Everything Boston College Football Head Coach Bill O'Brien Said After Loss to Michigan State

The Boston College football team suffered a 42-40 double-overtime loss to Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich., in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The Eagles were up, 21-14, after the first half but slowed down on offense for the remainder of regulation, and the Spartans fed off the energy at Spartan Stadium to march back into the game.

Here is everything BC head coach Bill O’Brien had to say after the Eagles’ first loss of the season, which brought their record to 1-1.

Q: Talk about the performance from your young quarterback tonight.

O’Brien: Yeah, look, he's a hell of a player, right? We got a lot to build on. We have a lot to fix, but to come out on the road and play, I think, a really good team, play them tough. It hurts to lose like that. Give Michigan State a lot of credit. They're very well-coached. They got a lot of good players, and they did a great job. They, you know, they played a little bit better than us, but we have a lot to build on. You know, we got a lot of things that are positive, and then we got to really clean up the negative things. But a lot to build on.

Q: Just more on Dylan [Lonergan] at the line of scrimmage tonight. He seemed like he was really in control. What did you think of his overall poise, especially, you know, making play calls and checks at the line?

O’Brien: Yeah, he's, you know, he's a smart guy. He's got a lot of experience in the system that we run. It's very similar to what we ran at Alabama, so he understands it, and he's got a lot of poise. Thought the offensive line pass protected very well. I still think we got, we got ways to go to be able to run the football again. Give Michigan State a lot of credit. They've got a really good run defense.

But I think, you know, we're on the right track. Lot of things, like I said, we have to fix. I thought defensively, we played hard, but gave up the cutback runs too much. Couldn't contain the quarterback. The guy's a great player and so lot to build on, though, you know, it's not, it's never good to lose. We don't accept losing at Boston College, but there's a lot of positives that came out of this game.

Q: Just wondering what you think went wrong with containing [Michigan state quarterback Aidan Chiles]? It seemed like his movement and ability to escape and get outside the pocket really hurt you guys.

O’Brien: Yeah, um, definitely. Great player. I'm not sure. Gotta watch the tape. Seems like we were there. Sometimes we missed them, had them wrapped up, missed some tackles. Other times the rush landings weren't as good as they needed to be. I’ll have to watch the tape and figure it out.

Q: An incredible college football game. If you just walk us through that first overtime when you tied the game, did you think at all going for two points?

O’Brien: I did. I did. But I knew that in the second overtime, you know, we could also, we were going to go for two there too. But I thought about it, but decided that it was good to just kick the extra point and go to the second overtime.

Q: Just talk about the offensive line play. Until the very end, Dylan had a lot of time to make a lot of progressions. I think their effort might have been overlooked a little bit.

O’Brien: They did. They pass protected very well. I don't think there's any doubt about that. They did a great job of pass protection. I thought the backs helped and blitz pick up when, when Michigan State blitzed, but I still think we need to run the ball better. I'm not blaming the offensive line for that. I'm just saying overall, we have to, we have to be able to still run the ball better. We're not gonna be able to throw the ball. You know, 55 times, whatever we did, 55, 60 times a game. I don't think that's a recipe for winning, so we got to figure it out. But yeah, they definitely, you know, kept them clean for most of the night.

Q: I know you still want to run the ball better, but what can you say about Turbo [Richard’s] effort to bounce back after the early fumble?

O’Brien: He did, he did a good job. He ran the ball hard. He’s a tough player. He caught the ball out of the backfield. I thought Jordan [McDonald] had a couple of decent runs. So, yeah, it was good. It was good to see those guys, you know, make some plays.

Q: Just being able to take Michigan State to double overtime, technically, and in a primetime environment, obviously it’s a loss, but are you coming away from East Lansing with a lot of positives?

O’Brien: Yeah, that's what I said. Yeah. I mean, I've said that now five times. Yeah, we're definitely there's a lot of positives, a lot of things to build on. I mean, I've said it now, I've answered the same question five times. There's a lot to build on. There's a lot to fix. We haven't played in the ACC yet. We got our first ACC game next week, but a lot to build on. No doubt about a lot of positives. It's not great to lose. That's not what I'm saying, but I do think there's a lot to build on.

Q: Just take a moment to talk about special teams. Obviously, there were some issues on coverage throughout the game, so just talk a little bit about special teams and how you saw that tonight.

O’Brien: Yeah, kickoff coverage was not very good. That's why we sky kicked it. Give them a lot of credit. They did a great job. We had the guy tackled a couple times, missed tackles, let the guy break free, avoided the wrong way. We got to go back to work. That's kind of what I'm saying. You know, a lot of positives, but then the negatives are why we lost the game. They did a better job of having more positive plays than we did. We had a lot of positive plays, but they had more. And in a game like that, that's why you lose or you win. And so yeah, the coverage, especially kickoff coverage, really hurt us tonight.