On the eve of basketball season’s start, we got a reminder that football, too, can be a game of runs.

Duke was on the wrong side of the biggest one at Miami, losing 53-31 to the fifth-ranked Hurricanes on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.

“It’s a game of turnovers and explosive plays,” said Duke coach Manny Diaz, returning to the place where he was head coach from 2019-21. “It’s hard to beat anyone on the road if you lose those two battles.

“It’s definitely hard to beat a team that’s as talented as they are.”

There were only three runs to this game and Duke (6-3, 2-3 ACC) was on the wrong end of the first and last ones.

Miami (9-0, 5-0) scored the game’s first two touchdowns and it seemed like a rout was forthcoming. They were the first two of Cam Ward’s five touchdown-pass day, as the Heisman Trophy candidate bounced back from a scoreless weekend with a 400-yard performance on 25-for-41 passing.

The Blue Devils scored 28 of the next 31 points. Their lead was 28-17 after scoring on a fourth-and-1 from Miami’s 6-yard line on the opening drive of the third quarter. With Miami’s defense flowing left to stop an in-motion Star Thomas, Maalik Murphy floated a pass to Jordan Moore, who had an easy path to the end zone.

“We keep fighting until there’s double-zeroes,” Moore said of Duke’s comeback to that point. “It felt good that we were on a roll, obviously knowing you don’t win the game in the third quarter, you don’t win the game in the second quarter.”

Well, as you can tell, that much is obvious.

The Hurricanes scored touchdowns on five of their next six possessions, ending the game on a 36-3 run. The first two touchdown drives were seven plays apiece, with a 2-point conversion after the first one, to make it a 32-28 lead.

Duke’s last score was Todd Pelino’s 29-yard field goal about one minute into the fourth quarter; that coming after a third-down conversion on a ridiculous one-handed catch in the middle of the field by Moore.

On the ensuing kickoff, Pelino squib-kicked, and Miami started near midfield. On the second play, Ward found Jacolby George breaking free for a 49-yard touchdown pass.

“That was a major mis-execution on the squib, which again gave them another short field,” Diaz said.

Later in the fourth quarter, Ward connected with Xavier Restrepo for a 66-yard catch-and-run touchdown — Restrepo’s third score of the game — and Miami capped the scoring with a short, 30-yard drive that came after Murphy was intercepted for the third time.

“It’s hard to assess what (Murphy) is trying to do without talking to him,” Diaz said. “It’s what happens when you fall behind, you’ve got to drop back to try to come from behind. You have to put the ball in harm’s way.”

Miami scored on the first possession of the game, converting two third downs (of 10 and 5 to go). The touchdown was a 34-yard pass from Ward to Restrepo after Ward scrambled and reset the pocket, with his pass deflected by safety Terry Moore and winding up in Restrepo’s hands.

After an interception thrown by Murphy with Duke at its 5-yard line, Miami took the ball 45 yards for a Ward-to-Cam McCormick — the ninth-year tight end — touchdown pass. That made it 14-0 before 10 minutes of game time had passed.

The Hurricanes had 156 yards on 22 plays through their first three possessions. For the rest of the first half, Miami’s offense ran 21 plays and had 80 yards, just getting a 29-yard field goal by Andres Borregales after reaching Duke’s 6-yard line.

Duke’s first three possessions netted 10 yards, and then the rest of the first half and into the second half was an explosion of its offense. Peyton Jones scored an 8-yard touchdown run and had a 6-yard touchdown catch in the first half, finishing with 132 total yards (71 rushing, 61 receiving). Sahmir Hagans had a breakout performance for this season, with 139 yards and a touchdown on nine catches.

EXTRA POINTS: Micah Sahakian started at right guard for Duke and appeared to play the entire game in place of Justin Pickett. Sahakian is a transfer from Cornell who was supposed to be missing the season because of an injury suffered at the end of last season. … By the midway point of the second quarter, Duke had four tackles for loss — twice as many as the Blue Devils finished last weekend’s game with. … Jones had a 27-yard run on Duke’s first scoring drive, his longest run of the season.