Notre Dame wins first ACC game over Duke: 3 takeaways

Notre Dame football asserted its dominance over Duke football Saturday.

Notre Dame football remains undefeated in ACC play all-time after defeating Duke football.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish thoroughly dominated the Duke Blue Devils up in South Bend on Saturday, winning 27-13 to kick off ACC play. Yes, the Golden Domers are playing in the ACC this year. Though it is hard to socially distance at Notre Dame Stadium, there is a ton to be excited about regarding Brian Kelly’s Fighting Irish football team. They sure did look good on Saturday.

Here are the three big takeaways from Notre Dame’s easy win over Duke.

1. The Duke defense had no answer for Kyren Williams and the Notre Dame ground game.

The big difference in this game was Notre Dame’s control of the ball on offense with a strong rushing attack. Headlined by running back Kyren Williams, who had 19 carries for 112 yards and two touchdowns, Notre Dame amassed 178 yards on the ground on 42 carries. The Irish rushed for 103 yards more than Duke did in their season opener.

This commitment to the run helped the Irish win time of possession, as well as outperform Duke in first downs, third-down conversion and yards per rush. When an offense is able to run the ball at will, it’s nearly impossible for the other team to slow them down. While Ian Book was fine at quarterback, it was Williams and the rushing attack that catapulted Notre Dame to victory.

2. It wasn’t pretty, but Chase Brice does make the Duke offense at least somewhat interesting.

We know that Duke head coach David Cutcliffe is a bit of a quarterback whisperer. His three most noted pupils of all time are Peyton Manning, Eli Manning and Daniel Jones. Though he’s a LONG way away from being a first-round pick in a future NFL Draft, Clemson Tigers transfer Chase Brice at the very least makes the Duke offense interesting. He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t horrendous.

Brice completed 20-of-37 passes for 259 yards, as well as 16 rushing yards on 10 attempts for a touchdown. He wasn’t going to play backing up Trevor Lawrence at Clemson, so he picks a lesser ACC team for an opportunity to start. Winning on the road at Notre Dame was not going to happen, but he may be a reason Duke is capable of pulling off an upset or two this season.

3. Don’t lie to us, Notre Dame. You might get used to all this ACC winning stuff and like it.

The whole thing was weird, but we kind of liked it. With a limited capacity crowd on an overcast day in Northern Indiana, Notre Dame got its first-ever conference victory in ACC play. Hell could have frozen over before the Irish thought about giving up their national independence, but like the universal DH in baseball, you know what? We kind of like having Notre Dame in the ACC, don’t we?

This is a top-10 program in the country. There is no denying that, as Brian Kelly is a phenomenal coach. While they’d play in the same Power 5 conference as Clemson, Notre Dame stands the benefit of the doubt if they were to drop a regular-season game by playing in the ACC and not as a national independent. Maybe this will be more than just a one-year thing after all? It feels good.

Notre Dame did what it needed to do vs. Duke to set the tone for its 2020 ACC football season.

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