Both of The Wolfpacker staff went with NC State to prevail Saturday at Boston College.
How do others see the game playing out?
It's a decidedly mixed verdict.
At College Football News, Pete Fiutak gave the game a 3.5 must-see rating from a scale of one being “pumpkin spice anything” to five being “caramel apple anything.” Fiutak has NC State pulling out a 26-20 triumph.
“The Boston College defense is great on third downs, but the NC State D is phenomenal, allowing teams to convert just 24% of their chances.
“BC will be tough at home. QB Dennis Grosel has been decent in place of Phil Jurkovec, but he needs the running game to take over and that’s going to be a problem.
“The stats are misleading since Mississippi State doesn’t run, Clemson can’t, and that’s not really what Louisiana Tech does, but NC State has been great against ground games so far, allowing just one score and 3.4 yards per carry.
“This should be more of a slugfest than you might expect, with NC State’s D doing just a wee bit more.”
Steven Lassan, Mark Ross and Ben Weinrib at Athlon Sports all picked every game for week seven. Lassan and Ross both chose NC State while Weinrib went with Boston College.
Mike Barber and David Teel of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Aaron McFarling of the Roanoke Times and Bennett Conlin of the Daily Progress each made projections on the game, with every one of them suggesting a close contest.
Picking NC State were Teel (24-21), Barber (28-27) and Conlin (28-21) while McFarling chose the Eagles (24-21).
The ESPN duo of David Hale and Andrea Adelson split on their picks.
Meanwhile on the College Football Enquirer podcast on Yahoo! Sports, the duo of Dan Wetzle and Pat Forde went with Boston College, with Wetzel proclaiming it will be a coming out party for BC star junior receiver Zay Flowers, and Forde noting that other than the Clemson win for NC State he hasn’t “been impressed by anything they’ve done this year.”
Pete Thamel however sided with the Wolfpack.
“I really just think their defense has been sound enough this year. Tzhey are 13th in total defense right now, they are 12th in scoring defense, and I just think our view of Boston College’s offense is skewed through the prism of how rancid Missouri’s defense is. … This will be a low-scoring game, this will be a bit of a slog of a game.”
“This is a coin flip, and when confronted with such, I say side with the better quarterback, in this case Devin Leary,” Teel wrote.
Kerry Miller from Bleacher Report went with a 28-21 Wolfpack victory.
“Since taking over for the injured Phil Jurkovec in Week 2, Dennis Grosel has four touchdowns and four interceptions in four games, averaging 186 passing yards per contest,” Miller stated. “If he stays in that range while NC State's run defense does its usual thing (one TD allowed all season), it's hard to imagine the Eagles do enough to get the W, even with home-field advantage.”
Joe Giglio of 99.9 The Fan also said to take NC State, predicting it will be a slog fest.
If you are wondering how those who cover Boston College views the game, Niraj Patel from BC Interruption has the Eagles winning 27-24 with an elaborate explanation of how the game will unfold.
“Connor Lytton for the win! With the wind at his back, the freshman nailed a long field goal and kept the Eagles ACC hopes alive. After struggling early in the contest, the BC secondary locked up the NC State receivers to get the offense the ball back. It wasn’t pretty, but the offense played within its confines and didn’t try and do too much. They slowly wore down the Wolfpack defense, and did just enough to get the win. A couple of missed kicks from NC State helped too.”
Matt De Saro of FanSided.com suggests to take Boston College and the points.
“I keep coming back to one betting trend and cannot keep my mind off it,” De Saro wrote. “The Wolfpack have covered just once in their last eight tries against BC in Boston. With both teams matching up well, and rested, my gut tells me to go with the home team.”
——
• Talk about it inside The Wolves' Den
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker
• Like us on Facebook
