Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 8, 2025 19 Many of them of the boneheaded va- riety. It was the inability to effectively block for junior running back Jeremiyah Love for nearly 50 minutes of game time until he ripped off a 94-yard touch- down that effectively put Boston Col- lege to bed. It was the inability to get off the field on the Eagles' first possession of the second half, which spanned 21 plays for 74 yards and resulted in a field goal that cut Notre Dame's lead to 12-10. Love finished with 17 carries for 136 yards and 2 touchdowns. Good line. But do the math on how much of it was aided that one game-icing sprint. His offen- sive line did him no favors in what his personal box score looked like before it. Boston College challenge Notre Dame by loading the box and the Irish couldn't overcome it. "You learn quickly in the first two series they weren't going to try to let you run the ball," Freeman said. "It was zero coverage or cover one with a low hole guy." Redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr was way more than competent, too, completing 18 of 25 pass attempts for 299 yards with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. He was the reason Notre Dame was ahead since the first score of the game eight seconds into the second quarter. But again, enough else went wrong for Notre Dame to leave the Northeast thinking it has to be so much better the rest of the way in November to keep winning and keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive. "BC came out with some different looks than they had shown on film in previous weeks," Carr said. "I thought we started slow but did a really good job of adjusting to their pressure and zero coverage that they brought every time. We hit some deep ones to loosen them up, and that opened the run game up a little more. But consistently doing your job is something we could get better at." However, if nothing else, the Irish did one thing well all night; Boston Col- lege finished the game with officially 12 rushing yards on 33 carries. Adjust- ing for sacks, that number was 45 yards on 1.7 yards per carry. That still wasn't enough to help out a quarterback pla- toon of Dylan Lonergan, who started and connected on 5 of 8 throws for 29 yards with 1 interception, and his re- placement, Grayson James, who com- pleted 25 of 37 passes for 240 yards with 1 touchdown and 2 picks. "I don't think we were perfect to- night, but I think we were relentless," Notre Dame sophomore linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa said. "The guys never stopped playing hard to dig this win out." Sometimes you take the win and run. Sometimes you take the win and vow to be better. Notre Dame's gotta do the latter to be who it wants to be in the long run. "As you move further in the month of November, everything is magnified and we got to continue to play cleaner and execute at a higher level," Freeman said. FIRST QUARTER NOTRE DAME 0, BOSTON COLLEGE 0 Top Moment: Notre Dame's offense started slow, but an even worse first- quarter performance was avoided when a holding penalty on Boston College cornerback Isaiah Farris wiped out the interception he caught on a pass from redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr. Farris grabbed redshirt sophomore wide receiver KK Smith as he started to break free on a post route. Smith failed to cre- ate much separation, but Carr threw the pass into double coverage and Farris caught it. Feature Performer: Redshirt senior defensive tackle Jared Dawson played a big role in the Irish defense slowing down BC in the first quarter. He con- tributed 1.5 tackles for loss and was also credited with a quarterback hurry on BC's second play of the game. Stats: Notre Dame outgained Boston College by 64 yards (81-17) … The Ea- gles rushed for just 2 yards on 4 carries. Items: The Irish started the game with four consecutive passing plays. Notre Dame punted after 1 completion for 4 yards, 1 defensive pass interference penalty on BC and 2 incomplete passes by Carr … Carr targeted redshirt senior wide receiver Will Pauling 5 times in the first quarter, and he caught 3 passes for 29 yards but dropped a third-down pass. SECOND QUARTER NOTRE DAME 12, BOSTON COLLEGE 7 Top Moment: The Irish broke a scoreless tie on the first play of the sec- ond quarter when Carr connected with redshirt senior wide receiver Malachi Fields for a 40-yard touchdown on fourth-and-6. Both Fields and Pauling converged in the area of Carr's throw with defenders trailing them, but Fields tracked it down near the 10-yard line and finished the play in the end zone. Feature Performer: Carr completed all 7 of his intended passes for 189 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He followed up his touchdown pass to Fields with a 44-yard touchdown pass to Pauling with 1:53 remaining in the quarter. The only time one of Carr's passes hit the ground was on a spike play to stop the clock. Stats: The two teams combined for just 24 rushing yards in the second quarter (16 for Notre Dame and 8 for Boston College) … The Eagles went 4 of 5 on third-down conversions … The Irish averaged 15.8 yards per play. Items: Redshirt freshman safety Tae Johnson intercepted a pass by BC quar- terback Dylan Lonergan … Redshirt ju- nior running back Jadarian Price lost a fumble at BC's 3-yard line … Sopho- more cornerback Leonard Moore al- lowed a touchdown for just the second time this season on a 25-yard pass from quarterback Grayson James to wide re- ceiver Reed Harris. THIRD QUARTER NOTRE DAME 18, BOSTON COLLEGE 10 Top Moment: A seemingly never- ending Boston College drive to open the second half appeared to end with a sack by redshirt junior defensive end Joshua Burnham. But Burnham was flagged for a facemask when tackling James — even though a penalty was not visible on any replays. The questionable call extended BC's drive, which eventually ended with a 25-yard field goal by Luca Lombardo. The drive lasted 11:20 with 21 plays for 74 yards. Feature Performer: Junior running back Jeremiyah Love put the Irish back in the end zone with a 3-yard touch- down run at the end of their only drive of the quarter. Love rushed 5 times for 17 yards, after rushing for just 23 yards in the first half. Stats: BC outgained Notre Dame by just 4 yards (74-70) despite having pos- session for 11:56 of the 15-minute quar-