Boston College Suffers First Loss of the Season to Clemson

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In the world of college football, execution is a fine line between winning and losing. On Saturday night, the Boston College Eagles (4-1, 0-1) found out just how fine that line can be. On the road in a difficult place to play the Eagles gave themselves a shot to pull off a meaningful win for the program. Down six with 1:48 left in the game, Boston College drove the ball to the Clemson (3-2, 2-1) 12-yard line. With under a minute to go in the game, it looked like the Eagles were going to break through and beat a ranked team on the road. Something this program has had great difficulties in doing. Just when it looked like a great finish was in hand, a fumbled snap from center by quarterback Dennis Grosel was recovered by Tigers defensive end, K.J. Henry. What might have been was suddenly gone, and so too was the game. Boston College suffers their first defeat of the year 19-13 to #25 Clemson.

It was a tough night for the offense. Yes, they did gain 357 yards on the night against probably the best defense they have seen so far and may see all season. But there was no balance to their attack. They could not run the ball at all, 46 net rushing yards on 34 carries, an average of 1.4 yards per rush. The ground game did reach the end zone once during the night. However, the running game also lost 52 yards during the contest. The lack of a running game forced Grosel and the offense to be one-dimensional in their attack. Grosel finished the night 23-of-40 for 311 yards and two interceptions. He was harassed all night by a good Tigers front seven that sacked him four times for 33 yards lost. Still, despite all the troubles the offense had in Death Valley, had the fumble not happened we could be writing about a different result. The other problem the offense had was penalties, ten of them for 60 yards. Several of them were of the pre-snap variety. Those can’t happen when playing a ranked team.

The Eagles defense was strong all night long. Yes, they gave up 438 yards of offense to Clemson. But the Tigers had a hard time converting on third down going only 3-of-14. The Tigers only crossed the goal line once on the night. That happened in the first quarter, on a 59-yard touchdown run by Kobe Pace (128 yards on 18 carries). The rest of Clemson’s points came off the foot of placekicker B.T. Potter, who would hit four field goals including what turned out to be the game-winner from 35 yards out that broke a 13-13 tie in the third. Then, he knocked one through from 42 yards away to give his team some insurance at 19-13 in the fourth.

Moral victories are not what it is about in the ACC or college football in general. The Eagles know they let one slip through their collective fingers. For them to become an upper-division team they must find a way to come out on top in these games whether they are at home or on the road. Unfortunately, they must wait until October 16th to get back on the field and get the job done. On that date, they will host N.C. State for a Saturday night game.