No. 19 Louisville also had to work it out, though Cardinals survived a Boston College, 38-24 win on Saturday night, a week after they had broken down in tears over topping then-No. 2 Miami. The outcome solidly places Louisville in the ACC title debate and provides the head coach Jeff Brohm with his inaugural win following a top-five upset.
A shaky start, then fireworks
The environment at the L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium was charged and the Boston College offense knew it early and they started the game with two false startups. However, the Eagles calmed down with a 16-play drive that earned them a field goal to gain some head start at 3-0.
Louisville answered immediately. During the first play of the next drive by On the Cards, Isaac Brown rushed away with a 73-yard run, putting the quarterback Miller Moss in a position to score his fifth rushing touchdown of the season. That was 7-3, but Boston College were not finished with this.
Answering the call, the Eagles scored on a Lewis Bond touchdown to regain the lead 10-7 after another time consuming drive that consumed over 13 minutes of game time between their two initial drives.
Their speed decreased until towards the end of the half, when Moss linked on a 38-yard pass to Kejaun Brown, and afterwards scored another rushing goal nine yards in advance. The next ferocious run, an explosion by Isaac Brown, 62 yards, followed by a defensive stop and another explosion, 62-yard run by leadership, left Louisville ahead of 21 to 10 at halftime.
Turnovers, havoc and grand plays
The latter half, opened with a gut punch: Brown dropped the ball during the first scrimmage and the ball ended up in the hands of Boston College who immediately converted it into a touchdown. The lead of Louisville was diminished though the defense made a retaliatory attack as Antonio Watts picked up a fumble and seemed to have a pickup, but was called down by the referees.
That did not halt the momentum of the Cardinals. Minutes afterwards, Moss threw Caullin Lacy a touchdown and increased the lead to 28-17. The two teams went back and forth over interceptions and fumbles and it took Louisville almost ten minutes to score a field goal that put the teams at 31-17.
Boston College did not give up, making it a 21-yard run to score and be within seven points. However, after less than two minutes to play, along with a holding penalty, Keyjaun Brown tore off a 67-yard touchdown run to complete the 38-24 win.
A sloppy but important win
It wasn’t pretty. In between change overs, fouls, and lengthy scrutiny, the game took much more time than it was supposed to take. Louisville also left much on the field yet managed to conquer the ground with 317 rushing yards. Isaac Brown charged 205 of them, his new career high.
The squad of Brohm gets better to 6-1 in total and 3-1 in the ACC, making it officially bowl eligible. The Cardinals have four remaining conference games, and a legitimate chance at ACC Championship, provided that they could sort out the errors.
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