Boston College at Notre Dame, Oct. 24

[jason_h537]

Steve Filer could start this week with Fleming being injured.

 

[NDisme]

i have always been a huge filer guy i got to see him play football and b-ball in highs school. I saw him have a mamoth dunk in the playoffs his senior year, he is a freak athletically and hope he gets some pt. I also wanna see slaughter at fs

 

[GoIrish41]

Steve Filer could start this week with Fleming being injured.

It would be about time ... I've been waiting for his emergence all year.

 

[BGIF]

Line -8

u/o ranges from 55 to 56


32-24

 

[BGIF]

Harmon Forecast CBSsports.com

Harmon Forecast CBSsports.com

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=bg2 height=17 vAlign=center align=right><TD align=left> Notre Dame 31 </TD><TD align=left> Boston College 28</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

[BGIF]

No Mention of ND

No Mention of ND

Looking ahead: Boston College
October 21, 2009 Posted by ESPN.com's Heather Dinich

I guess you have to win for it to actually be a three-peat, but it looks like it’s going to be the third straight year the Eagles head to the ACC championship game. Unfortunately for BC, odds are it’s also probably the third straight year they go home with nothing to show for it. While it won’t make for a blockbuster ACC championship game, it would be a remarkable accomplishment for coach Frank Spaziani and the program in his first year considering all the obstacles they had to overcome. In order for that to happen, though, the Eagles need to finish off Maryland in College Park in the season finale, and get at least one more win at either Virginia or home against North Carolina. They also need Clemson to lose.

Best case scenario: The Eagles come out of the bye week and reel off three straight wins at Virginia, against UNC and at Maryland and get their tickets to Tampa.

Worst case scenario: BC falters against the Terps, and Clemson continues to play like it did against Wake Forest. Should they need it, Clemson would have the head-to-head advantage over BC.

Prediction: Boston College will get to Tampa, but will lose and fall again in the bowl selection process to the Music City Bowl because the ACC runner-up can’t drop any lower. Spaziani is named ACC Coach of the Year.

 

[irish4ever]

No mention of ND because THEY believe it's foregone conclusion that they'll beat the Irish, just like the past few yrs. Those arrogant bastards!

 

[BGIF]

No mention of ND because THEY believe it's foregone conclusion that they'll beat the Irish, just like the past few yrs. Those arrogant bastards!

The "writer" is a blogger for ESPN. She's a UI grad.

 

[BGIF]

<TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD class=storytitle colSpan=3>Editorial: Notre Dame Week </TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=3></TD></TR><TR><TD class=primaryimage vAlign=top>

</TD><TD width=3 noWrap></TD><TD vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=4 width="60%" bgColor=#f5f5f5><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD vAlign=center noWrap><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>var author = escape("Eagle Insider");</SCRIPT>By Eagle Insider

Posted Oct 20, 2009
bostoncollege.scout.com
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It is “Notre Dame Week” and everyone is expected to pretend it is the biggest thing for BC fans since the invention of alcohol. For the last few years, everyone has tried to play along with varying levels of success. This year, it is impossible to pretend any longer. The mask has to be dropped and the truth be told. Notre Dame Week is just “Another Game On The Schedule Week” for most of us.

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If you are a freshman at BC right now, you don’t remember the 1992 trip to South Bend to play Notre Dame. You were just out of the womb. That year, BC was 7-0-1 and headed into the first game against the Fighting Irish since 1987. Coach Tom Couglin seemed to have worked a miracle with the Eagles in his second season. The game against the Irish was a measuring stick, a measurement of the authenticity of his team.

The result was a blowout. BC was never in the game and convinced everyone they were not ready to play with the big boys. Lou Holtz even took pleasure in rubbing in that fact by calling a fake punt when the game was out of hand. That not only put Lou Holtz in the pantheon of great scumbags in college sports, it changed how BC fans looked at this game.

The next year, Coach Coughlin took his 7-and-2 team into South Bend to face the top rated Fighting Irish. All of the experts figured it was just going to be a redo of the prior season. A not ready for prime time BC would melt against the vaunted Fighting Irish. BC won that game with a last second field goal and ended the Notre Dame drive for a national title.

At the time, that was a big deal. BC not only knocked off the #1 team in the country, they avenged the prior year’s bad sportsmanship by a program most of us thought was the template for how to play big time football and be true to big time academics. It was important and the Notre Dame game became important as a measuring stick.

Since then, BC has won most of the games with Notre Dame, including six in a row. Some have been close and some have had importance in terms of the season. For the most part, however, the game has become just another game for most of us. Conference games have taken on greater importance, as well as rivalries with teams like Clemson and Virginia Tech.

