Boston College at Notre Dame: Opening Line & the Basics

Don’t worry, folks: it’s almost over.

There are only two games left in the Boston College football season, and both are on the road. The first takes the Eagles out to the cornfields of Indiana to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The bookies were not impressed with Boston College’s play-not-to-lose victory over soon-to-be-unemployed TOB last Saturday, and as such, have flipped a stern finger in our direction. The Irish enter this week as 24.5-point favorites for the Saturday afternoon game.

My original thought was that the line was too high, and I still believe it. Myself, I would have put it at around ND -17.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “well, that’s hardly much of an improvement,” and you’re right, it’s not. The honest truth is that while Notre Dame isn’t the Top 15 kind of team that some media analysts believed them to be in the preseason, they’re still a much better team than BC is, particularly offensively. More on those matchups in the days to come.

After having won six games in a row against the Irish, the Eagles under Spaz have not tasted victory. In 2009, BC went out to South Bend and lost, 20-16. Last year, in a Saturday primetime game, Notre Dame took the Eagles out to the woodshed with a 31-13 bashing at Alumni Stadium. It was notably Brian Kelly’s first time facing the Eagles with Notre Dame and Chase Rettig’s collegiate debut. One year and change later, while Notre Dame’s fortunes have remained relatively steady, BC’s have gotten worse.

The Eagles only have one road win to date, and that came against Maryland. Of course, for some perspective on the Terps’ disastrous season, Notre Dame played them last week and won, 45-21. Given how the Irish are 7-3 and Maryland is currently 2-8, I would say that the Irish are probably a liiiiiittle bit of a step up in competition.

In fact, with regards to all of the teams BC has played, here is the distribution of BC’s opponents this year and how they’ve done:

• BC vs. FCS: 1-0
• BC vs. teams currently with a losing record: 1-2
• BC vs. teams currently at .500: 1-2
• BC vs. teams currently with a winning record: 0-3

[Miami is .500 and Notre Dame has clinched a winning record]

When your best win of the season is a .500 NC State team which played two FCS teams, that’s just not very good.

The games which I termed as the “winnable two” are over with, and now we’re getting into the last two which are going to be very difficult to win. Make no mistake, this is going to be a hard game for BC, even with all of the emotion and the novelty of the BC-ND rivalry.