When an offensive lineman gets two starters from the opposing defense ejected from the game, it usually can't hurt your chances to win.
Especially when one of those starters is the preseason ACC Player of the Year ... and he anchors the second best rush defense in America.
Games like Saturday's at Boston College are the reason that I don't bet on sports. B.C. lost defensive tackle Alvin Washington and everybody's All-American defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka early in the third quarter -- but proceeded to play its best football of the day from that point on.
The Eagles attributed the turnaround to one play.
Brad Butler's late chop-block on Kiwanuka's injured leg lit a fire under the rain-soaked crowd at Alumni Stadium. When the Eagles fell behind 14-7, the fire got so hot that Katrina herself wouldn't have put it out.
It wasn't until Deyon Williams' 23-yard touchdown catch that Boston College showed up to play. In the four ensuing B.C. possessions, quarterback Quinton Porter drove his team into the end zone three times.
Virginia's only response after the Williams catch was a 37-yard field goal by Connor Hughes.
Execution down the stretch -- that was the difference between winning and losing.
"We got the ball back [following Williams' touchdown catch]; we scored," Boston College head coach Tom O'Brien said. "We blocked a punt; we scored. I think that the whole game changed right at that point in our favor."
O'Brien continued by waving a finger in the general direction of Brad Butler.
"That was not the way that we want to play and act on the football field, but I think [Butler's chop-block] rejuvenated the stadium and got our football team going."
For a minute, it seemed like Butler's stunt would help his team take control. It gave Virginia new life deep in B.C. territory, after a failed third-down conversion. It incited Washington to retaliate, which got him tossed. It gave the Cavaliers the lead, their first of the afternoon. And it even threw Kiwanuka off his game -- B.C.'s all-time sack leader threw a jab into Butler's face on the next Virginia drive, earning an ejection of his own.
It's always the one who retaliates, isn't it?
"I'm not the one to speak of losing my composure today," Kiwanuka said.
Who should have spoken on that topic, in Kiwanuka's mind, was Butler. He's the one who probably will never shake the reputation he now has for being a headhunter.
We don't have microphones in the huddles, and we don't have cameras in the piles. We know that football is at its nastiest on the line of scrimmage. And it's almost impossible that Kiwanuka did nothing to incite Butler's late hit.
But it's all immaterial, because stuff like this happens at Miami. It happens at Florida State.
It does not happen at Virginia.
Not until Saturday at least -- which surprised the Boston College students even more than me.
"Everyone here knows that U.Va. is a dope school," said a B.C. senior I talked to after the game. "Now, I think you guys are a bunch of scumbags."
I guess my dad was right all those years. Perception is reality.
"I play hard, and I play through the whistle," Butler said. "I have no comment on [the chop-block]. The refs didn't call a penalty on me on that play."
They didn't have to. I know what I saw.
And I don't care if Butler has "no comment" for the rest of the season. That won't change the right way to play the game.
What was so confusing, so disheartening about the episode was the incredibly inaccurate portrait it painted of Butler. He has done nothing but play the right way since 2002, his first year as a Cavalier. But one lapse in judgment could mean a lifetime labeled as a dirty player.
Neither Al Groh nor any of Butler's teammates accepted the invitation to condemn their left tackle after the game. They know their teammate hasn't built his reputation by making bush league plays, and they've got too much respect for him to throw him to the wolves now.
But I'm sure if they could, they'd all tell you the same thing. Butler lost his cool. And now, a good player and good person will have to live with one mistake for the rest of his career.
Perception is reality, and there's nothing anyone can do to change it.
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