CHESTNUT HILL, MA – Could so much good will built up over a six-week period vanish in a matter of hours?

A case study on this surfaced here Saturday in the Northeast on a chilly, wet afternoon in which one of the two teams playing football at Alumni Stadium put forth an effort so bad it had some keen observers wondered if this was worse than the JMU game.

Remember that day nine weeks ago? James Madison 70, North Carolina 50.

It makes sense to hold that debacle atop the totem pole of poor performances in recent years by the Tar Heels. But good gracious, UNC’s overall showing in a 41-21 loss to Boston College just may have been worse. And it could have derailed a whole lot of regained currency generated by UNC Coach Mack Brown and the program since the team’s fork-in-the-road moment: The last-minute loss to Georgia Tech and simultaneous death of Tylee Craft on October 12.

The Tar Heels could have spiraled into the football abyss that weekend. With a fourth consecutive loss, a defense more like a sieve, a third-string quarterback feeling his way around, and a Hall of Fame coach quickly losing fan support, it would have been very much a human nature thing for the Heels to tip over.

Instead, they went the other direction, bowing up on life, themselves, and football, and proceeded to win three straight games flexing on D, with the QB making big plays, and the legendary coach regaining the trust of a semblance of his base.

And then Saturday, some 19 miles from where the Boston Tea Party took place, the old protests have again surfaced.

“Really disappointed for us…,” Mack Brown said after the loss. “We've got to go back and figure out why we were so bad.”

In his own words, the Tar Heels were bad. Really bad. Horrifically bad. Inexplicably bad. Unconscionably bad.

Here is Saturday’s grim tale:

*UNC had 80 yards of offense and six first downs entering the fourth quarter, and only 103 total yards when it took possession with 5:51 remaining in the game and trailing 41-7.

*Carolina was 0-for-10 on third downs at that same 5:51 juncture, forcing media in the press box to dig furiously to see if a UNC team has ever not converted a third down in a game.

*The offensive line that made so much progress before allowing five sacks allowed seven more Saturday.

“I thought our offensive line struggled today,” Brown said. “I didn't think they did as well as we've been doing, so there will be a combination of a lot of those things when you play this poorly."

*Quarterback Jacolby Criswell entered the game not having thrown an interception since a September loss at Duke. Yet, he threw three in two hours after throwing none in two months.

*Running back Omarion Hampton had 75 touches in UNC’s previous two games but only 14 in this contest, as Offensive Coordinator Chip Lindsey surprisingly chose to throw at times when handing the best running back in the ACC the ball would have made more sense. It actually happened quite a bit.

Just last week after the win over Wake Forest, Brown said he wanted to run the ball even more, and said he got on Lindsey for not giving Hampton the ball in some short-yardage situations. So, he was asked about it happening again Saturday.

"I think that's why you talk to chip on Monday,” Brown replied. “I'll talk to him tomorrow."

Okay, so what did Brown think of those decisions?

"I'd have to go back and look at every one of them,” he said. “That's a big picture question, for three and a half hours, that we'd have to look at it and go over each play, and I could tell you what he called and whether I liked it or not. Probably, like you, if you didn't make it, I probably didn't like it."

It wasn’t just the run game decisions, sacks allowed, Criswell’s picks, and the defense had trouble most of the day, too. A pick 6 was involved, but this was the first time the Eagles have scored 40-plus points against a power conference team since 2021. Its 420 total yards were the most for BC this season against a power conference team.

As bad as it was 54 minutes into the game, the numbers may not do justice to what the eyes saw. And that goes for a legion of fans who were inching closer to a comfort zone with the program. They may still be there, but then again, many may not.

The showing Saturday was that bad.