Boston College Loses Heartbreaker After False Start Against Northwestern

With seven minutes remaining in today's game at Alumni Stadium, the Boston College football team was losing to Northwestern 24-10.

The student section had gotten very quiet, but then, with six minutes left in the game Andre Williams scored to put the Eagles down 24-17. Hope arose for Boston College fans and winning seemed like a realistic possibility.

After stopping Northwestern two more times, BC got the ball back with 1:23 remaining in the game. Chase Rettig, BC's sophomore quarterback led the Eagles down to the Northwestern 19 yard line with 18 seconds left in the game.

It is safe to say that the entire stadium was pumped and ready for a comeback touchdown to go into overtime, but victory was not in store for Boston College today.

Once the clock started up again, there must have been miscommunication on the snap count because Mark Spinney, BC's senior center, caused a false start on the line. Because there was less than a minute to go in the game, the 10 second runoff rule was put into effect and suddenly BC was on the 24 yard line with only four seconds left in the game.

Time for just one play to win the game.

Rettig took the snap and rolled out to the right and it looked as if he had a chance to hit somebody in the endzone, but the inexperienced sophomore waited too long and was sacked from behind, ending the game.

BC may have lost their first game since 2003, but they do have some things to be happy about.

First, Chase Rettig may not have had a touchdown in today's game, but he did show off his arm. The sophomore threw for 350 yards with one interception and if the play calling that the Eagles had in the fourth quarter can be utilized the rest of the season, BC fans can look forward to a decent year.

Junior linebacker Luke Kuechly had 19 tackles for BC today, which included two for a loss as well as an interception. He and fellow linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis looked explosive and strong on the defensive end today. Hopefully, they can continue their strong play going forward.

The Eagles missed their star running back Montel Harris today though, but his replacement Andre Williams did have a 69 yard run to start the game. After the long run, he was limited to two yards per rush for the remainder of the game. BC needs Harris to return next Saturday against UCF, so they can utilize his speed and versatility.

Boston College is lucky that Northwestern's Heisman candidate, Dan Persa, wasn't playing today but that still wasn't enough for the Eagles. If BC wants to win going forward, they need to find Rettig and his receivers more on first and second down to avoid the high amount of third and longs that they experienced today. 

On a closing note, congratulations to Michael Tibbetts for a great first game on the BC cheerleading team. Thumbs up buddy!