Eagles play blame game

RALEIGH, N.C. -- When it came to wearing the goat's horns after Boston College's first loss of the season, a 17-15 setback against Atlantic Coast Conference foe North Carolina State Saturday night, there was no shortage of candidates in the Eagles' locker room.

Junior kicker Ryan Ohliger, who seems to have a mental block when it comes to making extra points, after missing three in the last two games, was the first to raise his hand after he missed a PAT on BC's game-opening 83-yard drive. It left the Eagles vulnerable later in the game and forced them to attempt a 2-point conversion in the fourth quarter -- a failed pass, opening the door for the Wolpack to steal it in the final 46 seconds.

After he watched N.C. State quarterback Daniel Evans, a redshirt sophomore who was making his first career start, rally the Pack on a five-play, 72-yard march that culminated with a winning 34-yard TD pass to a leaping John Dunlap, Ohliger said: ``I felt like it was on me. The game never would've come down to that. At least we would've had a shot to go into overtime. We just needed 2 more points on the board, and I screwed up in the first quarter."

BC coach Tom O'Brien said yesterday he intended to stay with Ohliger. ``I don't know what it is with the extra points, but the [29-yard] field goal [Ohliger made to give BC a 9-3 lead at halftime] was solid. He hit it right down the pipes."

Ohliger, though, wasn't the only BC player who had a tortured conscience.

So did senior captain Josh Beekman, whose botched exchange with quarterback Matt Ryan on a crucial third-and-1 from the N.C. State 26 led to a 1-yard loss. Then came a failed fourth-and-2 rush by Brian Toal, who was dropped for a 1-yard loss by LeRue Rumph and Patrick Lowery with 46 seconds to go.

``For me, I knew I wanted to get Matt the ball and get some movement coming off the ball," said Beekman, a right guard who played center after junior Kevin Sheridan injured his neck in practice last Tuesday and did not travel with the team. ``I put the blame solely on me. Matt didn't get it and it's my job to make sure he gets it and he didn't. Instead of getting the first down and running out the clock, the door swung the other way and N.C. State was able to capitalize."

Said O'Brien: ``It's very difficult to play center, and you have to give Josh credit for the performance that he gave us [Saturday night]. We're thankful for the effort that he gave us."

Toal thought he should have converted that fourth-and-2 attempt the way he had converted on BC's last score, a 2-yard run that enabled the Eagles to take a 15-10 lead with 12:55 left.

``The fourth-down play, it was a short-yardage situation and they put me in and I wasn't able to get it done," Toal said. ``It was something that should be automatic and I wasn't able to execute it. That's all I can say about it."

Then there was junior cornerback DeJuan Tribble, who did not start after missing practice last week nursing a bruised left knee, but still played Saturday night. Just like his teammates, Tribble went on a personal roller-coaster ride in the final three minutes, when he appeared to put the game under wraps by making a diving interception of an Evans pass at the N.C. State 30, then was beaten by Dunlap's juggling act in the end zone on the winning TD pass.

``I tried my best to get a hand on it, but the guy made an excellent play and got a hand on it," Tribble said. ``Credit to the N.C. State receiver."

Asked if Tribble was precluded from taking a penalty in that situation by tackling the defender in the end zone, thus preventing the catch, O'Brien said, ``He certainly could have, yes. But I would have preferred to try and have him intercept the ball or make a play on it, which he did the week before about three or four times."

Tribble was left to explain how BC's pass defense, which entered the game ranked last in the nation (340.7 yards per game), still allowed the league's worst passing offense (147.3 ypg) to throw for 179 yards, including 72 in the final 46 seconds.

``We see that and we know teams are obviously going to come for us," Tribble said. ``We're just trying to get better each week and bring that number down a little bit."

The Eagles (3-1, 1-1 ACC) dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 from No. 20 to the ``others receiving votes" and from No. 21 to No. 25 in the coaches' poll. BC will attempt to bounce back from the sobering setback when it hosts Division 1-AA Maine at Alumni Stadium Saturday.

``I'm sure they're down," O'Brien said, when asked about the mental state of his team. ``It's like the last three weeks, when we've had to have amnesia and forget the tight wins we've had, we're going to have to have amnesia again and forget [Saturday night's] loss. We certainly have a lot to play for this season, and there's a lot of goals we can accomplish this year."

O'Brien said sophomore wide receiver Brandon Robinson, who sustained a concussion just before intermission after taking a vicious blindside shot to the head from Guerlin Devril, will not play this week. O'Brien declined to say whether he'd take up the matter with league officials, saying the ACC's supervisor of officials, Tommy Hunt, was at the game and saw the play.