Wake Forest 28, BC 14: Eagles Clinch Consecutive Losing Seasons

It may keep getting worse before it gets better.

On Saturday afternoon in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the Boston College Eagles fell to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, 28-14. The loss drops the Eagles to 2-7, officially eliminating them from bowl contention for the second consecutive season with just three games left to play.

To open the game, it was all Wake Forest, who jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on two touchdown passes from Tanner Price to Michael Campanaro. Late in the second, Boston College answered with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Chase Rettig to Alex Amidon. The problem is that the Eagles did what they normally do: allow points before the half. Rettig fumbled deep in BC territory, and Wake cashed in for a 21-7 lead with less than a minute to go in the second quarter.

Boston College opened the second half with a chance, going 67 yards in less than a minute on their second drive of the third quarter to score a touchdown on a trick play (Bobby Swigert touchdown pass to Chris Pantale). They appeared to have gained some further momentum after an interception of Tanner Price, but that was forfeited after a rare field goal miss by Nate Freese.

The Demon Deacons then took the resulting possession 74 yards for a touchdown, and that was a 28-14 lead that Wake would not relinquish. Neither team scored in the fourth quarter.

After finally giving up fewer than 400 yards against an FBS team last week against Maryland, the Eagles allowed 409 to the Demon Deacons. The most damning statistic, however, was Wake going 13-for-22 on third down conversions, with 13 tying the school record in a single game. Wake Forest’s offense held the ball for almost 35 minutes.

Boston College lost in part because they were -3 in turnovers, with BC losing four and gaining just one. Chase Rettig was on the hook for all of them (three interceptions, one fumble), as the quarterback is now up to 8 interceptions on the season.

The Eagles’ offense continued to struggle on third downs, going just 4-for-12 and rushing for only a total of 12 yards. Andre Williams was injured during the game, but despite having no veteran running backs remaining, Frank Spaziani refused to play the player he insisted was not in the doghouse, Rolandan Finch.

As in weeks past this season, BC remained largely unable to make tackles and could not establish any sort of rhythm. This game should have been a toss-up, but when one boils away everything else, Jim Grobe’s team was ready to play and Frank Spaziani’s was not. The Eagles had more than enough opportunities to make a real contest out of it, but whenever Boston College was in position to change the game, they made a mistake. That is why the Eagles are 2-7, because as the saying goes, bad teams find ways to lose.  After halftime, outside of a brief time in the third quarter, it never truly felt like the Eagles were in the game.

Now that the 2012 season is officially shot, there should be no more pretense about keeping Spaziani as coach and then making a “full evaluation” later. The results are in, and this team is not good.

All Boston College has left to play for is pride, and they’ll get a chance to score some next week at home against Notre Dame.