Just when they thought that they had hit their low point with their 19-0 blowout at the hands of Virginia Tech, the Boston College Eagles saw things get just a bit worse on Saturday night in front of a nationally televised audience.  The Eagles went down to Notre Dame in a game in which the Irish had control right from the start.  The Eagles saw the Irish jump out to a quick 21-0 lead and even the hyped debut of Chase Rettig was not enough to wake the Eagles until it was too late.  Rettig struggled early until he found Bobby Swigert for a 58 yard touchdown pass to bring the Eagles within 14 points.  Unfortunately for BC, it will never be known how much progress Rettig could’ve made througout the evening as he was knocked out of the game on a third down play just before the Eagles kicked a field goal in their next possession.  Rettig suffered a sprained ankle and his night was over then and there.  Most of the fans that witnessed the game undoubtedly wish the rest of the BC offense suffered the same fate.  Sophomore Mike Marscovetra relieved Rettig and as he had done in relief stints in the last two weeks for now benched starter Dave Shinskie, Marscovetra did nothing to inspire his teammates or make coaches feel like they have to have him in the game for the following week.  Rettig will be out indefinitely so Marscovetra may be the starter by default, but he certainly has not seized the opportunity that keeps presenting itself to him.  Maybe things will change, but Marscovetra finished off an embarrasing evening for BC at 22 for 37 with 193 yards and two interceptions.  Although the dismal offensive performance in the 31-13 blowout was not all his fault, he did not take it upon himself to win the game either.   BC did not get much out of star tailback Montel Harris as the offensive line was manhandled in this one and Harris never got the chance to get things going.   They had no running game, the receivers had several drops and were unable to create much space between themselves and their defenders, and the defense was not able to take over to make things easier.   The defense was unable to put any type of pressure on quarterback Dayne Crist and the Irish offense and the Notre Dame had their way in the first half.  The defense settled down and only gave up a touchdown in the second half, but the damage was already done and Notre Dame had more than enough on the scoreboard.  This makes two straight losses for BC with both of them being at home.  They head into their first big wave of ACC games next week going in the wrong direction and without the quarterback of the future.   This is not good times in Chestnut Hill for certain.  One has to hope if their season can be salvaged before things get too out of hand.

The Indianapolis Colts found themselves on the wrong side of f31-28 score as the Jacksonville pulled perhaps the biggest upset in a day that featured a few in the NFL.  In the end, it came down to Josh Scobee’s career long 59 yard field goal.  Incidentally, this was the 3rd time that Scobee has downed the Colts with his leg.   This one may have been the toughest for Indy to swallow and the biggest surprise of them all.   Jacksonville came into the game struggling as they looked horrible in losts the last two weeks.  It appeared as if as long as Peyton Manning showed up and didn’t get injured during the game, the Colts would win this one easily.   Unfortunately, the games are not always played on paper as the Colts lost the rushing battle on both sides of the ball to fall to the Jaguars and now sit alongside of them in the AFC South at 2-2.   Despite the fact that Peyton Manning was able to throw for 352 yards and two touchdowns, the Colts could not pull this one out and now have two losses in the division.   That is the biggest blow of all for the 2010 Colts as this is already two more losses than what they had in the division last year.   If they are going to turn things around, the Colts must get something out of their run game and out of their run defense.  The Colts gave up 174 yards rushing including the first 100 yard rushing game for Maurice Jones-Drew this season.  The success the Jaguars had on the ground kept play action passing open for them and helped keep the Indy defense off balanced.  All of this helped to keep David Garrard from getting sacked and from making the costly mistakes that had plagued him the previous two games.   The Colts were beaten in the physical portion of the game on both sides as they were only able to muster 58 yards rushing themselves.  Donald Brown was inactive and Joseph Addai was only able to get 63 yards on the ground.   The running game has been a trouble spot for the Colts dating back to the preseason and unless they can get it going, Manning may have many more games of shootouts and 48 passing attempts.  This is fine as long as they can get the ball last and assuming that their opponents do not continue to run with the same success as what happened today.  Otherwise Peyton may find himself as an angry spectator.   This will not be good for anyone in Colt land.

Saturday night marks a rare prime time nationally televised game for the host Boston College Eagles.  The Eagles do not get the opportunity to showcase themselves as host for the rest of the country and thus have made a move this week to create a little bit of a buzz for this week’s game.   After getting off to a 2-0 start against inferior opponents in Weber St. and the Kent St. Golden Flashes, the Eagles received a rude awakening with last week’s visit from the Virginia Tech Hokies.  The BC defense held up, but the offense was just downright offensive.   The Eagles were shut out for the first time since 1998 and the former starting quarterback Dave Shinskie was benched for perhaps the final time this season as it has already been announced that he has been demoted.   Coach Frank Spaziani has been keeping the official announcement of this week’s starter somewhat of a mystery, but it has been reported that heralded freshman Chase Rettig has been receiving a majority of the first string snaps in practice this week.   Sophomore Mike Marscovetra is supposedly still in the running and coach Spaz has to hope that either one of those two cannot be worse than what Shinskie has given them so far.   Marscovetra has had some unispiring spurts throughout the last two games in relief of Shinskie, but he had been unable to take the starting job from him.  Perhaps this is why Rettig may get the call this week.   If neither one of the quarterbacks has been able to WIN the starting job, why not give it to the freshman phenom and get his college career under way.   This is similar to trial by fire, but at the same time he is starting for Boston College and not for a school such as Alabama, Georgia or USC.   After Saturday night’s game, there will not be a ton of media or fan scrutiny bestowed upon the kid.   If he can live up to the recruiting rankings, Rettig has a chance to salvage what could possibly be as good as an ACC championship season.   It all starts Saturday night against Catholic rival Notre Dame.  The Irish bring in their highly ranked passing attack against what is a nationally underlooked Eagle defense.  The recipe for success will be to rely on running back Montel Harris who has excelled behind a veteran offensive line and was the lone offensive bright spot with 132 total yards in the game.   Both of the Eagles and the Irish will be fighting hard for what is their first must win game on each side this season.  For the Eagles, they do not want to drop two in a row at home, and the Irish cannot afford a 1-4 start on the season.   Notre Dame has had a tough time stopping the run so the Eagles will look to Harris to help ease the transition for either of the two quarterbacks that starts.  I would also say that I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some combination of both quarterbacks Saturday night due to some struggles and potential jitters.   This should be a fun one and I am predicting that the Eagles will win with some ball control, strong defense, and by minimizing the quarterback mistakes that plagued them last week against the Hokies.   BC prevails with a 20 to 14 victory.