Five burning questions for Clemson against Boston College — and a prediction
No. 4 Clemson hosts Boston College on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019. The Tigers can improve to 8-0 (6-0 ACC) with a win against the Eagles. Clemson enters the game as a 34-point favorite.
Here are our top five questions heading into the game:
Can Clemson slow down A.J. Dillon?
Boston College will have a simple game plan against the Tigers — feed A.J. Dillon. The junior needs only 32 rushing yards to reach 1,000 on the year, and he is currently second nationally in rushing yards per game, averaging 138.3. Dillon rushed for 223 yards and three touchdowns last week against N.C. State, leading the Eagles to a 45-24 victory. With that said, yards will likely be much tougher to come by this weekend against Clemson. The Tigers are allowing only 111.9 rushing yards per game.
“He’s going to go through you. He’s going to drag you. You might be on him, but he’s dragging you. He’s just a big, physical, old school back. He’s one of those types of backs you see every week in the NFL,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “So it’s a challenge. I think this is a big challenge, especially our back seven guys, a lot of those guys who want to play on Sunday. This is what they’re going to see every week in that league, backs like this. So you better get your big boy pads on.”
Can Boston College do anything in the passing game?
Eagles starting quarterback Anthony Brown suffered an injury three weeks ago and is out for the year. He has been replaced by sophomore Dennis Grosel, who has struggled statistically in limited action this season. Grosel has completed only 18 of 46 passes for 235 yards, with three touchdowns and one interception in 2019. He will likely need to complete better than his current rate of 39 percent for Boston College to have a shot at pulling off the upset.
“Their quarterback got hurt and that’s been a challenge for them, but very impressed with what they’ve done to kind of rally back,” Swinney said.
Can Trevor Lawrence avoid turning the ball over?
Clemson’s star quarterback has been picked off in five of the Tigers’ seven games this season, including throwing multiple picks three times. He already has eight interceptions on the year, which is four more than he threw in all of 2018. Swinney insists that he isn’t worried about Lawrence’s turnovers, but as the Tigers prepare to enter the championship phase of the season there is no doubt Swinney would like to see Lawrence start doing a better job of taking care of the football.
“I definitely do think I can play better,” Lawrence said. “I do need to make some better plays and just being a little smarter, taking care of the ball.”
Will Clemson allow 300 yards of offense?
The Tigers have been better defensively this year than they were a season ago through seven games, even with seven starters gone off of last year’s defense. Clemson has yet to allow 300 yards of offense in a game this year and currently ranks No. 5 nationally in total defense, allowing 256 yards of offense per game. This will be the best offense Clemson has faced this year as Boston College is No. 11 nationally in offense, putting up 494.4 yards per game. The best offense the Tigers have faced to this point is Louisville (456.7).
“We’ve used our personnel very well week in and week out to give ourselves the best chance to be successful,” Swinney said. “We’ve started to develop some good depth and some young guys have stepped up.”
Will B.T. Potter lock down the starting kicker job?
Potter lost his starting job after missing a short field goal a couple of weeks ago against Florida State, only to quickly regain it the next week at Louisville. He entered last week’s matchup against the Cardinals as the designated long field goal kicker, and he nailed a 51-yarder on his only field goal attempt. Steven Sawicki, who replaced Potter as the starting field goal kicker, missed his only attempt against the Cardinals, meaning that Potter is likely to be the starting kicker against Boston College. But as Swinney said earlier this year, it’s a “short-term contract,” when it comes to Clemson’s kicking situation, and if Potter misses, the job could go right back to Sawicki.
Prediction: With Grosel at quarterback in place of Brown, the Eagles will likely be one dimensional offensively. That is a recipe for disaster facing off against Brent Venables and the Clemson defense. Add in the fact that Clemson is tired of hearing about how it hasn’t been dominant enough, and it’s hard to see this game being anything other than a blowout.
The pick: Clemson 49, Boston College 3
