Four things BC football needs to address to get the season back on track

In late September, Boston College football found itself sitting at 4-1, fresh off two comeback wins and hoping to contend in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

A month-plus later, the Eagles are 4-4, 1-3 in the ACC, and in danger of crumbling entirely.

To say that October was unkind to BC would be an understatement. Road losses to Virginia and Virginia Tech exposed the Eagles’ weaknesses. A collapse against Louisville — in which they blew a 20-0 lead — has them in danger of losing everything they built.

The Eagles, who host Syracuse Nov. 9 following this bye week, still have a chance to become bowl-eligible. To do so, they’ll need to break bad some habits.

“Extra preparation is always great, for whoever you’re preparing for,” quarterback Thomas Castellanos said. “It’ll be good to reflect and learn, continue to learn, and hit the ground up and running. This is past us now.”

Here are four things that need to happen for BC to salvage its season.

1. It starts at the end.

A starting point is improving how they finish games.

Through five games, BC outscored its opponents, 35-6, in the fourth quarter. In the three games since, opponents have outscored BC, 46-0. Yes, 46-0.

“It’s the same thing occurring over and over again,” Castellanos said. “We’ve got to find a way to finish.”

Virginia outscored BC, 18-0, to flip the trajectory. Virginia Tech squashed a BC comeback attempt with a 14-0 fourth quarter. Then Louisville, which trailed, 27-10, midway through the third, scored 14 in the fourth to steal one at Alumni Stadium.

“We start out really hot,” nickel back Cameron Martinez said. “I think we can beat anybody in the country, too. We’ve just got to put that together for four quarters.”

2. Why is it happening?

Against the Cavaliers and Hokies, turnovers burned the Eagles at critical moments.

Last Friday against the Cardinals, BC took care of the ball but showed no consistency moving it downfield in the fourth. The Eagles went three-and-out on their first three drives of the quarter. They gave a powerful Louisville offense life over and over again.

“I think we struggle to find our identity in the second half,” Martinez said.

Let’s take a look at the play distribution on those drives. The first one featured two straight rushes, then Castellanos was sacked for a loss of 7. On the next, after a Louisville touchdown, Castellanos scampered to make it second and 2, then a rush for no gain and an incompletion forced another punt.

That yielded another Louisville score, giving the Cardinals the lead with 7:12 left, setting up a BC drive with three straight rushes. BC threw the ball only once over nine plays.

“I don’t think it was really what they did,” Castellanos said. “I think it was more us. We started fast. We just couldn’t sustain it for 60 minutes.”

3. They need to improve on special teams.

Each of those three-and-outs led to a punt. The first one from Ivan Zivenko went 24 yards and sailed out of bounds at the BC 42. His next punt was slightly better at 30 yards and also went out of bounds.

The final boot, from Sam Candotti, was a respectable 45 yards, but at that point the damage was done.

The Eagles are last in the ACC in yards per punt at 37.1. They’ve tried Zivenko, Candotti, Sam Stone, and Liam Connor, but all four have averaged 38 yards or fewer. The Eagles allocated significant time to punting at practice, but that didn’t pay dividends in the game.

“We’ve got to punt better,” coach Bill O’Brien said. “I don’t know. We’re not coaching it good enough.”

BC has attempted only one field goal this season. No other team in the conference has attempted fewer than 11. Connor missed an extra point that proved to be costly. The Eagles are last in extra-point percentage at 93.3, second-to-last in yards per kickoff at 60.7, and last in yards per return on kickoffs at 14.7.

4. They have to stop the run and pass at the same time.

BC has successfully defended the run and successfully defended the pass at times in recent weeks, but it’s had trouble doing both in the same game.

Virginia Tech was relatively quiet through the air, but racked up a whopping 368 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. Louisville was relatively quiet on the ground, but racked up 332 yards and two scores in the air.

The Eagles miss cornerback Amari Jackson, who’s out of the year with a torn ACL, and linebacker Kam Arnold, who was in a sling last Monday and may or may not return this season.

After a strong start through a quarter and a half, BC allowed Louisville to score on five of six possessions.

Syracuse boasts the No. 2 passing attack in the ACC and SMU (the following opponent) has the No. 1 rushing attack. Regaining momentum for the Eagles starts with taking each opponent out of what it does best.

“Just pump the brakes a little bit,” Martinez said. “Just try to figure out how we can play team ball. I think that’s what it comes down to.”