Image courtesy of Virginia Tech Athletics 

It was another no good, horrible, bad night in Blacksburg for Boston College on Thursday.

Looking for its first win on the road against Virginia Tech since 2018, BC fell into a 28-0 halftime hole. The Eagles did show plenty of fight and cut it to just seven heading to the fourth quarter, but the hole was too big to dig out of and ultimately, BC had too many turnovers and missed opportunities, allowing the Hokies to pull away for a 42-21 win.

BC’s defense was downright awful, which was alarming coming out of the bye. The Eagles gave up 532 total yards, including 368 rushing with Bayshaul Tuten getting 266 of them.

Tommy Castellanos finished 17/26 with 205 yards and two touchdowns, but he also had two fumbles. Castellanos added 20 carries for 64 yards. Turbo Richard and Kye Robichaux each had nine for 64 and 35 yards respectively. Kye also had a touchdown.

A promising season is now looking like the same old 6-6 or 7-5 movie fans have seen for over a decade now with BC dropping to 4-3 overall and 1-2 in the ACC.

“Give Virginia Tech credit. They did a much better job than we did…I’ve got to do a better job. I’ve gotta coach the team better. I’ve got to get the team to understand what it takes to win,” said Bill O’Brien. “They don’t understand. I have to coach it better. The coaching staff has to do a better job.”

To grasp exactly how wild and frustrating this one was, you’ve got to start from the beginning.

After BC punted on the game’s opening possession, the Eagles defense simply looked like they were playing at a different speed for the first 30 minutes. Virginia Tech smoothly strolled 88 yards in 11 plays to take a 7-0 lead on an 11-yard TD run for Kyron Drones. Moments later on a 3rd-&-1 option run where Castellanos was looking to pitch to Robichaux, he was stripped and the Hokies recovered. A Logan Taylor unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at the end of the play gave V-Tech the ball at the BC 19.

The Hokies converted a 3rd-7 down to the Eagles’ one yard line and a Drones tush push into the end zone made it 14-0 with 3:06 left in the first.

Castellanos quickly bounced back with a 26-yard throw to Jerand Bradley over the middle early on the ensuing drive. Completions to Kamari Morales and Lewis Bond had BC at the Hokies’ 30. A short 3rd-&-1 pickup by Ward allowed the chains to keep moving. Ward ended the first quarter with a run for nine down to the Hokies’ 15 yard line.

A Castellanos scramble out right resulted in a late hit out of bounds, setting up the Eagles with 1st-&-goal at the five. But, BC continued to self sabotage, as Robichaux and Castellanos fumbled an exchange on the very next play and the Hokies recovered. The turnover wasted an 11-play, 70 yard drive.

Two plays later, Bayshaul Tuten took off 83 yards for a long TD run and a 21-0 lead.

“We just didn’t start fast,” said Castellanos. “We turned the ball over twice. We’ve got to reflect and we’ve got to start better…I gotta do a better job taking care of the ball. Those are not on the backs or anybody else. The ball’s in my hands every play, every snap. I gotta do a better job protecting the ball.”

The Eagles quickly went three-and-out and on 4th-&-3 for V-Tech on the ensuing drive, Drone took off for a big run, but Kam Arnold had a fantastic effort to chase him down and strip the ball. Max Tucker recovered for BC’s first big break of the game at the Eagles’ 24.

A 12-yard scramble by Castellanos and a 14-yard run by Turbo Richard quickly had BC back in V-Tech territory. Disaster almost truck again when a pitch to Turbo hit the ground. It was ultimately a killer though as the Eagles never recovered from 2nd-&-14 and had to punt.

The defense answered and finally got a big stop on 3rd-&-2 to force a punt, but it didn’t matter as the offense eventually had to punt yet again. In the final minute and change, the Hokies had plenty of time to put together a drive. It ended with Drones hitting Tuten on a wheel with Owen McGowan in coverage (replacing Arnold) from 20 yards out and a 28-0 hole for BC heading into halftime.

Virginia Tech finished the first half with 332 yards of offense and 188 of those came on the ground.

“We drive the ball, we turn it over. We give up 357 yards rushing. A guy sets the single-game record,” O’Brien said. “Give the O-line for them credit, but yeah…it was a bad night.”

The defense forced a punt to open the third quarter and Turbo ripped off a 30-yard run to the VT 50. Two plays later, Castellanos got 14 yards back on 2nd-&-15 and Morales had a catch and run rumble for 17 yards on third down to the 24 yard line. The Eagles finally got on the board a couple plays later when Castellanos found Ward wide open from 25 yards out and Liam Connor made it 28-7.

Things got really interesting two plays later when Donovan Ezeiruaku pressure forced Drones into a bad throw which turned into an easy interception for Cam Martinez at the Hokies’ 29. The Eagles made it hurt moments later when TC found Jeremiah Franklin from 11 yards out on a beuatiffuly designed play action option play. Suddenly, it was a 28-14 game with 6:07 left in the third.

Stunningly, just one play after the kickoff, BC took over again at the V-Tech 18 after Ezeiruaku chased down Tuten on a chunk run and stripped him with Cam Martinez recovering. A second down sack put BC in a 3rd-&-14 spot. TC was chased down for no gain, but the Hokies were called for defensive holding to give the Eagles an automatic first down. Robichaux punched it in from the five on 3rd-&-3 to make it three touchdowns in 3:53 and a one score game.

In a continuation of what appeared to be an epic collapse in the making, Tuten ripped off an 18-yard run on V-Tech’s next drive, but it was negated by a holding call. Martinez flew off the outside for a sack on the next play and the Hokies soon had to punt in the final minute of the quarter.

The Eagles opened the fourth quarter looking at 3rd-&-6 and Castellanos hit Bond on a slant for the first down. On 3rd-&-4, Castellanos hit Morales who appeared to be short of the line to gain, but he landed on a V-Tech defender and was not down, running up the sideline for (seemingly) a big gain. After review, his shin was actually down and forced a 4th-&-1 at the 50. Robichaux was stuffed with 12:32 to go.

Three plays later, Tuten rumbled in from six yards out to make it a 14-point game again.

“They slanted on the backside and beat our guard,” O’Brien explained when asked about the failed fourth down conversion. “Probably could have had a better play call there. I wanted to run that play. I had to go for it there. It was 4th-&-6 inches, So, I was not going to punt it. The play didn’t work.”

After a false start to start its next drive, Castellanos scrambled for 18 and then hit Reed Harris for 48 yards down the right side to quickly move inside the red zone. An illegal formation penalty on first down quickly threw everything off again. TC missed Jaedn Skeete open in the end zone on 2nd-&-13. A PBU against Bond on a fade in the end zone on third down left BC looking at a 37-yard field goal attempt that never happened because of a high snap and fumble.

“I didn’t think it was a manageable…when it’s 4th-&-4, 4th-&-3…the one at the end was 4th-&-18, I had to go for that. That one (before the missed field goal), I just felt like with the time left in the game, we had to get points,” said O’Brien. “That was the one I think the snap was over the guy’s head…hindsight, I probably should have gone for it.

“You can write that I should have gone for it. My rationale was wrong on that.”

One play later, Tuten put the nail in the coffin with a 61-yard touchdown run.

It’s another short week for the Eagles as Louisville visits on Friday night. That game is now a lot less meaningful than it appeared to be a few weeks ago and most importantly, could result in BC being a .500 team if things don’t get figured out very quickly.

“We can figure it out. It’s not over,” added O’Brien. “The sun will come up tomorrow, but it’ll come up slowly.”