Eagles Trying to Shake Bad Tackling Game Ahead of Louisville
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)Publisher
Boston College missed 17 tackles during its 44-14 loss at Florida State, according to Pro Football Focus. To put that into perspective, the Eagles missed a combined 23 tackles in their first three outings this season, per PFF.
"We tackled really high in the game," third-year BC head coach Jeff Hafley said Tuesday. "Like really high. When you tackle high, you miss. I constantly talk about the approach and putting yourself in position to make the play.
"Are we a bad tackling team? No, we're not. Did we have a bad tackling game? Yes, we did."
Missed tackles played a significant part in the Eagles allowing 10 FSU plays of 20-plus yards from scrimmage, including eight through the air.
They doomed BC on the opening kickoff, too, as Seminoles running back Trey Benson ripped through the arms of four Eagles en route to the end zone on his thundering, 93-yard return.
BC's secondary, in particular, struggled with bringing FSU players down. According to PFF, free safety Jason Maitre missed four tackles, and cornerbacks Elijah Jones and CJ Burton both missed a pair as well.
Hafley said that the Eagles tackled lived to the ground during Tuesday's practice. He said they even held the whistle a little bit longer so they could get more hats to the ball.
BC will have to be on its A-game tackling Saturday against Louisville. The Eagles will, yet again, be facing dual-threat quarterback Malik Cunningham, who has rushed for a total of 309 yards and four touchdowns in his last three games versus BC.
"There’s no easy way to defend him," sixth-year Eagles defensive end Marcus Valdez said. "Just gotta cage him in the pocket and have relentless effort to the ball. He’s probably going to make people miss. That’s the reality of it. He makes everyone miss, when you watch the tape."
Cunningham has 11 missed tackles forced so far this season, per PFF, and he has 13 runs of 10-plus yards, which is tied for the 12th most of any player in the FBS this season.
As the Eagles saw with FSU quarterback Jordan Travis last week, however, caging an athlete like that is just step one. From there, you still have to make the tackle.
Valdez said that, when defending a player as elusive as Cunningham, you have to "miss violently," if you're going to miss. That means, taking your shot "instead of sitting down."
“It’s a talented group, and the quarterback makes it go," Hafley said of Louisville. Because you could literally have the perfect call, and it all looks beautiful, and then, man, you’ve got like a three-year study on him scrambling that you do not want to watch."
There's more to the Cardinals' potent offense than just Cunningham, who became the eighth FBS player to pass for 8,000 yards and rush for 3,000 yards in a career during last week's 41-3 win over USF. Hafley mentioned how experienced and big Louisville is up front. All five of the Cardinals' starting O-Linemen are at least 6-foot-4, and four of them have been with program four or more years.
That's not to mention a collection of four backs with comparable skill sets and production. Tiyon Evans, Jawhar Jordan, Trevion Cooley and Jalen Mitchell all have runs of 20-plus yards this season. Evans, Jordan and Cooley have carried the ball 20-plus times and each have a yards per carry average of at least 4.7.
"Coach said they’ve got a five-headed monster back there with Malik and the four backs that they rotate," Valdez said. "I mean, they’re all good backs. Kind of have a similar style, all of them. They rotate them, and they run hard. They’re always fresh because they have that many good backs.
"We’ve gotta tackle them, too. It’s not just Malik."
Louisville's rushing offense is second in the ACC, only behind FSU, which just gashed BC for 180 yards and four touchdowns on the ground last week in Tallahassee.
Meanwhile, the Eagles are allowing 4.14 yards per carry this season. That's 10th in the ACC and 74th nationally.
Saturday is as good an opportunity as any for BC's defense to affirm Hafley's declaration that the Eagles are, in fact, a good tackling team—and that last weekend at FSU was a blip on the radar.
Otherwise, Louisville could quite literally run away with a victory in Alumni Stadium.
