Boston is and always will be a pro sports town.

But if the Patriots stumble to a last-place finish under Jerod Mayo and Monday night’s Tallahassee beatdown proves not to be a one-off fluke, Boston College football has a chance to be more relevant locally than it’s been in decades.

The Bill O’Brien era at BC opened on the highest possible note this week. On the road, in primetime, in front of a national TV audience, the Eagles steamrolled No. 10 Florida State in a 28-13 victory that wasn’t as close as the final score suggested.

No, this FSU team should not have been ranked anywhere near the top 10. Yes, it’s far too early to declare that this BC program — one with exactly zero AP Top 25 finishes since Matt Ryan left town in 2007 — is “back.”

But it was impossible to watch this O’Brien-led outfit and not come away impressed.

BC flat-out bullied one of the marquee programs in the ACC, piling up 263 rushing yards (5.1 per carry) against a Seminoles defensive line that features multiple NFL Draft prospects. Florida State managed just 21 rushing yards and averaged 1.6 per tote.

Junior quarterback Thomas Castellanos provided 73 of BC’s yards on the ground while avoiding the turnover problems that plagued him as a passer last season. The 5-foot-9 playmaker finished a tidy 10-for-16 for 106 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions, prompting Scott Van Pelt to compare him to Kyler Murray during the postgame “SportsCenter.” Running backs Kye Robichaux and Treshaun Ward combined for 162 rushing yards and one score.

Defensively, the Eagles made red-zone stands on FSU’s final two series of the first half, then grabbed an interception on the first drive after halftime. The last time they held a ranked opponent to 13 or fewer points? 2007 at Virginia Tech.

More than anything, this just felt like a professional performance. BC did not turn the ball over and committed just one penalty – a big improvement over last season, when it ranked 101st in the nation in flags. First-year offensive coordinator Will Lawing – one of several assistants on O’Brien’s staff with NFL experience and the only one to follow him from the Patriots – called a smart game, consistently putting Castellanos and company in advantageous spots.

BC found the end zone on two of its first three drives of the game and two of its first three drives of the second half, driving more than 60 yards on three of those. It should have put at least 10 more points on the board, as BC’s first possession ended with a dropped pass in field-goal range and its last with a series of merciful kneel downs deep in FSU territory.

Situationally, the Eagles went 9-for-16 on third down and were 4-for-4 in the red zone before their late knees. The Seminoles were 3-for-14 on third down, 1-for-3 on fourth down and 1-for-3 in the red zone.

Disciplined. Efficient. Professional.

Simply put, this did not look like the BC squads that went a combined 3-39 against ranked teams and 1-23 versus the top 15 over the three previous coaching regimes.

“That’s a heck of a statement for BC,” O’Brien told reporters after the game. “But it’s just one win. It’s only one. So we have to understand that, and we’ve got to be able to handle success as well as we’ve handled adversity tonight.”

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Whether that success will continue remains to be seen. BC has what should be a layup home opener against FCS Duquesne this week before traveling to Missouri for another daunting road matchup against a big-time school. The Tigers are ranked ninth nationally.

But even if the Eagles can’t pull off a second upset, their remaining schedule is relatively favorable. Of the five ranked ACC teams heading into Week 2, they’ll only see one of them: No. 22 Louisville at home on Oct. 25. They avoid Miami, which looks like the class of the conference after dump-trucking Florida on Saturday, and Georgia Tech, which beat Florida State in Ireland on a last-second field goal. No NC State or Clemson, either.

It would be stunning if O’Brien turned BC into a true national contender, especially in his first season, and not entirely surprising if the team quickly regressed. But if his boys are, say, 5-2 heading into that Friday night Louisville game while the rebuilding Patriots are wallowing in the NFL basement, as most prognosticators expect them to? You could see a lot of football-watching eyeballs begin turning toward Chestnut Hill.

That sounds crazy given where BC football — and, honestly, college sports in general — typically resides in the Boston sports consciousness. And maybe it is. But it’s an opening the Eagles haven’t had since the days of Doug Flutie, whose 10-2 season and Cotton Bowl win in 1984 came as the Patriots were wrapping up a 21-year drought without a playoff win. The heights they reached during Ryan’s tenure (2004-07) were far overshadowed by the dominant Pats and Red Sox teams of that era.

Now, barring a surprise bounce-back season in Foxboro, that autumn runway is clear.