Story by Chris Graham
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Matt Ryan at least knows what Virginia Tech did to stop his Boston College offense for 56 minutes the first time the two teams played.
“I’m not sure if it’s an advantage or disadvantage. You’ve just got to play with the cards that you’re dealt,” the BC quarterback said of the ACC Championship Game rematch of the Eagles’ 14-10 win in Blacksburg on Oct. 25.
Ryan led Boston College on two scoring drives in the last four minutes of the game to erase a 10-0 Hokies lead.
The come-from-behind win came at the beginning of a tough stretch for BC that saw the Eagles lose at home to Florida State and on the road at Maryland before winning another nailbiter on the road at Clemson that had echoes of the Virginia Tech win.
“Obviously you want to play as best you can week in and week out and give your team a chance to win. But we dropped a couple of games against Florida State and Maryland and didn’t play as well as we would have liked to during both of those football games. But it’s a long season, and there are going to be ups and downs – and you have to be able to fight through those types of things. And I think that we as a team have done a really good job of that,” Ryan said of the adversity that has befallen the Eagles of late.
And hey, it could be worse – at least BC won two of those four, and it couldn’t have done it without some heroics from Ryan, who looked dead in the water in Blacksburg most of the rainy night.
“Our defense did such a great job of keeping us in the game that night – they just kept Virginia Tech out of the end zone, and did a great job all night, and gave us an opportunity at the end of the game. And we made some plays down the stretch and were very fortunate enough to come away with the win,” Ryan said in an interview that was included in this week’s “SportsDominion Show.”
“As a quarterback, you just want the ball in your hands at the end of a game with the chance to win. And we had that that night,” Ryan said.
As for the teams’ familiarity with one another from that game …
“You look at the tape from when we played them the last time and see how they line up to certain things that we present – and then at the same time also look at what they’ve done since we’ve played them. Teams tend to get into a rhythm – and certain things that have worked for them in the past couple of weeks, I would expect that that would be something that they would try to use against us,” Ryan said.
“They’re going to know what we’re going to do, and we’re going to know what they’re going to do. So I expect a very physical game, tough game. Both teams are going to be very well prepared. Bud Foster does a great job with their defense down at Virginia Tech. We’re going to have a great game plan as well,” Ryan said.
Chris Graham is the executive editor of The SportsDominion.
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