David Leeson / DMN
Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie, the Heisman Trophy winner, poses with the Cotton Bowl trophy after the Eagles' win over UH.BC gets it done by pass and run
1/2/1985
In the end, nothing bothered them. Not the cold winds that dropped the wind-chill factor in the Cotton Bowl to near zero. Not the subpar (for him) performance of quarterback Doug Flutie. And not the revival of the Houston Cougars in the second half.
No, the Boston College Eagles had climbed too far up the mountain of respectability for that. The tiny school from Chestnut Hill, Mass., with pretensions of grandeur was not about to squander its first New Year's Day invitation in 42 years. It was not about to let Flutie, the Heisman Trophy winner and America's newest athletic cover boy, end his collegiate career without the satisfaction of a bowl victory.
So, when push came to shove Tuesday afternoon, the Eagles pushed and shoved and won a game without Flutie carrying the burden, as he had done for much of the last three years.
And instead of flying as they had throughout the season, the Eagles went to basics. They hammered and chipped away at Houston until they had come up with two fourth-quarter touchdowns and secured a 45-28 victory in the 49th Cotton Bowl while setting a Cotton Bowl record for most points and total yards (533) as well.
The final two scores, a 4-yard run by Steve Strachan and an 18-yard scamper by Troy Stradford, culminated drives that were made entirely on the ground, creating a certain irony for a team that had compiled a 9-2 record and a No. 8 ranking almost entirely because of Flutie and his magical arm.
But the Eagles were more than Flutie's arm Tuesday, much to the surprise of the 56,522 fans who chose to ignore the comforts of watching the game at home on televison and endure the 32-degree, frigid conditions.
Oh, Flutie (13-of-37, 180 yards, three TDs, two interceptions) was effective early enough to justify the celebrity status he has earned since winning the Heisman Trophy on Dec. 1.
As BC coach Jack Bicknell predicted, the Eagles came out of the tunnel throwing. In the first 15 minutes, Flutie found flanker Kelvin Martin open down the right sidline for a 63-yard touchdown pass, and he ended another drive with an 8-yard scoring pass to Stradford. And a field goal by Kevin Snow was more than enough to offset the Cougars' only display of life – a 98-yard kickoff return by Houston's Earl Allen.
By the half, Flutie had thrown his third touchdown pass, tying a Cotton Bowl record, and the Eagles had a 31-14 lead that seemed destined to expand, rather than shrink.
"In the first half, we went out and played really well," said Bicknell. "But we struggled in the second half. I thought it was going to be another West Virginia game."
In that contest, the Eagles built a 20-3 halftime lead but eventually lost the game, 21-20.
And Houston (7-5) appeared to be following the same script the Mountaineers had used.
After 41 minutes of watching their Veer offense vanish, the Cougars put together a semi-textbook drive, moving 65 yards in four plays, with running back Raymond Tate providing the impetus on a 33-yard pitchout and a 2-yard touchdown run.
That cut the Eagles' lead to 31-21 with 4:04 remaining in the third quarter. A minute later, the lead shrunk some more, as Flutie, under pressure from an aggressive Houston pass rush, hurriedly dumped off a pass that was intercepted by Houston free safety Audrey McMillian at the BC 25.
"I couldn't believe my eyes," said McMillian, who caught the ball and returned it for a touchdown to cut the BC lead to 31-28. "The ball was coming right at me."
And the Cougars, regarded by many as interlopers into a Cotton Bowl party reserved for either Texas or SMU, were coming right at the Eagles.
If there was a turning point for the Cougars, it came early in the fourth quarter, when a 20-yard run by Tate, which would have brought the ball to the BC 30, was wiped out by a clipping call against Houston tight end Carl Hilton.
"I was throwing a block on the linebacker," said Hilton, "when he started to turn, and I caught him from the side. But my head was out in front.
"I saw Raymond 20 yards downfield, but I saw the ref take that red flag out of his pocket. I guess he must have been a Flutie fan."
In any case, the gain was wiped out, and the Cougars never really made a serious offensive charge.
"That call messed up with our heads," said Tate. "We never really came back from that."
Mainly because BC never let them.
"I thought we did an excellent job running the ball," said Bicknell, who had Flutie hand off to Strachan (23 carries, 91 yards, two TDs), surprisingly chosen as the game's offensive MVP, and Stradford (20 carries, 196 yards and one TD).
The Eagles simply challenged the Cougars to stop them from running the ball. And the Cougars couldn't do it.
"We couldn't sustain anything in the fourth quarter," said McMillian. "Playing against the wind hurt us, and we couldn't keep giving them the ball inside the 50 and expect to win."
The game-clinching score came with 5:45 left, on a 9-yard run by Strachan to make it 38-28. Stradford's 18-yard run with a minute left was just a little extra insurance.
And so BC had won its bowl game, something it had not done since beating Tennessee in the 1941 Sugar Bowl.
"This fulfills a goal the team set and I set coming into the season," Flutie said. "This being the last game will be very special to me and will stick with me the rest of my life."
And that the Eagles did it without Flutie creating any last-second miracles made it special, something even the Houston players noticed.
"They showed that BC is not just Doug Flutie," said Houston linebacker Bryant Winn. "We've been trying to tell the media that all week."
Perhaps the media didn't believe them. Perhaps many of the Cougars didn't believe that themselves.
But now they know. And on Tuesday, in the Cotton Bowl, Boston College reached the summit.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]