using static pages for home page & blog entries – comment link issue

I’m working on a client site that is using the built in WordPress option/feature under options > reading

Front page displays:

checked is static page, home page is a “home” page and blog posts are listed on a “blog” page.

The usability issue we’re running into is on that selected “blog” page, it lists the blog entries as expected, but you cannot see a comment link until you click on the blog entry title.

I’m a bit lost as to how to add that comment link / how many comments have been left display in this situation.

https://www.meaganfrancis.com is the client site. You can click the “blog” tab to see what I mean. No information on comments is displayed until the title permalink is clicked.

***Also, related to this issue, aside from instructing my client to always use the “more” tag, can I force the entries to be trundicated with a “click to read more” link on this page somehow?

Thank you for any help, again this is the first time I’ve used the static home page feature.