The truth is, BC has slowly moved on from Notre Dame and the connection to the past as an independent, playing other independents. In the final years in the Big East, winning the league was the goal. In the ACC, reaching the title game has been the goal. Beating the Irish has become just another out of conference game on the schedule.

This year, playing Notre Dame is about as interesting as playing Kent State. It is not unimportant. All of us would love to see BC win this Saturday. Such a win, however, would mean as much as beating Kent State. Heck, beating Central Michigan would mean more, because they are a better team than Notre Dame right now.

For most BC fans, this is just the way it has developed. There is no need to pretend. We’re just not that into Notre Dame as a rival. The trouble is the national media and most of the Boston media continues to pretend it is 1993. That’s an improvement, in some ways, as most of the media think it still 1968. The over indulged baby boomers who make up the bulk of the media still think we read newspapers and watch whoever is doing the network news these days. So, 1992 thinking makes them hip by comparison.

For the rest of us, this has become as dull as Woodstock retrospectives on PBS. This week we will hear how this is BC’s Super Bowl and how it means more to BC than Notre Dame. Of course, we will also be treated with moronic jibes from Notre Dame kids that were not alive the last time anyone gave a crap about Irish football.

That’s what makes this a miserable week for many of us. We are looking forward to the rest of the ACC schedule and how the rest of the teams in contention for the Atlantic title play this week. The dopes in the media will want to dwell on a past that none of us find particularly interesting anymore. Of course, three hours of Notre Dame house boys calling the game will make, what should be fun, into misery.

In a way, Notre Dame has done us a favor. They want to dumb down the schedule and that means dropping BC. This is the second to last game in the series. One more year of this crap and we can finally leave the past in the past. Notre Dame can keep pretending, but do so without dragging the rest of us into their nightmare.

Every BC fan hopes the Eagles win this Saturday. Getting the first road win of the season will go a long way to building the team’s confidence. Of course, it would add another win to the record and that can only help with the bowl scenarios. Otherwise, it is just the second to last step to leaving the past behind, once and for good.
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[WabashFalcon]

Alright. Shit's gone poppin. I'm ready to beat the hell out of something.

 

[irish4ever]

"Heck, beating Central Michigan would mean more, because they are a better team than Notre Dame right now." What fuckin'ock did this dumb fuck crawl out of?

"Notre Dame can keep pretending". Yeah, just like this dumb fuck can keep pretending that one day BC will be a legitimate team competing for a NC! What joke this douche bag this ass-wipe is!

Damn, I hope that the Irish put up 50+ on the dick headed pricks this w/e!

By the way, while I'm ranting, scUM sucks!

 

[tankjeep]

wow, i hope the boyz get ahold of this.....that'll steam 'em up pretty good. i want to see them steam roll these fucking douche bag eagles.

 

[JefMaj]

We need to just CRUSH 'em.

BC played its way out of this one - The Boston Globe

Don't crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers.....

 

[BGIF]

...

By the way, while I'm ranting, scUM sucks!

"scUM sucks" but BC swallows.

 

[dshans]

We need to just CRUSH 'em.
Don't crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers.....

Fear not, Nick Danger is on the job!

YouTube - Nick Danger Part 1

 

[KajuAZ]

I think we win in another close game....

 

[JefMaj]

We are expecting a rainy mess throught the game - 5 degrees colder than USC.

South Bend, Indiana (46556) Conditions & Forecast : Weather Underground

 

[Polish Leppy 22]

Can you imagine the reputation ND will have and the lack of respect they will get if BC's 25 year old, first year QB has his coming out party on Saturday? If ND's O line doesn't open holes (we should do MUCH better than last year) and the secondary makes Shinskie looks as great as they make everyone else look, forget it.

Credibility and respect are gone. Not much will have changed from 2008 to 2009.

 

[tko]

well, we know the kid will play the game of his life. that's what players do when they come into ND stadium. hopefully tenuta won't blitz us out of the game. if i'm BC, i'm running trips to the wide side and hoping sergio brown blitzes right in front of the QB and instantly causes us to be outmanned on the corner. does anyone know if tenuta gives brown the option to read in that situation? if you see you're outnumbered on the corner why not stay and help?

 

[BGIF]

"Dial Down The Blitzes"

"Dial Down The Blitzes"

Mark May at halftime of FSU game.

He had high praise for Clausen and stressed ND's problem is defense, giving up the big play. According to May (and a lot of ND fans) Tenuta needs to "dial down the blitzes" drop 7 into coverage. No cheap shots.

 

[tko]

Mark May at halftime of FSU game.

