CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - With just under 14 minutes left to play, Boston College had the ball on Duke's seven-yard line, leading 21-7. Quarterback Matt Ryan handed off to running back L.V. Whitworth, looked at the play unfolding in front of him and immediately threw his hands in the air in celebration.
Seconds later, Whitworth crossed the goal line untouched, and no one that had been watching the game for the full three quarters could have been surprised.
For four quarters Saturday night, BC's running backs ran over, around and through Blue Devil tacklers. Sometimes, they burst through tractor-trailer-wide holes created by the Eagles' mammoth offensive line. Other times, they slipped through one tackle in the backfield and then ran for another seven, eight or 15 yards.
"Sometimes, the plays were a result of missed tackles, sometimes it was not disengaging from blocks or not fitting it correctly," Duke head coach Ted Roof said.
At the end of the game, the job that the Eagles' offensive line and running backs did on the Blue Devils was clear. Whitworth and Andre Callendar both finished with over 100 yards-the first BC teammates to do that since 2000-and the Eagles racked up 241 yards on the ground. That number would have been higher if not for a 21-yard loss on a sack late in the fourth quarter.
After the Eagles, leading 14-7 in the beginning of the third quarter, stopped the Blue Devils on fourth-and-inches deep in BC territory, Duke could have salvaged good field position with a quick stop. Instead, after 20-yard-pass play moved them out of the shadow of their own goal posts, the Eagles started pounding yards out on the ground.
Callendar rushed for nine and 10 yards on back-to-back plays, and then, after an incomplete pass, 12 more into Duke territory. At that point, the Blue Devils could forget about salvaging good field position.
Five plays later, the Eagles went back to Callendar, who ran through an enormous hole on the left side, cut back to force a missed tackle at the seven-yard line and dove into the end zone to complete the 26-yard touchdown run.
"They're a good running team," linebacker Mike Tauiliili said. "They've got two quality backs.. We messed up a couple fits and things like that, but they just did what they did, and that's what they do is run, and they did a good job of it."
BC's 241 yards on the ground were the second most Duke has allowed all season-it let up 435 against Navy Nov. 4-and highlight an emerging trend. Since holding Miami to just 30 yards rushing Oct. 21, the Blue Devils have yielded 235 yards or more to each of their last three opponents. Before that Miami game, no team had run for more than 157 yards against the Blue Devils' defense.
Even though BC is known for its punishing ground attack and Duke's big, but young defensive linemen sometimes seemed over-matched by the Eagles' experienced behemoths, Roof and Tauiliili both said the Blue Devils' missed tackles were a major part of the problem.
"It always hurts when you miss a tackle. especially when it's you, you feel like you're letting the team down," Tauiliili said. "That's why we preach, 'Always run to the ball.' Never assume that they're going to make it."
To their credit, the Blue Devils did run to the ball, hustling after the BC running backs when they broke out into the clear, but they often could not make the stop until the play had gained nearly 10 yards.
"We made some plays but we also missed some tackles," Roof said. "And as a result of that we allowed some yardage."
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