Notre Dame survives Boston College 25-10, extends win streak to six

BOSTON, Mass. --  Notre Dame walked out of Alumni Stadium with a 25 to 10 win over Boston College Saturday night, pushing their win streak to six straight games.
But it didn’t feel like a classic Notre Dame victory. The Irish had a very slow start, going scoreless in the first quarter and leading by only five points at halftime.
Head coach Marcus Freeman said after the game that it was not their sharpest showing. He said many of the mistakes were controllable and need to be cleaned up throughout the week.
One of those issues was kicking. The Irish left a total of seven points on the table. A missed a field goal, two missed extra points, a failed 2-point conversion and even had a costly fumble in the red zone by running back Jadarian Price when they were only up by six in the second half.
Quarterback CJ Carr said Boston College’s plan of attack caught them off guard early.
“BC came out with some different looks than they had shown on film,” Carr said. “We started slow but did a really good job of adjusting to their pressure. Consistently doing your job is something we can always get better at.”
Carr still turned in a strong performance, completing 18 of 25 passes for 299 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.
On the ground, Jeremiyah Love carried the load for Notre Dame with 136 yards on 17 carries and two touchdowns, averaging eight yards per touch. Meanwhile, his partner Price struggled to find momentum, finishing with just 12 yards on nine carries. A huge difference from his 78.7 total rushing yard average from the past three games.
In the passing game, Jordan Faison led with 82 yards on four catches, including a 46 yard gain. Will Pauling followed with 73 yards, and Eli Raridon added 59.
“We knew, in order to get them to loosen up a little bit …you had to throw the ball over top,” Freeman said. “And I think the offense did a good job for the most part.”
On defense, Drayk Bowen had a standout night with 14 solo tackles, one sack, and two tackles for loss. Following was Kyngstonn Viliamu Asa, adding nine tackles and one and a half sacks as the defense held Boston College to just 281 total yards. The Irish also shut out the Eagles in the fourth quarter, marking the fourth straight game the defense has not allowed any points in the final frame.
“I don't think we were perfect tonight, but I think we were relentless, you know, guys never stopped playing hard to dig this one up,” Viliamu-Asa said. “I'm proud of my team for that.”
Notre Dame improves to 6-2 and now returns home to face Navy next weekend at 7:30 pm. However, Navy is now 7-1 after losing their first game of the season to North Texas. Although they don’t have the opportunity to face an unbeaten 8-0 team, this is setting up another tough matchup in South Bend next weekend.