CHESTNUT HILL – It took until the week before Thanksgiving, but BC finally has its best game of the season.

The Eagles dominated UNC from start to finish on a chilly Saturday afternoon at Alumni Stadium, blowing out the Tar Heels 41-21.

With the win, BC is officially bowl-eligible at 6-5 with one game left at home against Pitt next week. The Eagles out-gained UNC 420-212 and held the ball for 37:48 to North Carolina’s 22:12.

This was a game BC really couldn’t lose. That’s because Saturday was the 40th anniversary of some throw down in Miami by a guy named Doug Flutie. That 1984 team as well as the 1994 team were recognized during the game.

“When you have the ’84 team here…they were 10-2, ranked fifth in the country, Hesiman Trophy winner in the house, you’ve got to play well,” said Bill O’Brien. “It’s kind of in the same vain a little bit as the Red Bandanna Game. You gotta play well in these games. There’s a lot of tradition here at Boston College and for those guys to be here meant a lot to our program.

“It was important for us to go out there and win.”

BC received the opening kickoff, took over at the 20 and proceeded to chew up 6:20 in 13 plays. BC appeared to go up 6-0 on a swing pass to a wide open Kye Robichaux (23 carries/93 yards/1 TD), but a Reed Harris PI call negated it. Backed up into 2nd-&-26, the Eagles ultimately settled for a surprising 49-yard field goal from Liam Connor – just the third attempt all season for BC, making it 3-0.

The Eagles forced a punt after just five UNC play. Meanwhile, James (18-27/192/1 TD) led another lengthy 13-play march, spanning 66 yards over 6:58 and capped it with a three-yard TD run early in the second to make it 10-0. BC out-gained the Tar Heels 90-14 in the first 15 minutes, running 22 plays to UNC’s five. The Eagles held the ball for 11:54 to the Tar Heels’ 3:06 of possession time.

After giving up a 25-yard gain on 3rd-&-27, the BC defense found a way to get a turnover on downs at the Eagles’ 41. Three plays later, BC made it 17-0 (thanks to a James scramble and a penalty) with a 24-yard TD run for Johnathan Montague after Treshaun Ward gave him the ball. The  momentum was short lived though, as UNC ran back the ensuing kick off 95-yards for a score cutting it back to 10.

After trading punts, BC turned the ball over on downs at its own 43 with two minutes left in the half. The Eagles quickly got it back though, as Joe Marinaro came up with an interception on a pass over the middle, bringing it back to the UNC 32. Three plays later, James found Harris on a jump ball to the back right pylon for an 18-yard TD and a 24-7 lead.

UNC had a chance at a Hail Mary to end the half, but it was picked off in the end zone by Carter Davis.

“We know every week (complementary football) is going to be important,” said Marinaro. “That goes down to special teams and defense. I think that drive is a perfect example of complementary football. We got the stop and we were able to get some more points on the board and get a bigger lead going into halftime.

“It’s really important because we’ve had these leads throughout the season and we need to keep building those leads, make them insurmountable leads. Just keep our foot on the gas. That’s something we know we’ve needed to improve on this year and I think we did a really good job of that today.”

It was truly the best half of the year for the Eagles. BC out-gained UNC 240-77, had 15 first downs to UNC’s five and held the ball for 20:33. The Eagles also had 116 yards rushing to -3 for the Tar Heels.

“We know we have a great team, we’ve got a lot of talent and we’ve got a lot of tough guys. At the end of the day, we just knew we had to get the job done,” said Drew Kendall. “I wouldn’t say there was a lot of pressure per say to get the win this week, it was more just we need to go show what we can do.

“We feel like we’ve left a couple weeks out there on the table and we just had to go out there and execute for a full 60 minutes and that’s what we did.”

Momentum carried into the second half as a Ryan Turner sack on third down forced a quick UNC punt. Isaiah Farris took it back 52 yards, putting BC at the 15. The offense sputtered, but Connor hit his second field goal of the day from 27-yards out, pushing it to 27-7.

After forcing another punt, BC had the chance for a true put-away drive, marching from the Eagles’ four down inside the UNC 10 on another long, clock-killing drive. But, a turnover on downs sent the teams to the fourth with BC still up by 20.

Kye Robichaux fumbled at midfield to open the final quarter with UNC recovering. That didn’t hurt though, as a few plays later Turner came up with a 78-yard pick-six thanks to pressure from Neto Okpala, making it 34-7 with a little over 12 minutes left. For good measure, Robichaux added an eight-yard TD run on a direct snap in the final six minutes to push it to 41-7.

UNC added a couple of garbage time TD’s but the dominant display from BC was already well in-hand.

“I don’t think anything can replace experience. I feel like I’ve gotten better every game I’ve played in and every practice as well,” James added. “I know I’m comfortable with the guys out there and they’re comfortable with me.”

That comfortability suddenly has the Eagles looking like the team we all thought they might be.