Cardinals fly . . . and run

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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.

BC . . . UCan’t

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WR Reed Harris collects 39-yard pass from Grayson James for BC’s first and only lead in yesterday’s loss to UConn. (Photo of video recording.)

In a report last week on BC football, the Boston Globe used the subhed “UConn or UCan’t?” above a discussion of the importance of yesterday’s game against UConn. Well, the answer was BC couldn’t.

The reception in the photo above resulted in a 20-17 BC lead at the end of the first half. In the second half, the Eagles added just three points on a fourth-quarter field goal by Luca Lombardo and allowed three Huskies touchdowns in a 38-23 loss to UConn.

The Homecoming loss was BC’s second to UConn in their last three meetings. The Huskies won 13-3 in 2022. The 2022 game was BC’s first loss to UConn after wins in their six previous meetings since 2000.

While being the top-ranked college football team in New England is not regarded by most as a heady achievement, it’s been something BC and their fans have assumed is usually the case. Yesterday’s game probably gives the crown to UConn, though fans of undefeated Harvard (5-0) might disagree.

Alabama transfer QB Dylan Lonergan, who had started in BC’s first six games, was replaced by Grayson James against UConn. James had become BC’s starter in the middle of last season and led the Eagles to a 3-2 record.

Yesterday, the Eagles had a somewhat strong opening quarter. They ran 23 offensive plays to only seven for the Huskies and held the ball for 11:18, more than triple the time of possession for UConn. BC had eight first downs, compared to three for UConn. The Huskies had one rush for one yard. The results were much closer, however.

Going three-of-six passing and only two-for-five in third down conversions, the Eagles could produce only six points on two Lombardo field goals. UConn was six-of-six passing for 91 yards, including a 50-yaerd touchdown pass. So the Huskies had a 7-6 lead at the end of the opening quarter.

The Eagles were stronger in the second quarter, outscoring UConn 14-10. They out-gained the Huskies both on the ground and through the air, totaling 166 yards, compared to 113 for UConn. James was seven-of-eight passing in the quarter.

The third quarter, after a halftime that permits adjustments to improve, has been a particular problem for BC. And it was yesterday as well. UConn outscored BC 14 to 0, with 185 yards of offense. The Eagles had two first downs and a total of 27 yards total offense, zero passing on zero-of-two efforts.

Except for the opening game against FCS Fordham, the Eagles have scored three points TOTAL in all subsequent third quarters. Six quarters of football and three points scored. Conversely, opponents scored a total of 45 points in those quarters.

The fourth quarter yesterday was somewhat equal, as the Huskies enjoyed eight- and 15-point leads.

BC finished with 395 yards total offense and 77 offensive plays. UConn had 58 offensive plays, but for a total of 455 yards, 362 of them through the air. Neither team had a fumble or interception.

James was 16-of-28 passing yesterday for 204 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions. He also had 17 carries for a net 26 yards. He was sacked seven times.

The Eagles resurrected their running game, gaining 191 net yards. The ground game was led by RB Jordan McDonald, who carried 24 times for a net 123 yards. There were no rushing touchdowns.

Highlights (9:39) (You’ll hear references to UConn receivers being “wide open!”)

BC falls to 1-6, 0-4 in ACC play. Next game is at #19 Louisville, victors over then-#2 Miami yesterday. Kickoff is Saturday, October 25, 4:30 pm.

Klubbed by Clemson

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Clemson QB Cade Klubnik (#2) was second-leading rusher for the Tigers.

QB Cade Klubnik led the Clemson Tigers to its 13th consecutive victory over BC in resounding fashion, 41-10, yesterday in Alumni Stadium. It was the Eagles’ fifth straight loss following an opening season victory over Fordham.

While BC’s first three losses could have been victories if not for mistakes and lax play, the game yesterday was regrettably similar to the 48-7 beat-down by Pitt the week before.

One difference was that BC actually scored — a touchdown and field goal — in the first half yesterday. Just as they had allowed Pitt 31 points in the first half, however, they gave up 34 to the Tigers. Clemson had the ball six times in the first half and scored on all of those possessions — four touchdowns bracketed by field goals. (Pitt had punted once in the first half.)

The Tigers gained 333 yards overall on 40 plays in the first half, averaging 8.3 yards per play. (Pitt had gained 331 yards.) BC ran 34 plays and gained 170 yards, five yards a play.

The third quarter was scoreless, as BC intercepted two Clemson passes and recovered a Tiger fumble to stall drives. As for the Eagles, they “surpassed” the low offensive performance of six plays for 10 yards in the fourth quarter of the Stanford game by running nine plays for zero net yards in the third quarter against Clemson. 

Late in the final quarter, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney had the Tigers score a gratuitous touchdown with 24 seconds remaining to pad the score.

The Tigers gained 504 yards total offense, one yard more than Pitt’s offense the week before. (That’s 89 points and 1007 yards offense allowed by BC in the last two games.)

After Pitt, BC coach Bill O’Brien had said, “I’ve got to do a better job. I’ve got to figure out how to coach these guys better, how to get the staff and the players to understand how we want to play.” Yesterday, he said, ‘I can’t figure out how to get this team to play. I can’t get the coaching staff to coach it right. It’s on me. I’ve got to do a better job of coaching the team.”

It seems he has identified some continuing concerns, but can only acknowledge they continue.

The Eagles finished with 221 yards total offense, 85 yards rushing. The team was called for only three penalties. Starting BC quarterback Dylan Lonergan was 12-of-19 passing for 117 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions. QB Shaker Reisig, responsible for the only BC score in the Pitt game, played in the second half and was three-of-10 passing for 19 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.

Leading rusher for BC was Turbo Richard, with 18 carries for 75 yards, and one touchdown. Top receiver was Lewis Bond, with seven catches for 70 yards.

Highlights (11:52)

The Eagles fall to 1-5, 0-4 in the ACC. The regular season is half over. Next opponent is UConn (4-2), for Homecoming at Alumni Stadium. Kick off is 9 am PT.