Big crowd?
Check. Announced at 40,004.
Big-time opponent?
Notre Dame. Check.
Good TV slot?
Prime time. Check.
Duke football team?
MIA.
That might be a bit harsh. Duke won some battles. But nowhere near enough to win the war. Too many mistakes, too many squandered opportunities, too little offense, too little imagination. With the exception of a brief span late in the first half, Notre Dame totally dominated Duke Saturday night in Wallace Wade Stadium, taking a wire-to-wire 38-7 win back home to South Bend.
David Cutcliffe used the word “pristine” a lot in Tuesday’s media conference and Duke was far from pristine.