“We have to go back and we have to figure it out,” O’Brien said. “We’re not a very good football team right now. Hopefully we can get better and we can work hard to improve during the bye week.”
Here are five things we learned:
The Eagles are 7-1 at home and 1-7 on the road or at a neutral site since O’Brien took over.
Most teams have a better home record than away, but the gap between BC’s totals is alarming.
Boston College made a splash against Florida State in O’Brien’s debut last year in Week 1. Since then, the Eagles have lost to Missouri, Virginia, Virginia Tech, SMU, Nebraska, Michigan State, and Stanford away from home.
Wide receiver Reed Harris said O’Brien tells the team before every road trip that it’s a business trip, not a field trip, and that everyone has to “keep their mind in the right space.”
“Looking back on these last 24 hours, I think it’s noticeable that some guys weren’t as locked in as they needed to be,” Harris said. “That translates to the game. That definitely translates.”
O’Brien said he thought BC’s players handled the flight and late start well; it simply boiled down to poor execution.
Linebacker Owen McGowan acknowledged that the Eagles have to play better on the road.
“We need to bring energy, even though we don’t have our fans with us,” McGowan said.
The positive news for BC is that three of its next four and six of its final nine regular-season games are at home.
Turning the ball over in any capacity is never ideal, but some turnovers shape the outcome of a game more than others.
BC’s three turnovers all proved costly against the Cardinal, as Stanford scored a touchdown off each one. A bad snap that sailed right shifted the momentum, quarterback Dylan Lonergan’s first interception yielded a pick-six, and running back Turbo Richard’s goal-line fumble permanently changed the trajectory of the game.
Lonergan was still sharp overall, but there were a few other ill-advised throws the Cardinal almost intercepted as well. Richard, who has fumbled at the goal line in back-to-back games, needs to use better judgment.
“Just really some bad football,” O’Brien said. “That’s coaching. We have a good coaching staff. I believe in the coaching staff. We did not do a good job tonight, and we have to do a much better job coaching.”
There’s talent on the roster, and Lonergan is still one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC, but the Eagles have an unhealthy tendency to beat themselves when it matters most.
Harris, a 6-foot-5-inch, 217-pound redshirt sophomore originally from Montana, pieced together his best game yet with BC.
He had seven catches for 141 yards, including a highlight-reel 46-yard grab on a perfectly placed ball from Lonergan. Harris provides a deep threat, has elite hands, and knows how to use his size to his advantage.
“It was obviously a great night on my behalf,” Harris said. “There were plays that I still left out there on the field. At the end of the day, a loss is a loss.”
Defensive backs Syair Torrence, Amari Jackson, and Ashton McShane were ruled out prior to the game, which made a typically deep BC secondary much thinner than usual.
That, coupled with poor tackling that has defined the season so far, led to a string of unexpected chunk plays from a previously anemic Stanford offense.
Offensive lineman Jude Bowry and linebacker Daveon Crouch both exited in the second half with lower-body injuries.
The bye week comes at an ideal time as BC has to get back to playing fundamentally sound football and get healthy.
Most seasons face at least one critical turning point, and BC’s first crossroads comes much earlier than expected.
While it looks bleak at the moment, it was just one game, and the Eagles do return home against California after the bye week.
O’Brien said he asked the players afterward who wants “to be here” and who doesn’t. It’s time to regroup and produce a better brand of football, he said.
“We just keep fighting,” O’Brien said. “It’s the only choice we have.”