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What they’re saying about Notre Dame’s 25-10 win over Boston College

Singer headshotby: Mike Singer11/02/25MikeTSinger

It wasn’t pretty, but Notre Dame escaped Chestnut Hill, Mass. with a 25-10 victory over the Boston College Eagles. It was dicey in the second half until Jeremiyah Love‘s 94-yard touchdown run gave the Irish a comfortable lead.

In this article, we’ll take a look around at what the media is saying about the Fighting Irish’s win against the Eagles, including Blue & Gold’s Mike Singer, Eric Hansen and Tyler James giving their instant reaction to the game in a YouTube live show. You can watch the replay of the show in the video player above.

Tyler Horka, Blue & Gold: How ‘relentless’ Notre Dame pass rush excelled in otherwise sloppy win at Boston College

In the second half of a game that was still only decided by one score — bear in mind Notre Dame was around a 30-point favorite in it — the Fighting Irish needed something to go well defensively to make up for the points the ND offense was leaving on the field and off the scoreboard.

They unearthed it in the form of a debilitating pass rush and containment of the quarterback that sure made Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman proud.

Nine quarterback hurries. Five sacks. A whole lot of pressure on Boston College quarterback Grayson James that even he, a gifted athlete known to get loose with his legs, couldn’t overcome. James was credited with seven rushing attempts that weren’t sacks. The longest of those runs went for 4 yards. That was it.

When he wasn’t being dragged down behind the line of scrimmage, James wasn’t advancing too far beyond it as a runner. That was a major point of emphasis from Freeman going into the matchup, even with the Irish knowing it would be Dylan Lonergan who started.

Notre Dame still had to be ready for James. And it was.

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Jack Soble, Blue & Gold: For Notre Dame, kicking problem becomes kicking crisis

As time ran down in the first half, Boston College head coach Bill O’Brien told Notre Dame — to its face — what he and the Eagles thought of its kicking game.

The Irish had the ball on Boston College’s 31-yard line with six seconds left and no timeouts. The Eagles chose to play prevent defense, putting zero defenders between the line of scrimmage and the end zone. They let redshirt freshman quarterback CJ Carr dump it off to senior tight end Eli Raridon, who easily gained 14 yards to the 17-yard line and darted out of bounds to stop the clock.

By calling prevent defense, O’Brien told Notre Dame, “We don’t think you can make a field goal right now.” And of course, he was right.

Forget the uprights. Freshman kicker Erik Schmidt‘s 35-yard attempt sailed so far right that it didn’t even hit the netting.

Before Schmidt, redshirt senior Noah Burnette doinked a PAT off the right upright. After Schmidt, junior Marcello Diomede missed an extra point right again. Three different kickers missed three different kicks, all from within 35 yards out. Together, they cost Notre Dame 6 points: 3 for the field goal, 1 for each extra point and another for a failed 2-point conversion that the Irish would not have attempted had they hit the first PAT.

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Kevin Stone, Eagle Action: Takeaways from competitive loss vs. Notre Dame

They covered at least.

The Eagles did in fact keep it competitive. Actually, BC was within one score for the majority of the second half until once again, the big play did them in.

A few takeaways from the effort and some thoughts on BC sitting at 1-8 with three games remaining:

The QB thing
As I reported Friday, Dylan Lonergan got the start and after going 5-8 with a pick and 29 yards, he was pulled for Grayson James. According to sources, the decision was made on Tuesday. When I asked Bill O’Brien after practice on Tuesday, he said it would be ‘TBD’ when it came to QB, but that the decision would not be performance based.

Ultimately, James did make a terribly-timed decision with the INT that directly led to the 94-yard, back-breaking TD run, but the team rallies around him whenever he steps foot on the field. O’Brien said postgame that James is dealing with a hip pointer, but once again commended his toughness.

James finished 25-37 for 240 with the dime to Harris for a 25-yard TD and the pick. In my opinion, he should have been starting from Day 1. He has a better grasp of the offense, is more mobile (when healthy) and just has more experience than Lonergan. Lonergan got by on talent early on, but once there was film on him defenses quickly caught up. It also doesn’t help that pass protection and the lack of a running game has killed whoever was under center.

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Nick Shepkowski, Notre Dame on SI: Notre Dame Escapes With Uninspiring Win Over Boston College

Notre Dame moved to 6-2 on the year with a 25-10 win at Boston College Saturday, the sixth-straight victory by the Fighting Irish. It keeps Notre Dame alive in the College Football Playoff race, but if it was looking for style points, for the majority of Saturday, it was anything but for the Fighting Irish.

Yes, Notre Dame owned the total yardage for the game, but small things all over the field went poorly. As a result, this was a game a lot longer than it should have been, considering Boston College entered just 1-7 and winless against Power Four competition.

What did the game ultimately mean for Notre Dame?

For starters, there is a lot to clean up if this team hopes to make the College Football Playoff, let alone run in it. Here are the instant takeaways from Notre Dame’s largely sleepy 25-10 victory over Boston College on Saturday.

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Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman

Opening statement from postgame press conference:

“As I told the team, you work really hard to achieve the outcome that we achieved, so you got to remember that. You got to remember it’s really, really difficult to achieve the outcome. That’s the only time we’re outcome-driven — that’s the end of the game. 

“We know there’s a lot of things to clean up; most of those things that I challenged them on are things we control, we got to clean up. A lot of the plays we’re beating Notre Dame and play cleaner, but the challenges will get tougher. 

“That doesn’t mean the ranking of the opponent makes something tougher; it’s understanding that, again, as you move farther in the month of November, everything is magnified, and we got to continue to play cleaner, execute at a higher level.

“But I’m proud of the way they battled, resilient group and found a way to finish when we needed to.”

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Boston College head coach Bill O’Brien

Opening statement from postgame press conference:

“Yeah, you know, look, I thought these guys fought. I just told them in the locker room, really proud of these guys. It might not be a memorable team to anybody on the outside, but it’ll be a memorable team to me because they fight. They fight hard, they compete, they show up to practice. They’re awesome guys.

“Just couldn’t do anything in the running game on offense. Just could not move the ball consistently. Turn the ball over. And then defensively, I thought we fought. You know, we gave up the one big run, gave up that drive, the first drive of the second half, but I thought overall, you know, that’s a good team. That’s the number 12 team in the country. They got a really good offensive line. They got really good backs. Our guys fought hard. So, you know, I’m proud of the team. Losing’s not good, but I’m very proud of the football team.”

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Highlights

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