BC wins ugly against Army

BOSTON(AP) Three and a half games into his head coaching career, Boston College's Jeff Jagodzinski didn't like the way things were going.

Channeling the best Vince Lombardi he could muster, the former Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator ripped into his team at halftime on Saturday and No. 14 Boston College responded by pulling away from Army to win 37-17.

``I don't know if I've ever seen him that frustrated or upset,'' linebacker Jolonn Dunbar said. ``He was very unfavorable with our play and our posture. If guys did underestimate Army, it doesn't say much about their character.''

Matt Ryan threw for three touchdowns and ran for his first of the season as BC, which led just 16-9 at the half, dominated in the second. Ryan was 35-for-51 for 356 yards before leaving midway through the fourth quarter with the Eagles (4-0) comfortably ahead.

``Our first half of football was as sloppy as we've played all year, and we need to be a lot better,'' Jagodzinski said. ``Now, I'm never going to apologize for a win ... but to get where we want to be, we can't play football like that.''

BC hasn't opened the season with four wins since 1999 and hasn't started 5-0 since 1954, when it played its home games at Fenway Park. The Eagles play Massachusetts next week and Bowling Green after that before playing Notre Dame and then five straight Atlantic Coast Conference teams.

Ryan connected with Kevin Challenger nine times for 104 yards and moved into third place on BC's career passing list behind Doug Flutie and Glenn Foley with 6,147 yards. But Ryan also threw two interceptions, one of them caught by Brian Chmura and returned 11 yards for a touchdown that made it 29-17 with 9:22 left in the game.

On the second play of the ensuing possession, Andre Callender went through the line and down the left sideline for a 66-yard touchdown.

``When you put enough points on the board to get the victory, you have to take some positives out of it,'' Ryan said. ``I think there's room for improvement. We have to get better. We were a little sporadic today, but the offense got it going.''

Army (1-3) had some success on special teams, with a fake field goal that set up its first touchdown and a long kickoff return that gave them good field position, but didn't do much offensively. The Black Knights managed seven first downs to 34 for Boston College and they were outgained 573-259 from scrimmage.

Carson Williams was 15-for-32 for 191 yards, hitting Jeremy Trimble three times for 81 yards.

``The wound is so fresh, we could dwell on the things we didn't do,'' coach Stan Brock said. ``But there were a number of positives we could take out of this. We're not hanging our heads.''

Ryan hit Brandon Robinson with 7-yard touchdown pass with 13:16 left in the game to make it 29-10. Corey Anderson ran back the kickoff to the BC 21 before he was tripped up on the right sideline by DeJuan Tribble.

On a fourth-and-1 from the 2, Wes McMahand was stopped within an inch or two of the first down - so close the referee had to crouch to eyeball the measurement. But on BC's second play after taking over on downs, Chmura picked Ryan off and ran it in to make it 29-17.

Callender scored to make it 35-17, then Ryan hit Callender on the 2-point conversion to give the Eagles a 37-17 lead.

Army's first touchdown came after converting a fake field goal on a fourth-and-5 from the BC 31. Holder Andrew Reinhart shuffle-passed to Mike Evans, who went around the right side for 24 yards; on the next play, McMahand scored from the 7 to make it 16-7.