On Saturday afternoon, the Boston College football team concluded the 2024 season at the Pinstripe Bowl against Nebraska in New York City. The Eagles offense struggled to put up points for much of the contest and, despite some late game heroics, fell to the Cornhuskers in the end by a score of 20-15.
The game started out as a rainy affair, but the weather cleared up by the second quarter. Bad snaps and turnovers marred a messy start to the game, as Nebraska threw an INT and fumbled the ball, while Boston College missed a field goal and failed to convert on multiple fourth down attempts. The teams were certainly able to move the ball downfield, but those mistakes kept most of the scoring at bay until Nebraska finally broke the seal with a couple of long touchdown drives in the second quarter. BC returned a blocked PAT on the second score, though, to make it a 13-2 game instead of 14-0. The first half ended with Boston College failing to convert a short 3rd & 1 and then 4th & 1 try, being stuffed short on a screen pass and then a run up the middle twice in a row.
The second half wasn’t much better for the Eagles. Nebraska was driving the ball with ease on the BC defense, and though they failed to score any points on their first drive, the Huskers scored a third touchdown on their following drive to take a commanding 20-2 lead. Grayson James had a fumble that handed Nebraska the ball (which looked a lot like a forward pass) and the BC offense was clearly struggling with multiple opt-outs missing on the offensive line. BC had another drive end on 4th down at the goal line in the fourth quarter and that seemed to be the nail in the coffin.
But suddenly the Eagles did manage to put together a touchdown drive late in the game thanks to some solid passing from Grayson James and defensive penalties by the Huskers. Then the rain picked back up and a blocked punt set BC up for another quick touchdown that narrowed the game to 20-15, giving the Eagles all of the momentum. But a late hit on Nebraska quarterback Raiola put BC in a tough position, leading to a sustained Huskers drive into Eagles territory with just minutes remaining. Nebraska converted a crucial fourth down after BC burned their timeouts and were able to run the clock down to claim a 20-15 win.