He had high praise for Clausen and stressed ND's problem is defense, giving up the big play. According to May (and a lot of ND fans) Tenuta needs to "dial down the blitzes" drop 7 into coverage. No cheap shots.

thanks BGIF, i missed dbag May. did he have that smug look on his face?

 

[NDOM]

Mark May at halftime of FSU game.

He had high praise for Clausen and stressed ND's problem is defense, giving up the big play. According to May (and a lot of ND fans) Tenuta needs to "dial down the blitzes" drop 7 into coverage. No cheap shots.

I saw that too. But tenuta will never dial down blitzes. He's a blitz junkie. I think we need a different avenue. Also did you happen to see that we are 117th out of 119 teams in total defense? and the other 2 teams that are worse is San Jose State and some other team. Pretty sweet huh? We will NEVER compete when we have a defense that ranks last every other year. I was actually surprised that May didnt say anything bad or have a stupid look on his face.

 

[DoverShores]

At least we won't have to deal with Raji n Brace this year. That could be especially huge if the weather forces us to hand the ball off a little more.

 

[irishtrain]

irish4ever-I predicted 10/2 with losses to Stanford and someone else in the pile ( not southern cal ). Now that we've got two losses I think a BCS berth rides on BC?PITT and will take my chances on being wrong on Stanford. Hoping that since we have two losses and they get to Stanford (that way) they can take care of the cardinal. I know that it is a nasty game as they can put points on the board. Harbaugh would give blood to beat us.

 

[BGIF]

The money is going BC's way. Odds down to -7.5

 

[BGIF]

thanks BGIF, i missed dbag May. did he have that smug look on his face?

No, nor was there sarcasm, nor "I told you so." I though his commentary was solid analysis.

Who knew!

 

[irishfan]

No, nor was there sarcasm, nor "I told you so." I though his commentary was solid analysis.

Who knew!

I was waiting for a little snide remark from him the whole time and shockingly it didnt come. He is pretty good for the most part when not talking about ND/Pitt/USC, I must admit.

 

[BGIF]

B&G - On Paper

B&G - On Paper

BC Running Game v ND Run Defense ADVANTAGE: EVEN
BC has 51st rushing attack. They jumped 20 slots after Montel Harris ran all over NC St. Harris has 756 yds to date averaging 5.6 ypc. Last year as a freshman, Harris ran for 120 yds, 5.2 ypc. ND rushing D allows 136 ypg.

BC Passing Game v ND Pass Defense ADVANTAGE:
Shinskie had a horri day against VT going 1/12 for 4 yds. But he's the 53rd ranked QB with a QB rating of 132. As a team BC has 106th ranked Passing Offense w/ 171 ypg. ND Passing Defense Efficiency is ranked 96th.


ND Running Game v BC Run D ADVANTAGE: EVEN
BC's rushing D is ranked 39th allowing 117 ypg. ND's rushing offense is 70th with 137 ypg.

ND Passing Game v BC Pass Defense ADVANTAGE:
ND has the 7th ranked passing attack with 315 ypg and the #2 ranked QB. BC has the 49th Passing Defense.

Special Teams ADVANTAGE: EVEN
BC's Gunnell is the #12 Punt Returner with 14.6 ypg. Aponavicius is an accurate FG kicker but his long is only 33 yds. Taush had made 10 of 11 FGs.

Intangibles ADVANTAGE:
BC has won the last 6 games in the series and is 5-5 at ND Stadium. ND broke ended an losing streak against ND earlier this season.

Coaching ADVANTAGE: EVEN
Spaziani is a first year Head Coach. He was BC's Defensive Coordinator for 10 years. Weis is 0-2 against BC averaging just 7 points against Spaziani's defense.

Analysis
BC has taken advantage of emotional letdown by ND after big games the previous week. ND has a talent advantage which makes them the favorite.

PREDICTIONS
Burlage ND 32 BC 17
Haynesworth ND 31 BC 17
O'Leary ND 24 BC 7
Sapp ND 38 BC 20
Somogyi ND 31 BC 17









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[tankjeep]

34-17, nd

you heard it here first folks, write it down.

 

[irish4ever]

ND Running Game v BC Run D ADVANTAGE: EVEN
BC's rushing D is ranked 39th allowing 117 ypg. ND's rushing offense is 70th with 137 ypg.
I would see this as a slight advantage BC. They are usually pretty tough on the Irish rushing yds.

Intangibles ADVANTAGE:
BC has won the last 6 games in the series and is 5-5 at ND Stadium.
I would think that this would be swayed towards the Irish. The fact that the Irish are coming off a tough loss to U$C, loss the last 6 to BC and playing at home ... that has to add up to the Irish favor.

Prediction: ND wins 30-20!