by Jennifer Currier 11/12/12
Boston College was looking for an ACC upset over Louisville on Saturday night.
The Eagles had some of theodds in their favor as they came off back-to-back road wins against Wake Forest and Virginia Tech. They also upset USC in September, a victory this scrappy team is using as motivation to enter the best bowl game possible.
While Louisville was on a bye last week, they suffered a tough loss themselves, falling 42-31 to Florida State after blowing a 21-0 lead.
With the odds split on which of these bowl-eligible teams would take home the victory, it was anyone’s game. That is, of course, until BC quarterback Tyler Murphy opened the first play of the game with an interception.
Cardinals’ sophomore Gerod Holliman picked off the pass, setting a personal record for most interceptions in a season.
This pick didn’t rattle the Eagles’ offense enough to keep them from taking an early lead. The first half was a back-and-forth battle as BC put the first touchdown on the board and held Louisville to a field goal until late in the second quarter. However, this lead only lasted until Louisville’s star wide receiver DeVante Parker caught a 29-yard TD pass over two defenders.
“Honestly, I felt that we had great momentum at one point in that game,” Coach Steve Addazio said after the game. “I felt terrific about it.”
“Somewhere in the mid to late second quarter, we started to stumble a little bit, but I said to myself, ‘We’re going to be okay. We’ll get to halftime with the lead and we’re going to be in great shape here,’” he added.
But the Eagles were anything but “in great shape” after the half. The team’s offense fell apart and watched Louisville pull farther and farther away.
The Cardinals walked away the 38-19 win.
Murphy took responsibility for BC’s offensive struggles, as he went on to throw three more interceptions after the game’s opening play. He completed 7-15 and was sacked twice.
“You’re supposed to take care of the ball,” Murphy said. “That’s something I didn’t do today, and it was costly. It led to a lot of points and good field position, and that’s something I have to go back to the tape and figure out what I did wrong.”
Though unsure of exactly what went wrong, Coach Addazio also had some positive takeaways from the loss.
“Our whole staff felt like our guys were so ready to play this game,” he said. “We had great preparation during the week, but even the walk-throughs we had today really felt like our guys had locked in.”
The Eagles are on a bye week, but will need to regain focus again as they take on second-ranked Florida State on November 22.
Addazio already knows what his team will be doing to prepare.
“This is the time to rest your football team, look at the tape, learn from what you did, and that’s the plan.”