After losing to Purdue, Boston College ups intensity ahead of Temple visit

It's hard to fathom Boston College coach Steve Addazio going soft on his team, but he basically admitted it factored in last week's 30-13 loss at Purdue.

Addazio said his approach has changed drastically heading into Saturday's game against Temple in Chestnut Hill, Mass. (noon, ESPNU).

The Eagles entered the Purdue game 3-0 and ranked No. 23 in the country. Boston College was coming off an impressive 41-34 win at Wake Forest on a Thursday night and had eight full days off before facing Purdue.

So Addazio let up a little in practice, a move he now regrets.

"A week ago, I came off the Wake game and wanted to make sure our guys were fresh and pulled off the gas a little bit on the physicality of practice," Addazio said during Wednesday's Atlantic Coast Conference media call.

He saw how that didn't work. After a 7-7 first quarter, the Eagles allowed 23 unanswered points. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Anthony Brown threw four interceptions and Boston College appeared out of rhythm the entire game.

So this week, the practices have seen much more intensity.

"We did the flip side, we went right back to hard-core fundamentals, inside drill and everything else, we started on Sunday, and haven't let up," said Addazio, who was Temple's head coach in 2011 and '12 before taking his current job. "My thing is I want to have the most competitive snaps we can possibly have so guys are practicing, making full-speed, real-time decisions in the heat of the battle because I felt like that was one of the issues I thought that we had on Saturday."

BC is a 15-point favorite, making Temple (2-2) a double-digit underdog for the second time this year. The Owls were a 14-point underdog to Maryland, a team they beat 35-14.

Even more so than against Maryland, Temple will have to stop the run. Boston College features 6-foot, 245-pound sophomore AJ Dillon, who has rushed for 491 yards (6.3 avg.) and four touchdowns.

Like his team, Dillon had a subpar performance against Purdue, rushing for just 59 yards on 19 carries. Despite that game, Temple coach Geoff Collins knows what he is up against in dealing with Dillon.

"He is a big, physical guy and he is as complete a back as there is nationally," Collins said.

The Owls will no doubt look to stop the run, something that worked against Maryland. The Terrapins rushed for 132 yards, but a majority came when the game was already decided.

Maryland's two quarterbacks only threw for 63 yards. The Owls can't expect that type of low production against Boston College. Even though he threw four interceptions last week, Brown is a much better passer than the two Maryland quarterbacks the Owls faced.

Most of all, Maryland was 2-0 and feeling pretty good about itself when facing Temple. Boston College, despite its role as a favorite, will have a chip on its shoulder, trying to rid itself of the aftertaste of such a bad loss to Purdue.

So Temple will clearly receive the Eagles' best shot. Boston College practiced this week the way Temple does every week, at full-speed.

"I felt like that might be a byproduct of too early in the year pulling back the physicality of our practice," Addazio said of his team's poor play last week. "It is very uncharacteristic and is not going to happen again."