BC Leads the ACC in Takeaways and Just Ran for 399 Yards. Now It Gets Duke's No. 2 Scoring Defense

Boston College football goes to Durham on Saturday for a noon kickoff at Duke on The CW, and the school's own game notes, released Tuesday, read like a team that figured something out two weeks ago. The Eagles are 4-3 and 2-2 in the ACC after beating Pitt 27-21 on Oct. 17 and then hanging 49 on Georgia Tech last Saturday. Duke is 5-2 and also 2-2 in the league.

The Georgia Tech game is the headline. BC ran for 399 yards and put up 500 yards of total offense in a 49-27 win in Atlanta, according to the notes. The last time Boston College ran for more than that was Nov. 2, 2019, when it rushed for 496 yards at Syracuse. The 49 points are the most BC has scored against a Power Four opponent under Bill O'Brien.

Two guys did most of it. Bo MacCormack III ran for a career-best 155 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries, the first multi-touchdown game of his career. Quarterback Mason McKenzie ran for a career-best 170 yards and two scores on 16 carries. That's two 100-yard rushers in the same game, which BC hadn't had since Syracuse on Nov. 9, 2024, per the notes.

McKenzie is the interesting one. He has 614 rushing yards on the season, fifth in the ACC and the most of any quarterback in the league, and his 87.7 rushing yards per game rank third in the conference. As a team, BC averages 181 rushing yards a game, fourth in the ACC.

The defense is the other half of the turnaround. BC has 13 takeaways through seven games, 10 interceptions and three fumble recoveries, and both numbers lead the ACC. Charlie Comella had two of those picks at Georgia Tech, including a 47-yard pick-six in the fourth quarter that was his first career touchdown; his four interceptions are tied for third in the country. BC allows 182.1 passing yards a game, second in the ACC, and 9.9 yards per completion, 10th nationally. Anthony Palano and safety KP Price are tied for the ACC lead with 33 solo tackles each, and E'Lla Boykin and Demetrius Ballard each have 4.5 sacks.

Now the problem. Duke's numbers, from the same comparison table in BC's notes, are better almost everywhere. The Blue Devils allow 16.0 points a game, second in the ACC, against BC's 23.6. They allow 301.3 total yards a game, also second, against BC's 333.3. Duke's run defense gives up 107.1 yards a game, fifth in the league, while BC allows 151.1, 12th. Offensively, Duke scores 29.9 a game to BC's 24.4 and throws for 236.4 yards a game to BC's 194.7, which ranks 16th in the conference. Duke running back Nate Sheppard has 875 rushing yards and receiver Jonah Burton has 298 receiving yards, per the notes.

So the matchup is pretty clean. BC's best thing, running the ball, runs into one of the league's better run defenses. BC's second-best thing, taking the ball away through the air, gets a Duke offense that throws for more than 236 yards a game, which means more chances.

History adds a little pressure. BC leads the all-time series 5-4 and is 2-1 in road games against Duke, and the last meeting went to Duke, 38-31, in Chestnut Hill on Nov. 4, 2022. The Eagles' last win over the Blue Devils was a 26-6 game on Sept. 19, 2020. A win Saturday would also give BC its first three-game winning streak since 2023, according to the notes.

For context on where the program sits: O'Brien, who was born in Dorchester and raised in Andover, is 13-19 in his third season at BC, per the school. Duke coach Manny Diaz is 23-11 in his third season in Durham. After Saturday, BC comes home for Florida State on Nov. 7, then goes to Notre Dame on Nov. 14, hosts Syracuse on Nov. 21 and finishes at Miami on Nov. 28.

Dez's take: I love what BC did in Atlanta, but 399 rushing yards against Georgia Tech and 399 against a top-five run defense are different jobs. The path here is McKenzie keeping the Duke defense honest with his legs and the secondary doing what it's done all year, which is make quarterbacks pay. If BC wins the turnover battle by two, it can steal this. If it can't run, it's going to be a long afternoon.

What we still don't know: the injury picture for either team, which BC's notes do not spell out, and whether BC's run game travels against a defense built to stop it.