Football Notebook: Field Position Battle Breaks BC's Way

Locked in a defensive struggle with Notre Dame, Boston College turned to an unlikely hero in the battle for field position: punter Ryan Quigley.

The senior boomed six punts inside the 20-yard line, consistently pinning the Fighting Irish deep when the offense stalled around midfield. He finished with nine punts for an average of 41 yards.

"The grass here is long, so we knew before the game that the ball wasn't going to bounce too much," Quigley said. "You can pin it down there a little deeper and hope for a soft bounce."

Quigley forced Fighting Irish returner John Goodman to fair catch the ball or let it bounce with his quality hang time. He credited long snapper Sean Flaherty and the team's gunners for contributing to BC's special teams performance.

"Quigs did a great job punting for us," junior Luke Kuechly said. "We stopped them on a couple of third downs real quick and got off the field real quick."

Kuechly (14 tackles) did his part to get the defense off the field as soon as possible. Sophomore Kevin Pierre-Louis bolstered the linebacker core with his return from a foot injury. After missing the previous three games, he registered seven tackles (1.5 for a loss) and a pass breakup in his return. He helped hold the Notre Dame backfield duo of Cierre Wood (26 carries, 94 yards) and Jonas Gray (11 carries, 61 yards, one touchdown) in check.

Fighting Irish junior Tommy Rees (24-for-39, 256 yards, one interception) was erratic. He got away with mistakes, though, because BC dropped several catchable balls.

The biggest shift in field position happened in the third quarter, when defensive end Max Holloway intercepted a Rees screen pass at midfield. But the Eagles went three-and-out, picking up just seven yards on a drive that was a microcosm of their inability to move the ball.

On BC's first five drives of the second half, it ran 22 plays for 57 yards—a 2.6-yard average.

Kuechly tackles record

Early in the second quarter, Luke Kuechly chased down Fighting Irish wide receiver Michael Floyd on a bubble screen, wrapping him up after a gain of six. This nondescript tackle gave the junior linebacker 517 career tackles, breaking the ACC record.

"He's the best football player in the country," head coach Frank Spaziani said. "He's up for a lot of awards, and he's deserving of all of them."

Kuechly is also one tackle shy of two school tackling marks: his own single-season record set last year (183) and Stephen Boyd's career total (523). He could appreciate his stats more if the team were winning, he said.

"I play football to win," Kuechly said. "I don't try to set records. If we would have won, that would be cool. But we lost. That's what it comes down to. We play to win. That's how we do it at BC."

Extra points

Redshirt freshman Tahj Kimble led the way with 10 carries for 42 yards, his second game toting the rock at least 10 times this season. A slippery third-down back, he offers a change of pace from bruising runners Deuce Finch (six carries, 32 yards) and Andre Williams (three carries, minus-one yard).

"We have always liked Tahj," Spaziani said. "The way our running game was set up fit better to Tahj's skill set. We were trying to [throw] the ball to the backs in certain situations. It just worked out that way. We have three good backs. Today was Tahj's day to carry the ball a bit more than usual."

Josh Bordner dropped back to pass once out of the Wildcat, but he had no options open, so he tucked the ball and ran. He finished with four carries for seven yards and a touchdown.

Tight end Chris Pantale had his biggest game of the season, hauling in five passes for 60 yards.