Jurkovec Stars, BC Outlasts GT in Back-and-Forth Affair
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)
Publisher
Boston College found itself down at least two touchdowns three consecutive weeks: first against North Carolina State, then at Louisville and once again at Syracuse.
The Eagles, who averaged 11.4 points per game in their first five ACC games, didn’t have the firepower to mount a comeback.
They did Saturday in Atlanta.
After giving up 21 straight points to a reeling yet competitive Georgia Tech team, BC rattled off three touchdowns in a row to enter intermission with a lead. Quarterback Phil Jurkovec was the difference.
In his second game back from a season-threatening fracture to his throwing hand, Jurkovec threw for 237 yards and two scores while running for two more in the opening half. He added a third rushing score to seal the deal in the fourth quarter and fend off the Yellow Jackets, 41-30.
“This season when things haven’t gone well, and we’ve went down, we weren’t able to come back like we were today,” second-year Eagles head coach Jeff Hafley said.
“And that’s a big step for our team going forward. It says a lot about them.”
The Eagles (6-4, 2-4 ACC) stormed out to a 7-0 advantage. Two plays after Jurkovec hooked up with Jaelen Gill to pick up 24 yards on third down, the redshirt junior gunslinger aired one out for a wide-open Zay Flowers, who hauled in the bomb for a 48-yard score.
It was the first of two touchdowns for Flowers on the day and his first trip to the end zone since Week 4.
“I feel like we’re just getting our connection started back again,” Flowers said.
All of a sudden, though, GT (3-7, 2-6) answered. Fast.
Jahmyr Gibbs, who finished with a whopping 223 all-purpose yards, housed BC’s ensuing kickoff 98 yards. Hafley explained that the Eagles came in with the game plan not to kick to Gibbs but that Stephen Ruiz simply mishit the ball. The same thing happened later when it appeared as if BC went for back-to-back onside kicks. In reality, they were poor squib kicks.
Following a BC three-and-out, the Yellow Jackets stung again. GT, which piled up 48 rushing yards on the seven-play touchdown drive, was moving the chains with ease. Quarterback Jordan Yates, who started in place of an injured Jeff Sims, tossed a great back shoulder throw to Malachi Carter for a 12-yard score.
It appeared as if the Eagles were going to answer with a touchdown of their own, however, running back Pat Garwo III fumbled at the GT 15-yard line. He hadn’t coughed up the ball all season.
Right on cue, Yates and the Yellow Jackets offense picked up right where they left off. Yates completed six of his first seven passes Saturday and, despite being pressured, often escaped—at least in the first half. The redshirt freshman made off-balanced throws and, for the most part, took what BC’s defense gave him. He followed up a 26-yard Jordan Mason run with a zone-read touchdown near the goal line.
GT was up, 21-7, and set to get the ball back to start the second half. Except, at that point, the Yellow Jackets would be trailing.
The Eagles stitched together a trio of touchdown drives, all of which spanned under two minutes.
GT, which ended up with 11 penalties for 95 yards, shot itself in the foot with a pair of special teams infractions on the next kickoff. That, as well as a 27-yard Travis Levy return, catapulted BC to midfield. It wasn’t long before Jurkovec connected with Flowers for a 39-yard score. Flowers created a whole lot of separation from Yellow Jackets defensive back Juanyeh Thomas on a corner post.
A GT three-and-out meant BC had the ball back on offense in due time. Jurkovec fired a 38-yard pass to tight end Trae Barry, who was back for the first time in three weeks, and then a 14-yard endaround to Flowers—plus a face mask penalty—vaulted the Eagles deep into Yellow Jacket territory.
This time, Jurkovec called his own number. The first of three rushing touchdowns for the dual threat.
“It feels good because everybody was calling me fat last year, fat and slow, back home,” said Jurkovec, who noted he lost some weight while out. “So I’m gonna be able to tell them, ‘Hey, I ran a few.’”
His first rushing touchdown came on a quarterback draw. The second was on the zone-read, and it featured a juke and spin move before the 6-foot-5 Notre Dame transfer piled in for six.
Jurkovec’s dynamism staked the Eagles to a 28-21 halftime lead, and he became the second Eagles quarterback to throw and run for at least two touchdowns in an ACC game. The only other was Chris Crane against N.C. State in 2008.
GT couldn’t regain the lead or even tie the game, but Geoff Collins’ team, which lost its previous three games by a combined 20 points, sure got close.
The first drive of the second half saw the Yellow Jackets go 60 yard on nine plays. But a false start penalty out of a timeout and a timely BC blitz forced GT to settle for a 28-yard Brent Cimaglia field goal.
Then, later in the third quarter, the Yellow Jackets came knocking again. Another big Yates scramble did the trick. But, as well as the redshirt freshman was playing, he was only a redshirt freshman. And it showed when he was baited into a Jaiden Woodbey red zone interception.
“I knew that it was a cover 3 concept, and I was the flat player,” the veteran strong safety said. “I knew he was trying to put me in a high-low position. So I just tried to split the receiver behind me and the receiver in front of me. He threw the ball up, and I made the play.”
BC pumped the brakes on the next drive. Offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. turned to the run, and the Eagles went 83 yards in 13 plays. Along the way, GT linebacker Ayinde Eley was ejected for targeting Alec Sinkfield, and Thomas was called for a face mask penalty.
Connor Lytton capped the series with a 31-yard field goal to put BC back up a touchdown, 31-24.
BC wasn’t penalty free, either. The Eagles had eight on the day, including two unnecessary roughness infractions that helped GT orchestrate a 68-yard touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter. Gibbs did the rest. He punched the ball in from four yards out, but Cimaglia doinked the extra point off the right upright.
With a one-point lead, a 3rd-and-14 on hand and his end zone at his back, Jurkovec dialed up a 21-yard pass to Barry down the seam. Soon after, Gill made a show-stopping, 17-yard grab, where he tipped the ball up to himself before making the catch on his back.
Jurkovec finished the drive by reading an overpursuing Jordan Domineck and keeping the ball to himself for a 31-yard touchdown.
GT had one more shot to tie the game. This time, Yates wasn’t able to flush out of the pocket. After two near interceptions, the redshirt freshman was strip sacked by Marcus Valdez on 4th-and-14. JT Thompson II recovered, and the Eagles tacked on another Lytton field goal to clinch a multi-score victory.
The win makes BC bowl eligible for the sixth year in a row. Last season, because of the rigors and restrictions of COVID-19, Hafley’s Eagles declined their postseason invitation.
That’s not happening in 2021, Hafley said.
“What it means to me is more time with this team,” he told reporters postgame. “And then a reward at the end of the season: to go away together, enjoy each other, enjoy each other’s families and get to play one more game. I think bowls are awesome. And, this year, we’re going.”
Hafley said now the goal is different: reach a better bowl.
