A gut wrenching loss to California finds Boston College Football on the outside looking in. At 1-3, there aren’t many positives to take away from this season, let alone this game. Here are the three main
takeaways from this one.
1.) Turbo Richard breakout performance?
One of the bright spots in the loss comes from the stellar performance of Turbo Richard. He carried the ball 15 times for 171 yards and 2 touchdowns, and added 19 yards on 4 catches. Fans have been waiting for the “breakout” Turbo game, and they certainly got one. Prior to this game, Richard averaged just 3.6 yards per carry on the season, and his longest rush of the year was 13 yards. In the game versus California he added long runs of 27 yards and 71 yards, which both ended as touchdowns. In a game that left many fans and the team frustrated, he was certainly one of the positives to take away from Saturday.
2.) Costly mistakes made life easier for California
Mistakes will happen in football, no one plays perfectly. However, they came at costly times in this contest. In the first quarter, a DPI by KP Price and facemask penalty by Quintayvious Hutchins happened back to back, which allowed California to capitalize and score easily at the BC 1 yard line. In the third quarter, an OPI by Reed Harris turned a 3rd and 7 to 3rd and 22, which resulted in a BC punt afterwards. Dylan Lonergan threw two 4th quarter INT’s, where one of them came at the BC 2 yard line and resulted in a Golden Bears score the following play. His second one came at an attempted Eagles comeback with 19 seconds left in the game, which sealed a California victory. The Eagles evidently handed the Golden Bears points in some of their costly mistakes.
3.) Can they win a close game?
All three of the Eagles’ losses have been decided by 10 points or less. The Michigan State game came down to the wire in overtime, the deficit in the Stanford game was seven until late the fourth quarter, and the recent loss to California was lost by four with a failed touchdown drive at the end of the game. All three of the losses could have been won, and suddenly the outlook on Boston College Football would be dramatically different and we’d be talking about a bowl game. Unfortunately, instead we’re looking at a lost season right now. Winning closely contested battles or come-from-behind victories are what builds a winning culture in sports, especially football. Find a way to win, no matter what. Unfortunately, the Eagles are finding ways to lose.
