Everything Boston College Football Head Coach Bill O’Brien Said After Missouri Loss

The No. 24 Boston College Eagles football team suffered its first loss of the season to the No. 6 Missouri Tigers 27-21 on Saturday afternoon.

After the game, Eagles head coach Bill O’Brien spoke about his thoughts on the loss.

Below is a transcript of what O’Brien said.

Q: Coach, in the late second quarter and third quarter, you guys seem to be struggling with some tackling. Can you guys just talk about that issue and how that needs to get corrected?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, I think at times we tackled well, but you’re right. I mean, we did, we did struggle tackling at that point in the game. We gave up too many yards rushing, turned the ball over too much. How do we correct it? We go back to work. We go back to practice. We’re never going to accept losing at Boston College but these guys fought hard, very proud of these guys. We got to coach better. I think all of us have to give a collective effort. Get back tomorrow, we go right back to work. That’s what football is.

Q: What does this game say about where you’re at and where you want to be? How far are you up to get to where you want to go?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, that’s a good question. Trevor, I don’t know. I probably have to watch the film to really answer that for you probably when I see you this week, but I was very proud of these guys to come on the road in the SEC. We’re never going to accept losing. It’s not a moral victory. That’s not what I’m saying. I want to be real clear about that but even with the adversity that we dealt with, we turned the ball over, we had trouble stopping the run at the end, we were in the game. If we stop them on that last that second to last third down got shot to get the ball back, you never know what’s going to happen. So should’ve, could’ve, would’ve, no doubt about it, but I think we got a lot to build on here and I’m really proud of these guys and I’m looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow.

Q: Coach, beginning of the game you start incredibly fast, at least on the scoreboard. You get out, get out to that quick lead. It obviously goes away, but then to come back. For you in that game flow, what does that kind of speak to the team as well, just that you were able to get out to that quick start against a good opponent, whether, knowing they were eventually going to, you know, have their abilities?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, I was happy to see that. I think the big thing again is, like, especially, really both sides of the ball, but sustaining, like putting drives together. Too many three and outs, too many yards on the ground, running the ball for Missouri. That’s not us, BC. We were stopping the run pretty well that we got to get back to stopping the run. They did a great job with their stretch and cut scheme and people are going to see that, and we’ve gotta be ready to do a better job against that. But like I said, I’m very proud of the way the guys fought, and looking forward to kind of getting back after it tomorrow.

Q: You mentioned third down, you guys were 4-for-11, they were 11-for-19. I know you gotta watch the film, but anything in particular you saw?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, definitely a difference in the game or one of the differences in the game was their ability to convert. They had a lot more third and shorts than we did. We had a lot of third longs and that’s not a recipe for success, especially against a good team. So we’ve got to stay on schedule better offensively and then defensively, we’ve got to do a better job on first and second down. They had too many 3rd-and-2’s, 3rd-and-3’s and that’s not really a good recipe for success. So they definitely won the third down battle, no doubt, them credit.

Q: Coach, seems like your pass rush was able to get you out of some situations where Mizzou could have really pulled away there. Just talk about how those guys performed tonight and what you liked from them?

O’BRIEN: Yeah, I think the defense was on the field quite a bit, and I give them credit. I think, like I’ve said all along, I think Fitzy did a great job with this team. These guys are in shape. It was hot out there. We rolled a lot of guys in there but they were out there a long time and to continue to try to put heat on the quarterback, which they did pretty consistently was was good, it was good. It was just really, to me, it was not, an inability to stop the run. I think if we can do a better job of stopping the run that’s going to lead to more success for us in the future.

Q: You guys established that early 14-3 lead and then they took a 55-yard field goal to go into the half up 17-14. I just want to hear about kind of your message to the team at halftime. What the focus was after going into the second half and then secondly, can you just take me through that broken play that resulted in the 67 yard touchdown from Castellanos to Reed? I just want to hear kind of your account of that.

O’BRIEN: Yeah, halftime. I just said, look, it’s going to come down to the team that executes the best. It was a close game. It was a great Division I, it was a great game. I felt like it was, not sure what the fans thought, but I felt like it was a really good football game. And I thought those type of games come down to who executes the best, and they executed better than we did. And give them a lot of credit, they got a good football team. On the 67 yard deal, it was kind of a fast break type play, get up, get set. I think they, they kind of shifted their front, Drew, snapped it a little bit early, not Drew’s fault was kind of the way they shifted their front and the ball was rolling around, and Tommy improvised. Made a really good play. That was the play, though. And, it was a heck of a play.

Q: What’s your message to Tommy after this one?

O’BRIEN: I haven’t talked to him yet, but I talked to him a lot during the game. He’s, he’s done so many good things for us and all of us wish we could have plays back. We wish we all could have plays back, coaches and players alike. So we’re going to work very, very hard to get him back on track. He’ll work very hard. He’s a very, very good player. We’re lucky to have Tommy. We’re in the game because of Tommy and those some of the plays that he made and he knows that he’s got to execute better, make better decisions, more consistent decisions, and he’ll do that.

Q: So you guys have run the ball really well, the first two games but this game that wasn’t the case. Can you talk me through what you felt was not going well on the run? What Missouri did to stop it?

O’BRIEN: Got a good front. Got a good front, we got a good offensive line. I would say that we battled, we got behind. We had to throw the ball a little bit more but give Missouri credit, they did a good job up front. They tackled, well, they got a good team. I mean, if Missouri’s number six in the country, they’re there for a reason. They got a good football team and we just weren’t able to establish a consistent running game, and that’s got to improve moving forward.

Q: Coach, you just mentioned the stretch and cut, I think is what it was called, you mentioned about Missouri. Just as a clarifying question, could you just explain what that is, just for those of us that don’t know or speak the language.

O’BRIEN: Yeah, no problem. They run a great, they have a great running scheme, kind of like the old Denver Broncos, where they run the outside zone to the tight end side, to the split end side, and the backs do a great job of pressing a lot of scrimmage. The offensive line is very athletic. The tight ends do a good job, and they cut the backside and so the back presses it. If he keeps the front side, he keeps the front side, otherwise he’s got planes to cut it backside and we struggled to stop that play. We worked very hard on it this week, we did a lot of different things to try to stop it. But it was a tough play to stop and we’ve got to do a better job of that moving forward. I think our guys fought hard, I think, you know, we’ll all work together to improve that.