Avian cardinals fly, but the football Cardinals ran over the Eagles Saturday, gaining 317 yards on the ground in their 38-24 win Saturday. (Timothy D. Easley/Associated Press)

BC beat the spread. By a good amount actually.

Underdogs to the tune of 25 1/2 points, the Eagles lost to #19 Louisville Saturday 38-24. It was BC’s seventh straight loss this season.

The Eagles even held two early leads, 3-0 and 10-7, but long runs by the Cardinals and six second-half BC turnovers resulted in yet another opponent gaining more than 500 yards total offense.

BC opened the game with a 15-play drive culminating in a 38-yard field goal by Luca Lombardo. (Lombardo has made 11 of 11 field goal attempts this season, one of only two FBS kickers not to have missed in that many attempts.) Louisville then needed only three plays, including a 73-yard run, and less than two minutes to score its first touchdown. 

The Eagles had the ball for almost 24 minutes in the first half and ran 50 offensive plays, compared to 21 for the Cardinals, but Louisville was much more efficient. The Cardinals added two more touchdowns in the half, on “drives” of five plays for 56 yards and one play of a 62-yard run. That’s three drives of only nine plays in total for three touchdowns.

The pattern repeated in the second half. BC was able to score two touchdowns, but allowed 17 points to the Cardinals, who had three more scoring “drives” totaling 11 plays, including a 67-yard touchdown run to close out the scoring.

BC quarterback was again Grayson James, who was 23-of-46 passing for 244 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Eagles catching TD passes were tight ends Kaelan Chudzinski and Jeremiah Franklin and WR Lewis Bond. BC ran for only 116 net yards, including 26 by James.

Louisville rushed for 317 yards on 31 attempts, a double-digit average. They passed for 187 yards for 504 yards in total.

Highlights (11:48)

The Eagles fall to 1-7, 0-5 in the ACC. #12 Notre Dame comes to Alumni Stadium Saturday, November 1. Kickoff is 12:30 pm PT.