By Jed McClellan
BYU football planned to return to its winning traditions of seasons past. But on Saturday, unfortunately, they made a return to their more recent past when Boston College defeated the Cougars 20-3.
?We?re very happy to escape here with a victory,? Boston College head coach Tom O?Brien said. ?This is a very difficult place to come and play ? especially to think you can hold BYU to three points. That offense, I think, they?re going to be pretty good down the road once they figure out what they?re doing. They look like they have good enough players, . Tthey?re tough, but you?ve got to give our kids a lot of credit.?
BYU?s Junior quarterback John Beck completed a career-high 41 passes and had 330 yards passing and completed passes to nine different receivers. Behind Beck, the Cougars were able to move the ball into Eagles territory seven different times and picked up 22 first downs, but they struggled to move it on third downs and couldn?t get in the end zone.
?We lost because didn?t do well on third downs and we didn?t do well in the blue zone,? Beck said. ?In practice we?ve done well on third downs. That?s what we do best. Today we didn?t perform well in that area. Teams that do well on third down and in the blue zone are the most successful.?
While BYU struggled, Boston College was able to do what they do best: running the ball and executing the play-action pass after establishing the run. The Eagles had 133 yards rushing led by L.V. Whitworth with 87 yards. Both of BC?s touchdowns came on play-action passes from quarterback Quinton Porter to tight end Chris Miller.
?Boston College is a solid football team,? BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. ?Exactly what we saw on film in preparation is how they played today. They run the ball effectively, play-action pass effectively and they?re hard to score points on.?
The Cougar defense started off strong and forced the Eagles to punt on their first possession. On the Eagles next possession they went on a 10-play, 80-yard drive to score their first touchdown with 30 seconds left in the first quarter.
?There were a few key coverage mistakes,? junior linebacker Cameron Jensen said. ?We didn?t execute; that?s what it comes down to.?
On Boston College?s first drive of the second half the BYU defense forced them into a punting situation.
The Cougar special teams penetrated the Eagles? offense, with Bryan Kehl blocking the punt. BYU then took over on the Eagle 25 but was unable to move the ball and settled for a field goal after gaining only eight yard on three plays.
While BYU showed flashes of potential on both sides of the ball, the lack of consistent execution cost them the game. The team is not making excuses for how they played or the mistakes they made, but they are ready to go to work to eliminate those mistakes.
?We?re not going to settle for how we played tonight, nobody is,? junior running back Curtis Brown said. ?We?re going to go out Monday and we?re going to work hard. Now we see how good we are, and we have our starting point. Our destination is still the Mountain West Conference Championship and a bowl game.?