BLACKSBURG, Va. — The bleachers in Lane Stadium had been thinning out since the third quarter. By the fourth, Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente had his backup quarterback Brendan Motley in the game, and even he broke loose for a 26-yard touchdown. Boston College coach Steve Addazio finally threw up the white flag when he pulled Patrick Towles for backup Darius Wade.

But at that point, there were still 10 minutes left and the Eagles were waiting for the game clock to show some mercy.

Once every drop of garbage time was drained from the clock, BC’s Atlantic Coast Conference losing streak had reached 10 games, but that seemed like the least of the team’s worries.

The Eagles’ 49-0 loss may not have been the ugliest loss since Addazio took the reins in 2013 (that title still belongs to the 3-0 rock fight against Wake Forest) but it was the worst.

It topped the previous high for points allowed by 1, a 48-34 loss to Florida State in Addazio’s first season. It was the biggest margin of defeat under Addazio, easily topping the 35-7 loss to Southern California in 2014. Overall, it was the Eagles’ biggest loss since a 54-0 loss to Ole Miss on Oct. 7, 1950.

In the aftermath, it all felt the same to Addazio.

“All losses hurt equally the same,’’ Addazio said. “They really do. When you lose a close game, it’s crushing to you. When you come out in a game like this and get your butt whipped, it’s crushing to you. I don’t think one is worse than the other. I really don’t. I think it’s important to determine why and the issues that have to be corrected. We have to find out what created this to happen this way.’’

Addazio was left with plenty to diagnose.

An offense the Eagles (1-2, 0-2) spent the offseason trying to improve was listless, mustering just 124 total yards and punting a school-record 13 times. The defense that was the best in the country a year ago looked helpless, giving up 476 and watching Hokies quarterback Jerod Evans have his way with it. Mistakes on special teams led to irreversible momentum shifts. And the Eagles were left with more questions than answers.

Towles had one of the worst games of his career. He completed just 9 of his 28 passes for 80 yards. The 32.1 completion percentage was his worst since he went 1 for 4 against Missouri as a freshman against Kentucky.

“I didn’t make enough throws,’’ Towles said. “I didn’t make awesome decisions. I have to play better.’’

With the offense flailing, the Eagles’ mistakes were only magnified.

The issues started early. On their third play from scrimmage, Michael Walker took a handoff from Towles, darted around the right side, and took a big hit from Chuck Clark that sent both him and the football flying at the Virginia Tech 33.

Andrew Motuapuaka recovered and returned it to the Virginia Tech 42. In a matter of 2:37, the Hokies churned out eight plays and found the end zone when Evans found Travon McMillian in the right flat and McMillian ran 15 yards for the score.

It seemed like the Eagles would immediately respond when Myles Willis took the ensuing kickoff the length of the field for an apparent touchdown. But the flag at the 15-yard line broke up the party in the end zone. Freshman Max Richardson’s block in the back wiped out the return, killing the Eagles’ momentum.

“Those are major momentum swings,’’ Addazio said. “You’re talking about having the ball on the 30-yard line in the first series and then they turn their deal into a score and we turn around and we answer that score with a kickoff return for however many yards that was but that gets nullified. Then you proceeded to see a series of things that were deflating.

“It is what it is. You’ve got a guy in there and he’s trying, he’s playing as hard as he can and it’s a young player making a mistake. Obviously, that mistake was costly, but guys go out and compete and they make mistakes. They make plays, they make mistakes. It’s part of the learning process. That’s life.’’

The Eagles prepared for the Hokies’ up-tempo offense all week, but seeing it in real time was different. The Hokies (2-1, 1-0) pumped out 77 plays, 476 yards, 25 first downs, and left the Eagles defense exhausted. The 223 rushing yards that Tech piled up were the most since Pittsburgh ran wild for 303 yards in 2014.

But much of the damage was done by junior quarterback Evans, who tied a school record with five touchdown passes on 16-of-23 passing for 253 yards. The backbreaker was the 30-yard touchdown pass he lofted over BC cornerback Kamrin Moore and safety John Johnson to Isaiah Ford with 1:42 left in the first half, sending the Eagles into intermission with a 21-0 deficit.

“I think we were ready for the tempo, I think we had to get ready for the speed of the game and how fast their guys were moving,’’ Johnson said. “I think we handled the tempo pretty well, they just played a better game than us.’’

The Hokies put up 21 points in the third quarter, and the Eagles were just waiting for the avalanche to stop.

“I think it got a little redundant,’’ Johnson said. “They were running the same plays and gashing us on the same plays. So I think it was as little redundant.

“They had to put us away. They couldn’t let us hang around. I don’t think they were piling it on. I think they showed a good deal of sportsmanship.’’

The Eagles were shut out for the third time in the past two years after going four seasons without being blanked. When Addazio looked down the sideline, he could see on his players faces how much they had been overwhelmed.

“We played a good team in a tough environment and you’ve got to learn how to handle that,’’ Addazio said. “You can’t shrink in that environment, you have to expand in that environment and I think there were some guys that I looked at and obviously this was a big environment for them — the biggest they’ve ever played in — and they could feel that.

“As I told the team: Nothing’s as good as it seems, nothing’s as bad as it seems, somewhere in the middle reality falls. And the reality is we can play a whole lot better than we played today. But make no mistake about it, we got our [expletive] beat today and in a place like this, in this arena here, if you let it get away from you, it’ll snap over and roll on you real quick.’’

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @julianbenbow.