By Patrick Whalen

Its week four of the college football season and from now until the end of the season we will be breaking down a couple of the notable matchups each week including the Boston College game. This week we have two top twenty-five matchups. The first kicking off at 3:30 pm is number 22 Texas A&M traveling to Tuscolusa to face top-ranked Alabama. Later on two Pac 12 rivals will go at it at 8 pm when number 7 Stanford will face number 20 Oregon. Also, your number 23 BC Eagles will be traveling to Purdue this week.

The first game has will have a huge impact on the college football playoff and the SEC West. Alabama through their first three games has looked unstoppable on offense and dominate on defense. Averaging almost 57 points a game while giving up only 9 some have already accepted that Alabama will be the national champions again in 2018. Bama has also played some good opponents already playing a tough Louisville team, a well-coached Arkansas St team and stymied a red-hot Ole Miss team. Led by Heisman front-runner Tua Tagovailoa who has already thrown for 646 yards and 8 TDs while also rushing for 93 yards and a TD. Tua has made this Alabama offense a juggernaut along with backs Najee and Damien Harris, who both have over 150 yards rushing on the season, and receivers Jerry Jeudy and DeVonta Smith, who both have over 200 receiving yards. And of course, Alabama is led by a star-studded defense filled with potential NFL talent that has only allowed 28 total points over 3 games.

But Texas A&M under new head coach Jimbo Fisher has looked solid so far going 2-1 with dominant wins over Northwestern St and Louisiana Monroe and a 2 point loss to number 3 Clemson. Jimbo’s boys aren’t looking too far behind Alabama scoring 44 points a game while giving up 15 points. Led by sophomore QB Kellen Mond who has had an impressive season himself throwing for 824 yards and 6 TD’s along with rushing for 103 yards and 3 TD’s, A&M’s offense has been red-hot as well with having four 100 yard rushers, led by Trayveon Williams with 399 yards and 4 TD’s, and four 100 yard receivers, led by Jhamon Ausbon with 13 receptions for 201 yards. The A&M defense has also been solid and was already put to the test against a tough offense in Clemson.

The spread on this game right now is -21 for Alabama, which is actually the smallest margin this season. Despite only losing by 2 to Clemson I believe A&M needs to bring it to another level against Bama especially because Clemson was still giving Kelly Bryant and Trevor Lawrence time under center. Alabama has decided on their QB and he’s arguably the best in the country and that’s why their offense will be hard to stop, Tua has them firering on all cylinders and being at home will definitely help him go up against the toughest defense they’ve faced yet. A&M’s offense should be able to hold their own especially with already facing Clemson’s loaded defense and performing well in the second half comeback attempt. I think Bama will still win comfortably strictly because they just have more pure talent than A&M, I say Bama wins by 14 by a score 41-27.

The next big matchup of the weekend is taking place in Eugue, Oregon where the number 20 Ducks play host to the number 7 Cardinal. Oregon is off to a 3-0 start under first-year head coach Mario Cristobal. The Ducks offense is looking potent like it was during the days of Chip Kelly scoring almost 52 points a game and the defense is looking above average giving up just 20 a game. The Ducks offense is led by junior QB Justin Herbert who in 3 games already has 840 yards passing and 12 TDs. The Ducks also have a loaded backfield led by CJ Verdell with 199 rush yards and a TD. The receivers are led by Johnny Johnson III with 6 receptions 134 yards and 4 TDs. The Ducks offense has been all about the home run ball, six Oregreceiversers have their longest repection this year over 30 yards and four of those six are for touchdowns. The only issue with the Ducks is that their toughest opponent so far this year was San Jose St who they beat 35-22 in week 3. The defense has also been solid but again against much lesser talent.

The Cardinal are also off to a 3-0 start under coach David Shaw. This team is almost the complete opposite of Oregon with a ground and pound, wear you down, offense and a tremendous shutdown defense. Stanford is only averaging 26 points a game on offense but the defense has been dominating averaging giving up just under 8 a game. The Stanford offense is led by last years Heisman finalist running back Bryce Love. Love was held out of their week 3 matchup for precautionary reasons after getting hurt week 2 against USC. Over about a game and a half Love already has 165 rush yards and a TD. The Stanford QB is junior KJ Costello who has thrown for 729 yards and 7 TDs. The Cardinal are led at receiver by JJ Arcega-Whiteside with 13 receptions, 324 yards, and 5 TDs. The Cardinal defense has been dominating only giving up one 100 yard rusher and zero 300-yard passers through three games. Plus Stanford has played better competion beating both San Deigo St and number 17 USC.

The spread on this game is -3 Stanford and I do expect it to be close. After last weeks struggles against San Jose St I think Oregon will come back to earth playing that Stanford defense. Stanford may have also struggled last week against UC Davis but this week they get a fresh and well rested Bryce Love back. I think Stanford wins by a score of 28-23.

And of course a special breakdown for your BC Eagles who are off to a 3-0 start this year and are now ranked 23 in the country. Head coach Steve Addazio has these boys rolling with wins over UMass, Holy Cross, and Wake Forest. Led by running back AJ Dillion, who already has 432 rush yards and 4 TDs, this offense is looking explosive. A big part of the offense’s jump this season is the return of sophomore QB Anthony Brown who got injured during the middle of last season. Brown has 626 passing yards and 9 TDs already this year. Brown has two big playmakers on the outside in Jeff Smith and Kobay White who have 168 and 163 receiving yards respectively. All these weapons have BC averaging just under 53 points a game. The defense has also played well giving up 23 points a game. The defense did underperform at Wake Forest but the game was on a short week and was moved up due to hurricane Florence, so I expect with a full week of practice and film the defense will look much better.

Purdue has had a rough start to their season losing 3 straight out of the gate. This team has been in all those games losing by 4 or less in all of them. The consistency of the Boilermakers has been their issue so far this year. They lost a tight game to Northwestern week 1 then were upset by Eastern Michigan at home week 2 and then took 3-0 Missouri to the wire eventually losing by 3. The offense has been productive scoring almost 28 points a game. Led by electric freshman Rondale Moore who already has 262 receiving yards and 128 rushing yards the Purdue offense can be productive if they just find a QB. Right now the two QB’s they’ve used is David Blough and Elijah Sindelar who have combined for 977 passing yards 5 TDs and 4 Int. Until one of the two emerges as Purdue’s guy they rely heavily on running back DJ Knox who already has 252 rushing yards and 2 TDs. Purdue’s main issue has been the defense which has been giving up points a game. The defense needs to improve if the Boilermakers want to turn things around because esspecially with the uncertainty at QB Purdue can not afford to get into high scoring shot outs.

Right now BC is favored by 7 and I think that’s a pretty good line but with how Purdue has played I would take Purdue +7 just because of how they’re able to stay in games. In the end, I think BC’s run game will just wear down the Purdue defense and set up their play action passing. I think BC pulls this one out on the road by a score of 31-28 to move to 4-0 on the season.