Five Takeaways From Saturday's Loss to Notre Dame

A look at some of the key takeaways from Saturday's loss to the Irish

Boston College lost to Notre Dame 45-31 on Saturday. Here are five takeaways from the loss. 

1. Mistakes continue to be the achilles heel of this team

Against Clemson it was the penalties, but against Notre Dame it was the turnovers. The Eagles had two big ones (bad snap, and interception by Jurkovec). Those two plays alone accounted for the difference in score. Head coach Jeff Hafley has said it himself, against elite teams BC has to play near flawless football, and they didn't on Saturday night. 

2. The defense needs some fire power

This isn't meant to be a knock on any particular player on the defense, but the group lacks a "star". All good defenses has that one player that can turn the tides of the game with consistent or extraordinary play. Look at BC's history and you can see countless examples, including Luke Kuechly, Harold Landry and Mark Herzlich. We don't see that with this team. The defense is filled with players who do their job, and do it well, players like Max Richardson and Isaiah McDuffie, but there is no one in the group that can take over a game. For this defense to take that jump from average to good, they are going to need to find that player, whether he is on the roster already or through recruiting/transfers. 

3. Jurkovec's injury clearly impacted the effectiveness of the offense

After the game on Saturday, Hafley announced that Jurkovec had separated his shoulder against Clemson and had been playing through the injury. As we mentioned earlier, this helped put his play in context because he was underthrowing and missing targets that he normally would hit. The coaching staff has their reasons for keeping him in and not going with Dennis Grosel, but Jurkovec's difficulty getting the ball down field clearly hampered the team's offense. 

4. Hafley is playing to win

There are no moral victories with this head coach. Yes, Boston College lost to Clemson/Notre Dame by a combined 20 points, down from 85 points last year. But Jeff Hafley wants these wins. We have seen how aggressive he can be with play calling, especially on special teams. Whether it is a fake field goal, or onside kick early in the game, he is playing to win. Sooner or later Hafley is going to have more of his gameplan click and knock off one of these teams. 

5. Run game continues to grow

Hafley continues to preach that the run game is coming along, and Saturday was a shining example of it. Though they only ran it 16 times with their running backs, the Eagles picked up 96 yards on the ground over 6 yards per carry. The Eagles abandoned the run when they fell behind, but you can see that it's coming along and could help the offense stay more balanced in the final two games of the season. 

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