CRAWFORD | Louisville storms back from 20 down, beats Boston College 31-27

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – After as bad a first half as it could have managed, the University of Louisville football team came roaring back, erasing a 20-0 deficit to take a fourth quarter lead, then used two defensive stands after a late Boston College interception to put away the Eagles 31-27 in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

The Cardinals, who scored the game's final 21 points and held Boston College to just 7 second-half points, moved the ball well when they weren’t stopping themselves early in the game, but they stopped themselves a lot. A dropped pass by Ahmari Huggins-Bruce stalled the first drive, which ended with quarterback Tyler Shough not making first down yardage on a scramble.

An interception of pass thrown by Shough while scrambling led to another score. And a fumble by Huggins-Bruce put Boston College up 20-0.

"I mean, it was looking bad," Louisville coach Jeff Brohm said on his postgame radio interview with Jody Demling. "I'm not going to lie it was looking bad. But to hang in there and play to the end on a road against a good football team, I couldn't be prouder. I mean, I think that's one of the toughest wins I think we've ever hard, at any place I've been, just to withstand al the things that happened. So, yeah, we have a lot of things to work on. Sure, we do. We have all year. But our guys are playing hard, and we've just got to continue to work through those."

Little was going right for Louisville, but a score just before the half on a four-yard run by freshman Isaasc Brown pulled the Cardinals within 20-7 at the break, then they roared to life in the second half.

"It seemed like we had some drives stall early with penalties and whatever happened, I don't know," Brohm said. "But I felt like we could move the ball. We just had to kind of spin up the pace and open up a little bit. We were down some playmakers, but enough guys stepped up and we just found a way to gain some momentum and get them on their heels, and our defense stepped up when we needed it."

Louisville scored on four of its first five second-half possessions, with four TDs, to take a 31-27 lead. And after a stop of Boston College, took over on its own 25 with 5:25 left in the game and a chance to put the game away.

Defensively, Louisville had a few blown first-half assignments and gave up a big gain on a wheel route when Ramon Puryear was picked, but by and large the Cardinals tackling was much better and the defense, in the second half, held Boston College to four straight punts and two straight turnovers on downs on its last six possessions.

Ashton Gillotte led Louisville with nine tackles, five solo, and 2.5 for loss. Quincy Riley had a pair of pass breakups and four tackles. Antonio Watts broke up a pass and had three tackles, one for loss.

"Everything mattered in the game," Brohm said. "We had some guys step up and make some plays in the second half, and got us the momentum back. . . . You know, I really can't explain it. That's not how you draw it out. It wasn't pretty. But to have a team fight like that to the end, yeah, I'm really proud of that."

After Shough hit Chris Bell for a third-down conversion, it looked like Louisville would do that. But a holding call brought the play back, and Shough underthrew his third-and-long pass. Officials threw a flag for pass interference on the play – but then picked it up and waved the penalty off inexplicably.

BC took over at its own 47, then drove to the Louisville 40. On 4th and 11 with 1:53 to play, and Thomas Castellanos pass to the end zone for John Montague was broken up by Tavon Holloway, and Louisville took possession.

But the Eagles had all their timeouts, and Louisville could not manage a first down. On third and 6, in fact, Louisville coach Jeff Brohm called a slant that was broken up, and Boston College was able to save a timeout. After a 21-yard Louisville punt, BC took over at the Louisville 35 with 1:23 left.

BC was still plugging away, at the Louisville 42 with six seconds left, but quarterback Castellanos was no Doug Flutie (who was in attendance), and his Hail Mary sailed out of the back of the end zone.

Tyler Shough went 28 of 38 for 333 yards with two touchdowns and the pair of interceptions for Louisville.

"He's got great poise," Brohm said. "You know, it wasn't one of his better games, but at the same time, take away a couple of plays, a couple of interceptions, I thought he hung in there. He made a lot of really good plays. He knows how to throw the ball. He knows how to place it in there, really catchable. He knows how to hang in there quite a bit. He's not going to be perfect. But he's going to make a ton of plays. He doesn't get rattled. He just keeps playing. And that's what you want from your quarterback."

Brown figured large in the Louisville comeback with 85 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Ja'Corey Brooks had 8 catches for 120 yards -- including a highlight reel one-hander in the second half to set up a touchdown -- and tight end Nate Kurisky -- who also filled in at fullback -- had two catches for 10 yards, both for touchdowns.

According to Louisville stats guru Kelly Dickey, it was the fourth-biggest comeback in Louisville football history and the largest since erasing a 21-point deficit in a victory over Houston in 1984.

"There's still things to work on (defensively) and some things that hurt us in the first half," Brohm said. "But, you know, we're taking baby steps. I'd like to take bigger steps, but we've just got to continue to get the best plan together that our guys can execute and go play. We have a lot of tough football games left. I do think we have grown on defense. We've just got to continue to work through it and hopefully we can get better."

The Cardinals improve to 5-3 overall, 3-2 in the ACC. Boston College lost its fourth straight.

Next up for Louisville is a trip to No. 9-ranked Clemson on Saturday.

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