Ryan was limited to 149 yards on barely 50% passing.

-- I don't know what this win means for the rest of the season. It's not encouraging to see the offense stymied by what is statisically the worst defense in the conference. I know it was wishful thinking to expect the offense to be markedly better with Daniel Evans under center, but I did think we would score 20+ on BC.

-- Look what happens when you limit mistakes. Six penalties and one turnover--I'll take that every week. I had a bad feeling after the dumb and costly roughing of the punter that we committed on BC's first series. But that was as bad as it got, which my blood pressure appreciates.

-- John Deraney averaged 35 yards per punt yesterday, and I can't recall a single good one. He remains reliable kicking field goals, which I suppose is the most important thing. I would have liked to see him attempt the 50+ yarder in the first half rather than pooch punt it, but I will defer to the coaches on that one. Saturday was a breezy day.

-- I give the coaches credit for maintaining a run/pass balance on first down. Evans, unfortunately, was 3-11 on first down, which put the team in a lot of second-and-long situations. It was feast or famine with first down running plays. Four of the Wolfpack's 12 first down runs went for 15+ yards; the other eight went for two yards or less.

And we've still got to find a couple of short yardage bread-and-butter plays.

-- Boston College overwhelmingly chose the run over the pass on first down: 21 rushes, 8 passes.

-- Bill has posted some reaction if you're interested.

-- I can't stop watching this: