Boston College 33, Virginia Tech 31: By The Numbers

1. Turnovers forced. For only the second time this season, the Eagles gained a fumble recovery on the muffed Hokies kickoff. BC was +1 on the day, only the third game this season where the Eagles won the turnover battle (Colorado State and N.C. State the others).

258. Rushing yards, a tad below the Eagles 277 yards per game average going into the game. Still pretty strong performance going up against a defense that only allowed 153.63 yards per game going into the game. Only Miami (364 yards on 53 carries) has rushed for more yards against Bud Foster's run defense this season.

2. Boston College rushing touchdowns. For the eighth time this season, the Eagles scored multiple rushing touchdowns in a game. The only game this season the Eagles' rushing attack didn't find the end zone was the Clemson game. The Eagles are averaging 2 2/3 rushing touchdowns a game through nine games.

24. With two more rushing touchdowns, Boston College has matched its total rushing TD output from last season ... needing four less games to do so.

7 of 9. With Tyler Murphy's 122 yards rushing, the Eagles had a 100-yard rusher for the seventh time in nine games.

965. Tyler Murphy becomes the school's all-time leading rushing quarterback, breaking Doug Flutie's record for career rushing yards ... in NINE games.

8-of-15. Passing for the Eagles ... and that includes another shovel pass to Bordner. The passing wasn't pretty, but it was effective in spots.

1. Wide receiver Charlie Callinan and running back Marcus Outlow both recorded their first career touchdowns on the day. Murphy hooked up with Callinan on a 8-yard TD pass to make it 7-7 in the second quarter and Outlow on a 2-yard pass in the third to go up 20-10.

2. For the second time this season, Boston College got into the end zone through the air twice (Clemson the other game). The Eagles now have 8 passing TDs on the year to go with 6 interceptions.

110 yards. BC managed just 110 yards through the air. Somehow this was enough.

3-of-13. Eagles third down conversion percentage. Not pretty. Also not going to win many games when the offense struggles to convert and move the chains. It's the third straight game that BC failed to convert even 25% of third downs. BC converted just 2-of-14 against Clemson (14.29%) and just 2-of-10 against Wake Forest (20%). If BC hopes to have success next weekend against Louisville, the offense is going to have to do a better job of converting on third down opportunities.

7-of-20. Virginia Tech's offense converted 7 third downs, including on 3rd and 17 (!) early in the fourth quarter. Overall the defense played OK, but third down continues to be a big issue for Don Brown's dudes.

4-of-5. Virginia Tech's offense on fourth down. Just one of those odd statistics. Good = defense forced Virginia Tech to go for it on fourth down five times. Bad = giving up four fourth down conversions, including the rushing touchdown.

17-to-11. BC managed just 11 first downs in the game to Virginia Tech's 17.

46. The Eagles were outgained by 46 yards on the day, 414 to 368. It was BC's fourth lowest total yards total of the season, behind Wake Forest (367), Pittsburgh (276) and Clemson (263).

31:56 to 28:04. BC won the time of possession battle by nearly four minutes.

3/4. PATs for Joey Launceford, who improves to 13-of-16 on the year. None of the PATs looked particularly good. I don't know why BC doesn't start going for 2 more considering they have Tyler Murphy and the fact that none of BC's kickers has established themselves as a reliable PAT kicker.

2/2. Field goals, including a 44-yarder from Alex Howell which tied a career-long. Launceford's 19-yard field goal was the other. BC is 10-of-15 on the year, though it feels like they've missed more than that.

Still DFL. With BC's PAT miss, the Eagles will still rank 128th of 128th nationally in PAT kicking, converting on just 25 of 31 attempts. Eagles placekickers have missed at least one kick -- FG or PAT -- in every game this season.

1. Blocked field goal, which would prove to be the difference in this game. Out Beamer Ball-ing Beamer Ball. Truman Gutapfel's block of the Hokies first half field goal attempt was the Eagles' first since Connor Wujciak blocked one in a 2012 loss to Georgia Tech.

3. Boston College punts downed inside the Hokies own 20 yard line. The punt coverage was even better. Overall, despite the PAT miss and missing the fake punt, special teams acquitted themselves well.

3. Penalties against Boston College for 20 yards, which is under BC's average of 4.3 penalties / game going into the contest. It was a rough start to the game, and it felt like BC was gonna end up getting penalized a ton throughout the game, but the offense eventually settled down and limited the mistakes. The Eagles' penalty total is also bailed out by the intentional grounding call on Brewer which negated the Keyes personal foul / roughing the passer. Boston College remains one of the least penalized teams in the nation.

5.9. Average yards per play for the offense, up significantly from 4.6 the week before at Wake Forest.

78. Virginia Tech ran 78 offensive plays to BC's 62.

6. For the sixth time this season, the Boston College defense allowed less than 100 rushing yards (69).

345. Michael Brewer passing yards. The Hokies QB threw for 31-of-48, 345 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a losing effort. The 345 yards passing was the most given up all season by BC (the Eagles defense gave up 317 passing yards in the win over USC).

3.0. Total team sacks for both Boston College and Virginia Tech. The Eagles' three sacks were good for a loss of 18 yards, while Virginia Tech's were good for a loss of 25. The Eagles have recorded at least 3 sacks in six games this season.

6.0. Boston College TFLs for a loss of 26 yards. Malachi Moore led the way with a pair of TFLs for a loss of 13 yards. Manuel Asprilla (1 for 2 yards), Connor Wujciak (1 for 5 yards), Kevin Kavalec (1 for 2 yards) and Sean Duggan/Brian Mihalik (1 for 2 yards) got the others.

1. Only one Eagles defender -- Manuel Asprilla -- had double-digit tackles on the day with 10 (4 solo, 6 assisted).

4-0. The Eagles improve to 4-0 in road games this year, including three conference road wins. The last time BC won three conference road games was in 2008, when BC knocked off Florida State, N.C. State and Wake Forest.

1,751. In six wins this season, Boston College has out-rushed its opponents 1,973 to 222.

24. With the win, Boston College is now eligible to participate in its 24th postseason bowl game. The Eagles are 13-10 (.565) all-time in bowl games, but have lost four straight going back to the 2008 season. BC's last bowl win came against Michigan State in the 2007 Champs Sports Bowl.

55,729. Announced attendance, the largest crowd of the year for BC, though far below Lane Stadium's 66,233 seat capacity.

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Overall, pretty weird game. If looking at the stats and not knowing the game's final outcome, you might think BC would have been competitive by lost by a score or two. But the Eagles found a way to win, are bowl eligible for the second straight season and have three more chances to string together a few more wins against a tough slate of games.