Georgia Tech’s afternoon at Bobby Dodd Stadium spun out fast and never really came back. Boston College left with a 49-27 win after battering the Yellow Jackets for 399 rushing yards, and Tech slipped to 2-5 overall and 1-3 in ACC play.
The opening looked promising enough for the home side. Georgia Tech jumped ahead 10-0 on an opening-drive touchdown from tight end Kevin Roche, Jr. and an Aidan Birr field goal.
After that, though, Boston College seized control and outscored the Jackets 49-17 the rest of the way. The Eagles scored on seven of their nine drives after the 3:18 mark of the first quarter, not counting kneeldowns, and Game on Paper pegged BC with a 54% success rate, good for the 99th percentile, along with a 62% success rate on run plays alone.
That ground game powered everything. Boston College averaged 8.5 yards per rush, kept pounding away at Tech, and repeatedly found the same seams in the defense. Brent Key said after the game that Boston College beat them 14 times on the same run play.
Georgia Tech’s offense had a few bright moments, but not nearly enough to match the damage being done on the other side. Alberto Mendoza threw two interceptions, including one that bounced off Dalen Penson and another that Charlie Comella picked off. Comella returned the second one 53 yards, turning it into a dagger and pushing BC ahead 35-20 in the third quarter.
Tech’s defense was shredded by the run all afternoon, and the injuries hanging over the roster were impossible to ignore. The Yellow Jackets had 16 players out coming into the game, with nearly all of them expected to play if healthy. Josh Petty did make it onto the field, starting the second half on the offensive line, but the problems around him were too big to hide.
The Jackets did manage 27 points, though one touchdown came in garbage time. If you strip that away, the offense was sitting on 20, and even that number was padded by the kind of scattered production that never keeps up in a real game.
Isaiah Fuhrmann dropped two first downs. Justice Haynes broke loose for one long touchdown run.
And on late downs, Tech simply could not stay on the field, finishing with just three successful late-down plays according to Game on Paper.
Georgia Tech got off to a 10-0 start in the first quarter. Mendoza helped drive the first touchdown march with a 43-yard strike to Jordan Allen and then a 27-yard scramble, before connecting with Roche from four yards out.
Boston College answered after a short field created by a late hit on the kickoff. The Eagles drove inside the red zone, but a holding penalty pushed them way back and they missed a 48-yard field goal wide left.
The Jackets added a field goal after a series extended by Boston College penalties, but Tech’s own mistakes blunted a chance to build a larger cushion. A false start and a holding call wiped out a possible Jordan Allen touchdown catch, forcing Birr to settle for a 32-yard field goal and a 10-0 lead.
Boston College started trimming that margin in the second quarter. Nedrick Boldin, Jr. caught a touchdown pass from the Tech 25, although the extra point missed.
Tech’s next drive dissolved into chaos, with Roche turning a first-down catch into 4th and inches after trying to squeeze out extra yards. On an open microphone, PA announcer Ryan Cameron said, “oh we’re punting?
NOOOO!!” The punt went just 19 yards.
The Eagles kept leaning on Nolan Ray and the run game, then took the lead on Bo MacCormack III’s short touchdown run. Another missed extra point made it 12-10 Boston College.
Georgia Tech got one last push before halftime, aided by completions to Jordan Allen and Jaivon Plummer and a defensive pass interference call in the end zone. Birr’s 20-yard field goal nudged Tech back in front 13-12 at the break.
The second half belonged to Boston College’s legs. The Eagles opened with 52 rushing yards on the first drive of the third quarter and punched in a two-yard touchdown run by MacCormack. Mendoza’s interception on Tech’s next possession gave BC another chance, and the Eagles cashed in again when Mason McKenzie ran it in from six yards out to make it 25-13.
After Tech punted once more, Boston College kept leaning on the same formula, chewing up yardage on the ground and setting up a goal-to-go situation entering the fourth quarter. A slip by McKenzie helped Tech avoid a worse outcome on one snap, but the Eagles still settled for a field goal and a 28-13 lead.
Georgia Tech finally answered. A 46-yard completion to Dalen Penson set up Haynes for a 15-yard touchdown run that cut the margin to 28-20.
But any momentum disappeared almost immediately. Boston College surged right back down the field and scored again on Mason McKenzie’s 16-yard touchdown run to make it 35-20 with 9:34 left.
Then came the play that ended it for good. On third-and-11, Mendoza threw his second interception, and Comella took it back 53 yards for a pick six to stretch the lead to 42-20. Georgia Tech turned to Grady Adamson at quarterback after that, and he completed five of six passes on a drive finished by a 30-yard touchdown throw to Penson, trimming the score to 42-27.
Boston College closed it out from there, and the final score reflected what had already been obvious for most of the afternoon: the Eagles controlled the line of scrimmage, the Jackets never found an answer, and Tech walked off with another loss that looked lopsided long before the clock hit zero.
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