Against Virginia, Louisville played little offense. Against Georgia Tech, the Cardinals played little defense.

Sitting at 2-5 and 0-4 in the ACC, Louisville has a new problem now. Its offensive line was porous Saturday against Boston College.

The Eagles’ pass rushers, Zach Allen and Wyatt Ray, tormented Louisville off the edge. They combined for four of Boston College’s seven sacks and six of the team’s 12 tackles for loss.

Louisville went three-and-out seven times. Six of those series included at least one negative play.

More coverage:Cards running out of answers and time after loss to Boston College

Analysis and highlights:Louisville done in by Boston College run game in loss

The first possession was an omen. Ray came off a stunt untouched up the middle and drilled Louisville quarterback Jawon Pass for an 11-yard loss. He also stifled the Cards’ last drive of the first half with another sack on first down that set up third-and-21.

The woes continued in the second half when the offensive line did not block Allen on a third-down read-option play, setting up another punt. The offense didn’t gain a first down in either of two series after freshman Jordan Travis came in cold off the bench.

On the first, Travis threw three straight incomplete passes. On the second, he took sacks on second and third down — and made an impressive effort to lunge forward while in Ray’s grasp and reach the ball out of the end zone to avoid a safety.

It was a dismal afternoon all around for Louisville. With sacks accounted for, the offense averaged just 3.24 yards per play — its worst outing since 2010 against West Virginia, worse than the 2016 debacles against Houston and Louisiana State.

The Cards ended up 4-for-16 on third downs and averaged 8.9 yards to go on those third downs. That’s not a recipe for success.

Louisville removed Nathan Scheler from the starting lineup, inserted Kenny Thomas and slid Cole Bentley back to center Saturday, to no avail. With an off week coming up, more changes could be coming before the Cards host Wake Forest on Oct. 27.

At this point, they don’t have many other options.

A mystifying decision

Louisville coach Bobby Petrino has now changed quarterbacks in four of seven games this season. His latest decision, to replace Pass with Travis in the fourth quarter, was the most puzzling.

Related:Bobby Petrino changes quarterbacks again, won't name a starter yet

After Travis played two series late in Louisville’s blowout loss to Georgia Tech last week, Petrino said Travis was winded. The following Monday, he joked that the freshman almost needed a paper bag after he came off from his first extended college action.

Barring a sudden development, then, Travis will not be Louisville’s starting quarterback the rest of the season. If he had led the team to a heroic comeback, Louisville would have been tempted to roll with the freshman as its starter despite the issues Petrino mentioned. As it turned out, the only effect may have been on Pass’ confidence after a third benching this season.

Petrino said he went to Travis seeking a spark, since Louisville had not scored since the first half. Asked if he worried about Pass’ confidence, he said, “It’s part of the game. Puma was a starter, and it’s part of the game where all of a sudden we’re not moving the ball, we’re not doing the things that you want to do, so you what you do is you try to put in your backup quarterback and see if you can go.”

The other story in those comments is that Travis is apparently now the backup quarterback, passing redshirt freshman Malik Cunningham. Cunningham, who replaced Pass in two previous games and started at Virginia, was second on the depth chart. He also played Saturday, entering for two snaps in a goal-line package and scoring Louisville’s first touchdown on a one-yard keeper.

The use of three quarterbacks Saturday indicates Louisville is trying all of the buttons it has to find an answer, and none seemed to work at Boston College.

Quick hits

1. For the second straight week, Louisville allowed two opposing players to rush for more than 100 yards apiece. This time, it was David Bailey (28 carries, 112 yards, one touchdown) and Ben Glines (17 carries, 107 yards, one touchdown). That’s right: Neither was AJ Dillon, the sophomore who torched the Cards for 273 rushing yards last season and missed Saturday with an ankle injury.

2. Along the same lines, Louisville’s defense played fine but seemed to wear down in the second half. The fourth-quarter stats were ugly: Boston College outgained Louisville, 170-7. The Eagles rushed 25 times for 122 yards, giving Bailey 14 carries. They held the ball for 11:33 in that quarter.

More headlines:Key points and highlights of President Trump's rally in Kentucky

3. Saturday was not a good day for Louisville’s other results this season. One week after scoring 66 points at Cardinal Stadium, Georgia Tech managed just 14 at home against Duke. Western Kentucky, which took Louisville to the final second, lost to a bad Charlotte team, 40-14. Virginia did upset Miami on Saturday night, making that loss look a bit better for Louisville.

4. Checking on the remaining schedule: After the open date, Louisville plays at home against Wake Forest, at Clemson and Syracuse and at home against NC State and Kentucky. The last four opponents have winning records. The Cards have to go 4-1 to reach bowl eligibility, which is just about out of the question at this point.

5. Louisville came off of Saturday’s loss ranked 122nd in the Football Bowl Subdivision in total offense with 322.6 yards per game and 119th in rushing with 108.6 yards per game. The total yardage average would be the school’s lowest since 1996, and the rushing average would be the lowest since 2002.

Jake Lourim: 502-582-4168; jlourim@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @jakelourim. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/jakel.