Boston College loses third straight game 28-14 to Louisville

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A trend is starting to develop, and if you are a Boston College (4-3, 0-3) football fan, you are not liking what you are seeing. After an undefeated September, in which to be fair, the Eagles played teams that they could and should beat the month of October has been the exact opposite. With one more game left in the month, on the road at Syracuse, things need to get right in a hurry for this to be a successful season at the heights.

Last Saturday’s loss at Louisville was all about a running game that the Cardinals threw at BC. To simply put it, the Louisville offensive line was better than the Eagles front seven. Louisville ran for 331 yards on the ground, a season-high, and so too was the 438 total yards. Quarterback Malik Cunnigham ran for three scores including the game-winner from 14-yards out with 2:53 to play. This is not to say that Boston College’s defense did not have their moment, on the contrary, they did. In fact, the defense would force four Cardinal turnovers that kept the game from getting completely away from them. However, the Eagles’ offense could not do enough with the gifts they were being handed. It was a tough late afternoon for this unit as they allowed three sacks of quarterback Dennis Grosel and seven tackles for loss.

Cunningham was the story of this game. When he was not running through and around the BC defense, 133 yards on 18 carries, he also threw for 107 yards on 9-17 passing. Yes, he did throw two picks, but those mistakes did not come back to haunt his team. Louisville also got another 116 yards of rushing from running back Trevion Cooley on 13 carries. This leads us to another discovery on this day which was missed tackles by the Eagles defense. Too many and too often. Grosel’s day was nothing to write home about, 17-32 for 141 yards with one touchdown and 2 INT’s. When you factor in the three sacks for 23 yards lost, his numbers become even less impressive. The same can be said for a running game that amassed only 125 yards on 38 carries that averages out to 3.5 yards a rush. Louisville averaged seven yards a carry on 47 attempts for their total of 331 yards. They also converted 14 first downs on the ground as their offensive line did the work in the trenches worthy of game balls from the coaching staff.

Since head coach Jeff Haffley has arrived on campus, Boston College is now 1-5 on the road in the ACC. Now to be fair, winning on the road in any conference is never a sure thing. But to become a factor in this league, finding some wins on the road is a requirement. They will get another chance this coming Saturday when they head to Syracuse to face the Orangemen. The trip to upstate New York has never been kind to BC. This would be a good time to change that. Because if this trend continues, a bowl game could go up in smoke.