Louisville ran for a season-high 317 yards and the No. 19 Cardinals used their big-play capabilities to hold off upset-minded Boston College 38-24 at home on Saturday.
Isaac Brown needed just 14 carries to amass a career-high 205 yards, and Keyjuan Brown added 95 on 10 rushes. Both scored on big plays and also set up Miller Moss’ two scoring runs for Louisville (6-1, 3-1 Atlantic Coast Conference).
Moss threw for 187 yards on 15-of-27 passing with an interception and a touchdown. His second run gave Louisville the lead for good, 14-10, with 1:42 left in the first half.
Isaac Brown, who ran for 151 yards on five carries in the first half, added a 62-yard touchdown 40 seconds later to make it an 11-point game. However, the Eagles (1-7, 0-5) refused to go away, and Brown’s fumble to start the second half led to Grayson James finding a wide-open Kaelan Chudzinski for a 23-yard touchdown pass. That cut the BC deficit to 21-17 just 52 seconds into the second half.
The Eagles entered the weekend next-to-last in the ACC in average time of possession (27:33). However, they held the ball for 23:53 in the first half alone. They led 10-7 after James threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Lewis Bond on the first play of the second quarter.
James completed 23 of his 46 passes for 244 yards. He threw three touchdown passes but was also intercepted twice.
Louisville’s defense, which stopped BC on downs in Cardinal territory twice in the first half, came up with three turnovers in the second half to keep the Eagles from completing a comeback. An Antonio Watts fumble recovery led to a 22-yard touchdown pass from Moss to Caullin Lacy midway through the third quarter.
A Kalib Perry interception set up a Cooper Ranvier 41-yard field goal to make 31-17 with 8:13 remaining in the game.
Jeremiah Franklin caught a 21-yard touchdown pass from James less than two minutes later to make it 31-24.
The Eagles had the ball at their 44 with three minutes remaining, but they chose to punt. Keyjuan Brown ended any thought of an Eagles comeback with a 67-yard TD run with 1:49 remaining.
