BC and Red Sox thoughts (from the ledge)

First the team I'm spending money to watch. The BC Eagles.

They came out to start the game completely unprepared. Again. They made a number of bone headed mistakes. Again. They kept trying, unsuccessfully, to hit screen passes with one blocker who kept getting flattened. They keep throwing  3 yard crossing patterns on 3rd and 8. Sorry, but these are all signs of bad coaching. Failure to make adjustments, not just as the game is going on but from game to game, may be the most frustrating part of this season.

Chase Rettig is what he is. He's not a playmaker. He doesn't weigh his options. He sees a receiver, he stares at that receiver then he throws at that receiver. He doesn't realize he has a tight end with good hands. He sometimes throws the ball to open spaces where theres no receiver in the zip code. He makes dumb decisions (his interception on a bomb where his receiver was never open and his intentional grounding to name a few). But the coaching staff has done nothing to maximize what he can do. Instead the call the same quick passes that he throws whether his receiver is covered or not.

Spaz was a highly regarded defensive coordinator. Unfortunately his defense can't tackle and his DBs can't cover. Add in a 3 offside penalties on defense and a late hit out of bounds on Donnie Fletcher (it takes a while to get there when you line up in Brighton) and this defense just hasn't shown up to play all season. When your head coach is supposed to be a defensive guy, that's pretty telling.

I'd like to see BC go after Randy Shannon. He holds his players accountable. He tried to turn Miami around. He told his players to stay away from Nevin Shapiro. As long as he was donating money, the U administrators let him act like he was part of the team and welcomed him with open arms. It went through a number of head coaches. Randy Shannon understands the ACC and has already developed a good recruiting base on the east coast. He would understand what BC expects from its players, but he's also a hell of a football coach. Heck he might even bring back Mark "would've been BC coach if I could've fired Spaz" Whipple.

Now on to the Red Sox. I used to watch every game. I used to live and die with every pitch. This year, I didn't have nearly as much emotionally invested in this team. Why? In hindsight I think its because I could tell the players didn't have as much emotionally invested in this team. Even when they were winning they they were playing bad baseball. There was bad fielding all over the place. There were constant base running errors. Big Papi and Gonzo thought hitting a ground ball meant they could take a leisurely walk down the first base line. John Lackey is John Lackey, meatball, glares, eye rolls and excuses. Josh Beckett looked like he was on my diet and exercise plan. Only problem is I work in marketing and he's a professional athlete.They kept sending Kyle Weiland, Tim Wakefield, Andrew Miller and the aforementioned John Lackey out there. They were pretty unlikable and unwatchable.

Terry Francona wore every loss on his face. Same with Dustin Pedroia. Even John Lester. But what really bothered me was the rest of the team didn't. They made excuses.  They joked about how they were too good to lose. Yet that's what they spent most of September doing. Alfredo Aceves should've been in the starting rotation in August. John Lackey should have been on the bench until he removed his head from his ass. Carl Crawford probably shouldn't have ever been signed. I;m not sure if it was in his head or if he can't handle the bright lights of Boston, but he was terrible. Him coming up short on the hit that ended the season summed up his season very well.

Was Tito somewhat to blame? Probably. He always seemed to wait until the wheels came completely off to yank a pitcher. He seemed to love Darnell McDonald for reasons I'll never fully understand. He made some perplexing lineups. Tito gets the ultimate responsibility for base running mistakes and lack of fundamentals. He may have let the team get away from him. He may have allowed the inmates to run the asylum.Tito's also always been a players manager. Yet he threw the players under the bus at the end of the season. That's a big red flag about this team and its personalities.

It also didn't seem like, at least from this fan's perspective, management had his back. Was it he's more beloved then the ownership group that saved the Red Sox? Who knows. Anyone who has heard them speak knows this ownership group has an ego. Was it Tito got too much credit or because as a baseball lifer he went more with what he felt than what computer and stats told him? Could be. John Henry made his money with algorithms and computer programs and probably thought he could use the them to win the Sox some games.

Theo has to take some of the blame. He's yet to bring in a big money free agent that has paid off. JD Drew was good, but never great. Julio Lugo and Edgar Renteria were terrible. John Lackey is an epic disaster and Carl Crawford is swinging and missing his way in that direction. And for a vaunted farm system, the best they could come up with to fill the pitching void was Kyle Weiland. Das wunderkind doesn't quite have the shine he had after 2007. I doubt he goes to the Cubs, but if the 2012 season is as big a failure as the 2011 season, the choice to go elsewhere won't be Theo's.

So where do the Sox go from here? I'd like to see them hire a young and hungry manager. Joey Cora and Dave Martinez seem to be a couple of names that always pop up and I'd much rather see them go that route than Bobby Valentine. Bobby V may be too old school. Sure he'd try to whip the players into shape but they know they're getting paid either way. If they wouldn't play for Tito what makes ownership think they'll play for Bobby.

Ultimately its on the players. If Tito left because he couldn't handle them then shame on them. If Tito got fired because they wouldn't play for him, the blame is still on them. I think they players need to win back the fanbase. I'm just not sure they care.

BC vs Northwestern Thoughts

After watching from the last row and letting it stew for a couple days, here's what I think...

• We learned nothing about Chase Rettig. He put up some great numbers, but looked indecisive all day. He can't be blamed for all of it, as I thought the play calling didn't give him a chance to shine. The constant play action seemed to distract him more than it helped him. He's an athlete and he has a good arm but I think he needs to calm down a bit mentally. He also missed some wide open receivers and reads. I liked the fact he took the blame for the false start, but you have to make sure you're all on the same page in that situation.

• The play calling was conservative and uninspired. We were told Kevin Rogers brought a big, wide open playbook with him. It seemed he left that at home a decided to use Gary Tranquill's playbook instead. I think this comes back to Spaz not wanting to take any chances. He wants the offense "managed" while the defense makes plays and gets the win. I love Spaz, but I'm starting to think he's in over his head as the head coach. Also, I thought we were done throwing screen passes on 3rd and 10. Tell me when was the last time that worked for BC? Also thought they could have gotten the TE's, especially Pantale more in the game.

• Why is your number 1 receiver playing special teams? Momah tore his ACL and is out for the season. When your roster isn't packed with playmakers, you have to protect the ones you have.

• Very up and down game for the defense. They came up with some huge stops and the big interception, but they also let Northwestern walk all over them on the scoring drives. The CB's have to stop lining up in Brighton.Teams realize they can throw underneath all day long. Can't remember the last time I saw a BC DB body up to a receiver on the line. KPL and Keuchly looked good and Sylvia looks like he deserves more playing time.

• Tackling. Its one of the most basic skills, yet they've never been a good tackling team with Spaziani here. 

So what do we know after the Northwestern game? Not a lot. Hopefully Freese's bad game was just a bad day and he comes back to play like he did last year. Swiggert looked good and aggressive on kick returns. Quigley's punting looked good. If they can clean up some of the mental mistakes, get Rettig to relax, open up the playbook and have Swiggert, Larmond and Pantale step up with the injury to Momah I think they can pull out some wins in a not so strong ACC this year. If not, it could be a long season.