For the first time in two years, Boston College was able to have a victory meal after an Atlantic Coast Conference game.
“Food was a little better on Sunday,’’ said coach Steve Addazio.
But the Eagles didn’t have long to savor the 21-14 win over North Carolina State that snapped a 12-game conference losing streak.
With No. 5 Louisville and Heisman front-runner Lamar Jackson coming to Alumni Stadium on Saturday, the Eagles know they are staring down a freight train.
“We’re talking about one of the best teams in the country, without a doubt,’’ Addazio said.
Saturday’s win over N.C. State was a breakthrough for the Eagles, but their game with the Cardinals could kill momentum before it builds. Louisville will be the second Top-10 team the Eagles have faced at home this month. On Oct. 7, they were steamrolled by Clemson, 56-10, after putting together back-to-back wins over Wagner and Buffalo. Building confidence and maintaining it has been a challenge for BC as it plays a schedule loaded with powerhouses.
“It is what it is,’’ Addazio said. “Whatever cards you were dealt, you go deal them. Progression, growth is the best thing to do when you’re developing. Having more games where you can kind of incrementally build confidence and build rhythm . . . You know, it’s hard to get rhythm when you’re playing a team like Clemson.
“Now, ultimately, can those things help you? Yeah, as long as you don’t let it destroy your confidence, right? So when you get some of those situations and then negativity grows and negativity puts doubt, those things don’t help in growth. That’s why the game Saturday was so important because what that did was build some confidence.’’
The Eagles started the season with a conference loss against Georgia Tech in Dublin, regrouped with a win over UMass, then got thumped by Virginia Tech, 49-0, in Blacksburg. For most of the season, they’ve been a team trying to find an identity, Addazio said.
“Football’s a game of momentum,’’ he said. “You can just look around and see a couple of teams in our conference that had a very kind of not-too-challenging start, and all of a sudden they built momentum up and we’re caught like this, and kind of here we go again, honestly.
“But I think now, at least with that win and some confidence and some validation, it gives you a better chance to handle the emotional deal of this whole thing.’’
Passing falls short
BC has the second-worst passing efficiency in the ACC and quarterback Patrick Towles’s 49.7 completion percentage is the lowest in the conference. Although part of the reason is Towles, much of it has to do with the number of his passes that have been dropped.
Going into the Syracuse game two weeks ago, the Eagles had dropped 12.3 percent of Towles’s pass attempts, according to Pro Football Focus. The drop rate was the highest of any quarterback in a Power 5 conference.
The numbers were more alarming when Addazio did his own analysis, and he addressed it by emphasizing fundamentals going into the Eagles’ game against N.C. State.
Towles completed a season-high 18 passes on 33 attempts, connecting with six different receivers.
“I challenged the wide receivers last week,’’ Addazio said. “We just had too many drops. We’ve got youth out there at receiver, young guys — one’s never played receiver, one’s only been a receiver for one year, he’s a high school quarterback. But we challenged our receiving corps because there was a lot of questions about our completion percentages — and valid — and it had a lot to do with the amount of drops we had. If we had not had 21 drops — 10 on first and second and 11 on third [down] — our percentages would’ve been fine, which would’ve given us so much more offense.
“But we are committed to this. We really wanted to be committed to having more balance in our offense. And we felt like the team we have right now is a young offensive team that we have to spread it around to everybody. We don’t have one or two go-to guys.’’
Landry honored
Harold Landry had perhaps his best game of the season with his family watching from the stands at Carter-Finley Stadium after it made the drive from Fayetteville, N.C. He came up with his ninth sack of the season and forced his fifth fumble and was named ACC co-defensive lineman of the week, splitting the honor with Florida State’s Derrick Nnadi. Landry leads the nation in sacks and forced fumbles . . . Defensive coordinator Jim Reid resumed his duties on Sunday after missing the team’s trip to N.C. State due to a health issue. “He’s doing very, very well and is ready to get back to coaching here as we head into tomorrow’s practice,’’ Addazio said. “So that’s always great news.’’
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.
