Forgettable: Notre Dame 16, Boston College 14

Boston College played a much closer game than most expected, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t a win.

In fact, the game wasn’t much of anything memorable at all. Boston College was defeated by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 16-14, in the cornfields of Indiana on Saturday evening. The loss moves the Eagles to 3-8 with three straight losses to the Domers dating back to 2009.

Boston College came into this game never having overcome a deficit at any point during the 2011 season; that dubious streak was upheld after Notre Dame got out to an early lead in the first quarter and never looked back. From there, however, the Eagles’ defense did better and made sure they only scored six more points for the remainder of the game. As for the BC offense, outside of two drives for touchdowns, they did not play well; it was feast or famine as usual. When the offense and Chase Rettig were good, they were very good, but that’s about all.

The Eagles, with 14 points, scored pretty much right on their average per FBS game for the season, but it was Notre Dame who truly did not impress. For a team that is supposedly ranked, the Irish played a bad game and honestly did not deserve to win. In the same token, the Eagles didn’t deserve to win, either. Both teams made critical mistakes; this is a partial listing of all the mistakes which took place during the game:

• 1st quarter: Notre Dame receiver drops an easy touchdown bomb; no BC defensive back was within about 15 yards of him. Throw from Rees was a little off-target.
• 1st quarter: Boston College corner Donnie Fletcher drops a sure interception just outside the end zone; Notre Dame ends up kicking a field goal.
• 1st quarter: Tom Hammond of NBC erroneously claims that Coach Spaz is “well-liked by BC fans.” As a person, perhaps.
• 1st quarter: BC goes to Josh Bordner for two highly-predictable runs near midfield, then Chase Rettig overthrows Bobby Swigert by quite a bit; Eagles go three-and-out.
• 2nd quarter: A few minutes before the half, Boston College defensive back Sean Sylvia commits a personal foul (late hit) to move Notre Dame into BC territory; the Irish go another 25 yards and kick a field goal.
• 2nd quarter: With 1:19 and two timeouts, Boston College runs out the clock in the first half rather than run a 2-minute drill and attempt to score.
• 3rd quarter: Notre Dame’s kicker sends opening kickoff out of bounds, but BC only advances 11 yards and punts.
• 3rd quarter: BC has third down and less than a yard to go, but they get called for a false start and then Chase Rettig is sacked on the replayed down; Eagles punt.
• 3rd quarter: Tommy Rees throws a ball into a sea of white jerseys where it is intercepted by Max Holloway, but Boston College goes three-and-out on the ensuing possession.
• 3rd quarter: The Eagles begin their second-consecutive drive in plus territory, but again go three-and-out.
• 4th quarter: On 4th & less than 1 at the BC 41, Brian Kelly elects for Notre Dame to punt.
• 4th quarter: Notre Dame’s kicker sends another kickoff out of bounds, followed two plays later by Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o hitting Chase Rettig out of bounds to move BC to the ND 39. Chase Rettig throws four straight incompletions to turn it over on downs.
• 4th quarter: Notre Dame commits offensive pass interference and a false start on consecutive plays, giving them a 1st & 30 which they did not convert.
• 4th quarter: Notre Dame commits an obvious pass interference penalty on an under-thrown ball just outside the end zone; the Eagles backed it up with a false start at the ND 2, but still scored a touchdown.
• 4th quarter: Boston College PK Nate Freese gets serious air under his onside kick attempt which went nearly 20 yards and never came close to a BC player. Notre Dame all but runs out the clock.

Aside from all those miscues, the Eagles’ player of the game was clearly Ryan Quigley, the punter who downed Notre Dame inside their own 10 on a number of occasions during the game (and Notre Dame sure does like calling for fair catches). Also of note for the Eagles was Luke Kuechly, who did not set the BC record in tackles, but did set the ACC record. He will break it in Miami on Friday; Kuechly only needs two more. What should worry fans is that it may be his last game in a BC uniform.

If you didn’t watch the game, be glad you didn’t. It was sloppy, dull, slow and, for the most part, non-entertaining. Boston College rarely got into any sort of flow offensively, and when they did, it was short-lived. Notre Dame, on the other hand, made mistake after mistake and would have gotten beaten badly by a team better than the Eagles.

It is difficult to say that the defense didn’t do enough, especially considering some dropped interceptions, but they did do enough. Holding Notre Dame to 16 points is about the best they could have asked for in this situation, but as usual, the offense (outgained by ND, 417-250) did nothing except in short bursts. Dropped passes, overthrows, bad playcalling, penalties, so on and so forth marred the BC offense, but because of both the defense and a poor effort by the Irish, they still had a chance to win the game.

I am not into moral victories; they don’t count in the standings, and they shouldn’t count here. As bad as this game looked on paper, when they got down to business, the Eagles could have stolen the win. Neither team played well enough to justify a win, but the game was within reach (though it never really felt that way while watching). Unfortunately, the only thing that matters is that they did not come through, and they’ll have to wait until next time to get their revenge.

We’re almost there, folks. One more to go and we can put this behind us.