Patrick McHugh is the sports editor for the Huntington News and analyst for WRBB’s football coverage. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

Maybe we expected too much. Maybe we fooled ourselves into thinking this would be different. Maybe BC really is that good. Maybe Northeastern really is that bad.

In any case, it would be difficult for any Husky fan to hold their head up Saturday when walking out of Alumni Stadium where the scoreboard read 54-0. The idea of an upset was far-fetched for sure, but I think everyone was surprised, Boston College fans included, that NU would lose by such a huge margin, especially in a year where the Eagles had so much turmoil with their coaching situation, the quarterback position, and the unfortunate cancer diagnosis to their best player, Mark Herzlich.

Then again, we all knew the Huskies weren’t exactly at the peak of their performance either. Coming off a tough 2-10 campaign in 2008, NU had to find replacements for more than half their starters from a year ago. Add to the mix that there would be new offensive and defensive coordinators and the Huskies seemed destined for change.

But that’s not what we saw Saturday. We saw much of the same, not only on the scoreboard but in the way the team played. The spread offense we were promised did very little through the air. In fact, even with three, four, and five receiver sets and the quarterback in shotgun 80 percent of the time, Northeastern threw the ball just 14 times on the afternoon, and from my estimation only two of those throws were to a target who was more than 10 yards down field. Instead Northeastern favored the run, quite heavily in fact: 40 rushing attempts for a total of 82 yards. Granted, some of these runs did occur when a passing play was called and the quarterback chose to tuck and run instead, but 40 rushes compared to 14 throws doesn’t exactly seem what the spread offense is all about.

Defensively, the issues were glaring as well, with the foremost being problems with tackling. BC running backs Josh Haden and Montel Harris routinely bounced off Northeastern defenders on their way to the end zone. The Huskies, under new defensive coordinator Frank Forcucci, did seem to have more speed and swarm to the ball quickly, but just couldn’t seem to tackle anyone. At the same time, there seemed to be little variation of the defensive approach. Northeastern played a basic 3-4 defense but rarely brought large blitz packages as we had anticipated. Occasionally we saw Phil Higgins, Craig Kenney, or Nate Thellen come loose on the blitz, but not as much as we expected to see. Northeastern surrendered a total of 441 yards to the Eagles offense as Boston College appeared to have little difficulty moving the ball up the field. As a result, punter Ron Conway tied a school record with 12 punts for a total of 415 yards. Let’s hope he never breaks his own mark.

The special teams were not without flaws either. A punt was returned for a touchdown by the Eagles’ Rich Gunnel, who strolled down the sidelines without being touched until he reached the goal line. NU’s Greg Abelli didn’t appear to realize where he was when he chose to field a punt from inside his own five yard line, rather than let the ball roll into the end zone for a touchback.

As we approach Northeastern’s home opener against Maine, we’re still scratching our heads. Can the offense move the ball, and is the spread offense ever going to throw the ball down field? Will the defense apply more pressure and tackle somebody? Will special teams give up big plays and put our offense and defense in tough field positions?

Maybe Saturday was just an aberration. Maybe Northeastern didn’t want to put too much into a game that doesn’t count too much in favor of a game this week that means so much more. Maybe the Huskies were just a tad bit nervous going against an FBS school. Maybe with the playing field leveled a bit the team will show some swagger and desire.

Maybe.

Patrick McHugh Football, The Dog Pound