Week 8 in the ACC: Recap + BC reaction

I barely touched a computer for the entirety of Saturday, so I will get right to the chase with my evaluations of the other ACC games and BC's performance at Notre Dame.  Make no mistake, yesterday was a bad day for BC football.

First, we had Notre Dame beating BC, 20-16.  In their first win against BC since 2000, they came up with 5 turnovers which utterly destroyed the Eagles.  The two goats in that regard were Montel Harris (last week's hero) and Dave Shinskie (who also put a few passes right on the money, along with missing wide-open receivers by a lot).  BC could have, and probably should have, beaten Notre Dame yesterday.  This was the first time this year that I had watched an Irish game from start to finish, and I was not impressed.  They were +5 in the turnover margin and could only squeak out a four-point win.  BC and ND's offensive yardage were virtually even and I was hardly gushing over Clausen, though he did hit a lot of the receivers Shinskie couldn't.  Ultimately, Notre Dame sealed the deal and BC couldn't, so there's that.

I loved the flea flicker on the first offensive play of the game for BC (even though it wasn't executed correctly) and I must give a lot of credit to Larmond and Gunnell for hauling in some good catches on the day.

The most damaging game to BC's interests was not even their own game, however.  Clemson shocked Miami in OT, 40-37.  I honestly did not see this one coming as I thought the Hurricanes were just a better team.  That is evidently not the case now, and Clemson -- not BC -- controls their own fate in the ACC Atlantic.  The situation is this: BC and Clemson are 3-2, but Clemson has tie tiebreaker, so over their last three games, BC has to play one game better than the Tigers.  This is a difficult, but not impossible, task.  I'd say realistically that BC has to win out in conference play to give themselves a chance.

In other news, the Tar Heels blew an 18-point lead as Florida State beat North Carolina 30-27.  It's hard for me to believe that yes, at one point, North Carolina was ranked.  Florida State still has pretty much no chance to contend for the division but at least they finally got an ACC win.  Georgia Tech pounded Virginia 34-9.  This should, and probably does, come as a surprise to nobody.  Duke escaped from Maryland, 17-13.  The box score sure doesn't look pretty, but believe it or not, the Dookies have a 2-1 conference record so far.  Finally, Navy beat Wake Forest, 13-10, on homecoming weekend in a rematch of the 2008 EagleBank Bowl, which Wake won.  The Midshipmen are 6-2 and another bowl is in the cards for this team.