If any questions lingered about whether Duke’s football team would fight when faced with adversity, the Blue Devils answered them twofold with Saturday’s 45-21 win over Miami at Hard Rock Stadium.

Both in terms of the Blue Devils coming off of back-to-back three-point losses and in terms of Duke falling behind early and starting the second half in terrible fashion, Duke’s resolve shined; and coach Mike Elko made sure it was the first thing he mentioned after the game.

“What an amazing statement of resiliency from this football team and this football program, and our coaching staff,” Elko said.

The “game of runs” basketball cliché can extend to the football field, at least for this game.

Duke (5-3, 2-2 ACC) fell behind early after committing a turnover on the second play of the game, and then scored 17 straight points to go into halftime leading by 10.

The start of the second half was worse; the rest of it was even better. Miami (3-4, 1-2) notched two long touchdown passes to start the second half and grab a 21-17 lead; Duke scored the last 28 points of the game, including Riley Leonard’s third rushing touchdown of the game and Brandon Johnson’s win-sealing pick-6 with 5:16 left.

“For us to have been through what we’ve been through the last two weeks,” Elko said, “for the game to start the way it did in the first quarter, for the game to start the way it did in the third quarter, for this group to just continue to fight, continue to scratch, continue to find ways to make plays, and to grind out what is truly an impressive road victory for us.”

Duke is the first team in college football to force eight turnovers in a game this season. Five fumble recoveries and three interceptions — two of them by Jaylen Stinson—led to scoring opportunities on a day that Duke only had 336 yards of offense.

The Blue Devils got cooking with a rushing attack in the second half; 131 of their 200 rushing yards came in the second half.

The game-defining drive came on Duke’s second possession of the second half, after Miami had taken a 24-21 lead. Duke marched 79 yards in 18 plays, engulfing 9:22 of the clock and ending with a 2-yard touchdown pass from Leonard to Nicky Dalmolin.

“We obviously didn’t start the third quarter the way we wanted to. We probably couldn’t have started it any worse if we tried,” Elko said. “But we had to go out there and respond. And that’s what really good football teams do.”

Duke punched in three fourth-quarter touchdowns to runaway to a three-touchdown win in a game it entered as a nine-point underdog.

Things didn’t start so smoothly for the Blue Devils.

Duke lost a fumble for the first time this season when Jalon Calhoun lost the ball at the end of a 20-yard catch on the second play of the game. That led to Tyler Van Dyke throwing a 7-yard touchdown pass to Colbie Young, putting the Blue Devils in an early hole.

The Blue Devils forced four turnovers in the last 16 minutes of the first half, three of which led to scores — and the fourth quelled a Miami drive at the end of the half.

Leonard punched in touchdown runs of 9 and 5 yards, both on third-and-goal, to quickly turn the Blue Devils’ seven-point deficit into a seven-point lead. Duke had the ball for the second touchdown after Miami fumbled the kickoff that followed Leonard’s first score.

Duke dealt Miami a crushing blow on the third turnover it forced in the first half, when linebacker Cam Dillon sacked Van Dyke, forcing a fumble and knocking the Hurricanes’ QB out of the game.

Johnson recovered the fumble after DeWayne Carter’s scoop-and-score attempt went awry.

The Blue Devils got a field goal — Todd Pelino from 28 yards — off of that turnover, and the Blue Devils’ fourth takeaway of the first half was an interception by Stinson in the final seconds.