Saturday was shaping up to be an incredible bounce-back game for Boston College.
Sure, they won their Week 5 game at home against Western Kentucky 21-20, but it took an unlikely comeback to get the victory over a middling team from a far inferior conference. Even without starting quarterback Thomas Castellanos, an Eagles team under first-year head coach Bill O’Brien is expected to blow the doors off a team like the Hilltoppers.
With Castellanos back under center for Week 6 at Virginia, it was time for the Eagles to get the train back on the tracks.
Early on, it looked like the junior QB was doing just that, as he came out of the gate 11 for 11, throwing for 135 yards and 2 touchdowns en route to a 14-0 lead with 13:08 to go in the second quarter.
That BC locomotive looked to be chugging along, full steam ahead.
And then, the wheels came off.
From the seventh drive of the game on, Virginia scored 24 unanswered points, and came away with a 24-14 win in front of a sparsely filled Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, VA.
Starting mid-second quarter, it was a gross cocktail of penalties, turnovers and injuries on defense for O’Brien’s team, moving BC’s record to 4-2 on the year.
“Awful. Awful. Bad coaching, bad execution combined, awful,” O’Brien told the media on Zoom postgame. “Give Virginia credit, they did a great job. We did not do a good job. Thank God we got 12 days before our next game. Maybe we can get some things corrected.
“Bad. All the way around.”
The man affectionately known as “Teapot” by his Patriots players from the early 2010s was living up to his nickname postgame.
Dan Rubin of BCEagles.com began to ask O’Brien, “Coach, you did start out the first half with that fast start, and Tommy - ”
“Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter,” O’Brien interrupted. “Gotta play 60 minutes. It’s not a 30-minute game. If it’s a 30-minute game? Great. It’s not, it’s 60 minutes.
“Next question.”
Trevor Hass from The Boston Globe decided to give it a whirl.
“What’d you see from Tommy, specifically in the fourth quarter?” asked Hass.
“It wasn’t great,” said O’Brien, exacerbated. “Nobody was great. Nobody was great, Trevor. Nobody. Coaches - we had 10 guys on the field on the first play of the last drive on offense. It was terrible.
“Put it on me. Blame it all on me. We got to do a better job. We got to coach better. We got to play better. We got a long way to go.”
It was a fair question from Hass, given the way Castellanos finished the ballgame after his hot start.
He alone accounted for all three of BC’s turnovers on offense, throwing two interceptions as well as fumbling a pass that led to a scoop-and-score for Virginia’s Jonas Sanker that truly was the nail in coffin for the Eagles.
Kevin Stone of the New England Football Journal - your turn.
“Coach, third down on defense a problem again. What'd you see?” asked Stone.
“Yeah - I mean, 3rd and 13, 3rd and 10, 3rd and 9,” said O’Brien. “I don't know. I gotta watch the film, Kevin. You saw it - I mean, it's not good, right? It was over 50%. You know, it just wasn't good. It wasn't good, I don't know. We have to look at.
“We have to look in the mirror. Everybody in the program has to self assess, coaches and players. We all have to look and see what we can do to be better, because we're a lot better than what we showed today. Again, give Virginia credit, they did a good job in the second half. But, you know, we have to improve.”
As O’Brien mentioned, his team is on a bye in Week 7, giving the Eagles ample time to lick their wounds as they head back down to the state of Virginia for a Week 8 bout with Virginia Tech (3-3).
They’ll be back in the national spotlight for the first time since their Week 1 upset win at Florida State, as they’ll play the Hokies on Thursday night in Blacksburg.
The Eagles fall to 1-1 in ACC play, putting them in a six-way tie for seventh place in the conference.
All six of BC’s remaining games are against ACC opponents.