For a second consecutive week, the Boston College Eagles were showcased in a standalone nationally televised game, as they played host to the Louisville Cardinals in Week 9 on Friday night at Alumni Stadium.
BC came into the game as a 7.5-point home underdog, and was without their third-leading tackler in linebacker Kam Arnold, as well as their second-leading rusher in Turbo Richard.
Despite all of that, the Eagles came out of the gate firing, taking a 20-0 lead with just over six minutes to go in the second quarter over a team in Louisville that has spent five different weeks ranked in the AP Top 25, seeing a ranking as high as 15th ahead of Week 5.
It was looking like an upset was on tap at Chestnut Hill, and that the ship had been righted by first-year head coach Bill O’Brien, having lost his last two games in embarrassing fashion after starting the season 4-1.
Then, it didn’t.
From the middle of the second quarter to the end of regulation, the Cardinals proceeded to outscore the Eagles 31-7, and BC would go on to lose the ballgame 31-27 for their third straight loss.
Boston College (4-4, 1-3) now sits in 12th place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“Brutal,” said O’Brien postgame. “Nah, can’t do it. Can’t play for 60 minutes. Can’t coach them well enough to get them to play for 60 minutes. Got to coach a lot better. Got to watch the tape and figure out how to fix it. Terrible”
In three of BC’s four losses, they have blown multi-touchdown leads down the stretch.
In Week 3, they blew an 11-point lead on the road against the heavily favored Mizzou Tigers, leading to a 27-21 loss in Columbia, MO.
In Week 6, they blew a 14-point lead on the road against Virginia, allowing 24-unanswered points en route to a 24-14 loss in Charlottesville, VA.
Now in Week 9, it’s a three-touchdown lead that vanishes into thin air, and the wheels have officially come off for the 2024 Boston College Eagles.
O’Brien was none too pleased during his postgame press conference, as he sat at the podium for less than two minutes to answer questions from the assembled media.
Even with the big lead in the first half, O’Brien was unimpressed with what his Eagles were able to put together on Friday night.
“I mean, I don’t think - what got us open in the first half was a couple of gadget plays,” said O’Brien. “You know, we didn’t really do anything in the first half. It was pretty even.
“They turned the ball over. We didn’t. So, you know, we did some good things in the first half, but it really wasn’t. We didn’t do much on offense tonight.”
Boston College limps into their second bye week of the season in Week 10, as they’ll be off next week before resuming their ACC schedule at home against Syracuse in Week 11, who will enter that one at 5-2.
In fact, three of BC’s next four opponents have winning records.
In Week 12, they head to Dallas, TX to take on #22 SMU (6-1, 3-0) in a rematch of the 2023 Fenway Bowl.
In Week 14, they close out their regular season at home against #19 Pittsburgh (7-0, 3-0).
For a season that once held so much promise, at one point seeing the Eagles crack the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2018, it now looks like disaster is on the horizon to close out O’Brien’s debut season at the helm.