Playing good defense on nine out of every 10 plays just isn’t enough. That one play is all it takes to kill a team. And it did on Saturday night.
Louisville was beating Boston College football 21–10 as the game headed into halftime, but not due to consistently moving the chains, or a steady offensive pace. Instead, it was just a few explosive plays that had come to define the game.
The Eagles (1–7, 0–5) ultimately couldn’t come back from those big plays. And despite a strong showing against a ranked team, BC ultimately fell 38–24 to No. 19 Louisville (6–1, 3–1) on the road, extending its losing streak to seven games.
Louisville’s first big moment came on the very first play of its first offensive drive, as Isaiah Brown got the handoff and ran for 73 yards before KP Price finally dragged him down on the 2-yard line. The damage was done, and Louisville scored two plays later to go up 7–3.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been in a game where I’ve seen that many long runs,” BC head coach Bill O’Brien said.
BC responded with a touchdown to regain the lead, as Grayson James faked a handoff and flicked the ball to a wide-open Lewis Bond in the back of the endzone. The Eagles’ defense forced Louisville into two punts right after that.
It wasn’t long before another momentary lapse in BC’s defense ruined all of the Eagles’ positive momentum, though, as quarterback Miller Moss shipped the ball to Keyjuan Brown for a 38-yard gain. That moved the Cardinals to BC’s 11-yard line, setting them up for another touchdown.
The next time Louisville’s offense got on the field, it needed just one play to find its way back into the endzone. This time, I. Brown ran 62 yards for a touchdown, giving the Cardinals a 21–10 lead.
The second half was much less clear-cut. The teams combined for six turnovers, as Grayson James threw two picks, Moss threw one, and both teams fumbled three times. It was messy and unpredictable.
“You got to score,” O’Brien said. “Especially with our defense. You better score.”
One thing stayed the same—the key, explosive plays remained the deciding factor.
First, it was BC’s turn at one. After I. Brown fumbled, James slung it to freshman Kaelen Chudzinski for a 23-yard touchdown, cutting the lead to four at 21–17. O’Brien said after the game that James was playing injured.
“I would feel sick to my stomach if I didn’t leave it all out there,” James said. “Whether pain, injury, that’s part of the game. You just gotta be able to fight through that and give it your all.”
Even after throwing a couple of interceptions, the redshirt senior quarterback’s confidence never seemed to waver. He fired the ball right into the chest of Jeremiah Franklin on 4th-and-10 with the game on the line, then delivered a 14-yard pass to Reed Harris.
“Got all the respect in the world for that guy,” O’Brien said. “He’s not a kid—he’s a grown man. And he did a hell of a job.”
A 21-yard touchdown completion to Franklin finished off the drive, which made it a one-score game, 31–24 Louisville.
“We’re a team just full of resilience,” James said. “Our record is what it is—you know, our record doesn’t reflect our effort. We’re going to continuously go out there, keep fighting, putting it all out there.”
At the end of the game, it was explosive plays that decided the final score. And Louisville just made more of them.
Brown ran it for a 67-yard touchdown to seal the game, stretching the lead to 14 and extinguishing any hopes of a BC win.
