AP PHOTO

CHESTNUT HILL- The Boston College football team had a tough week this week. 32 players dealt with flu like symptoms and ten of them were out today as a result. The team did not practice on Wednesday and Thursday. Instead, they did walkthroughs. Well, it showed as the Eagles lost 41-10 to Wake Forest.

The Demon Deacons jumped out to an 14-0 lead and never Em route to a blow out win. The Eagles hung around early and were able to keep close trailing 17-10 in the second quarter.

Unfortunately, a blindside block penalty on quarterback Phil Jurkovec negated a 73 yard touchdown run by Zay Flowers on a reverse. The defense then gave up a touchdown right before the half to give Wake Forest a 24-10 lead at the break. It was as close as the Eagles would get as Wake Forest outscored the Eagles 17-0 in the second half.

The Eagles struggled offensively in particular Jurkovec who went 3 for 11 for 19 yards and a touchdown pass. He threw two interceptions as well. The Eagles offense had seven three and outs. The average starting field position for Wake Forest was their 46 yard line. The defense did the best to keep the Eagles in the game but the offense did not do their part.

After the game, Eagles Head Coach Jeff Hafley expressed his frustration with the team’s offensive performance.

“There were too many three and outs and we were going up against one of the best offenses, probably the best offense in the ACC,” said Hafley. “The plan to win was to limit their possessions and you don’t just do that with good defense.

Hafley added-“You do that with good offense and playing good on special teams.”

When asked if the flu outbreak affected his team’s performance offensively, Hafley didn’t make excuses.

“I wouldn’t say it affected the game plan, I think it affected the execution of the game plan because we didn’t have a real practice on Wednesday or Thursday.”

The defense played well enough to keep the Eagles in the game early but they wore down in the second half and it showed. Wake Forest played at a fast pace and their ability to effectively run the ball and hit their RPO’s off the run game proved to be too much for a defense that had exceeded expectations this season. It didn’t help that Wake had great field position to start the majority of their drives.

With the loss, the Eagles drop to 6-6 overall and 2-6 in the ACC. It is their worst conference record since 2016. Now they await to see what bowl game they will end up in. The expectation is they will play in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl against an American Athletic Conference opponent.

Either way, it is a disappointing finish to a season that started out with so much promise but ended up being a disappointment.