For the seventh consecutive game, Boston College (1-7, 0-5) is a loser.
In Week 9, it came at the hands of No. 19 Louisville (6-1, 3-1), falling to the Cardinals in Kentucky 38-24 in a game the Eagles led at one point 10-7 in the second quarter.
And despite forcing three turnovers to keep the idea of an upset on the table on Saturday night, 317 rushing yards on 31 attempts for Louisville was too much to overcome, as Boston College’s defense was once again their Achilles’ heel.
The exclamation point for BC’s defense failing them came in the fourth quarter, with the Eagles down 31-24 with 2:59 remaining in the game. It was a 4th and 8 from their own 44 yard line, and head coach Bill O’Brien elected to punt the ball away, hoping with three timeouts in hand that his defense would be able to get them the ball back with enough time left for their first game-winning drive of the season.
Instead, Louisville running back Keyjuan Brown took the ball 67 yards to the house on the Cardinals’ fifth play of the drive, sealing a 38-24 victory for his team with 1:49 left to play.
Like the Stanford game in Week 3, O’Brien’s decision to forgo a fourth down attempt in favor of trusting his defense ended up being the nail in the coffin for a loss.
“Yeah, it was 4th and 8, Graham,” O’Brien said to Sports Illustrated’s Graham Dietz postgame when asked about the crucial late-game decision. “I mean, it was 4th and 8. I just didn't - it’s 4th and 8.
“The chances of us getting a 4th and 8 with their pass rush, and - you know, it wasn't gonna be good. So I decided - I don't look back, I thought that was a good decision. Punt, we got timeouts, we got three timeouts, see if we can stop them. Couldn't stop ’em. Couldn't stop ’em.”
Allowing over 10.2 yards per carry, it cannot be overstated how dominant Louisville’s pair of running backs with the last name Brown were on Saturday, as Isaac (205) and Keyjuan’s (95) combined-300 yards rushing powered the Cardinals past the Eagles for their sixth win of the year - avoiding the trap game after upsetting No. 2 Miami just one week prior.
“I mean, we got to stop the run,” said O’Brien. “I don't think I've ever been in a game where I've seen that many long runs. So I got to coach it better. I have to coach a lot better than I'm doing. I have not done a good job this year coaching.”
O’Brien’s above comments about bad coaching have been said in some form or fashion after every single loss this season, yet the outcomes have remained the same with each and every Saturday. Whatever O’Brien is doing at practice each week to improve his coaching is not working, as the Eagles have now lost seven games in a row for the first time since 2015.
Through his first 21 games as BC’s head coach, O’Brien is now 8-13 overall. And with games against No. 7 Georgia Tech (8-0, 5-0), No. 12 Notre Dame (5-2), SMU (5-3, 3-1) and at Syracuse (3-5, 1-4) still remaining, 8-17 through 25 games as BC’s leading man is more probable than possible.
With the Eagles falling to 1-7 on Saturday, it’s the first time the program has started with a record that bad since 1989. That team would go on to finish 2-9 under BC legend Jack Bicknell, who was long-past his prime after famously coaching Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie to a 1985 Cotton Bowl win over Houston.
2-9 led to 4-7 the following season, which inevitably got a legend fired.
As I wrote after BC’s blowout loss at home to UConn - would a one-win season where the Eagles go winless against FBS competition give Boston College no choice but to oust the former Texans head coach set to make $5.5 million a year over the next three seasons?
One week later, I’m still told no.
As I’ll continue to write until I hear otherwise - BC remains committed to giving O’Brien a five-year runway to get this program headed in the right direction, and knew full well that this particular season was going to be a difficult one with the schedule they had in front of them (which gets more difficult by the week) and the players they were losing to graduation.
That all sounds great on paper as we sit here on October 26. But when you’re staring at only the second 11-loss season in the 91-year history of the program come November 29, are you going to be able to, in good conscience, stick to that five-year plan?
What does a 1-11 season where your only win came against a bad FCS team do to you in recruiting? What’s the motivation for big money donors to hand over checks to pay for talent in the transfer portal? Why should season ticket holders, who only bought the package to ensure their seats for the Notre Dame game, be willing to re-up for 2026 when the only “marquee” home game is against a down Florida State (3-4, 0-4) program?
These are questions Boston College has to be ready to answer.
In the meantime, they’ll head back into their gauntlet of a schedule for their game against the Fighting Irish in Week 10 - a rivalry game in-name only as ND has won each of their last 9 “Holy War” games dating back to 2009.
The winner of this semi-annual rivalry game wins the Frank Leahy Memorial Bowl, in honor of the legendary head football coach who spent time in both South Bend (1941-43, 1946-53) and Chestnut Hill (1939-40). Notre Dame claims four National Championships from his time on their sidelines (1943, 1946-47, 1949).
The sportsbooks clearly don't feel like this trophy being on the line is giving BC enough juice to compete against their biggest rival on Saturday, as they open as a 29.5-point home dog against the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame is -10000 on the moneyline, and total is sitting at 57.5.
Yes, you read that correctly.
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