DURHAM – Riley Leonard didn’t play in Duke’s throttling of N.C. State but his words from last month echoed through Saturday night.

“God is good and so is our defense,” was the creed from Duke’s quarterback after the season-opening win over Clemson, and it rang true in the Blue Devils’ 24-3 win over the Wolfpack.

Good might be understatement when it comes to Duke’s defense.

“Our defense, we challenged them early in the week to step up,” coach Mike Elko said. “We knew the best defense on the field tonight would win the football game. And it had to be us, to get us where we wanted to go.”

The Blue Devils just won a game by three touchdowns in which their first-time starter of a QB completed four passes. Henry Belin IV was on point when he needed to, Jordan Waters hit a hole when he needed to, and Duke’s control of this game was such that it attempted one pass in the second half.

It was incomplete. Belin completed 33.3% of his passes, but 50% of his completions were touchdowns.

“In practice, we emphasized that we need to step up with Riley going down,” said linebacker Tre Freeman, who led Duke with 15 tackles and had an interception that set up Belin’s second touchdown. “We knew Henry was going to do his thing tonight.

“But we emphasized we needed to lock in on defense and not let them score points.”

N.C. State’s only points came on its first possession, when it took advantage of Belin’s only mistake — and there’s room for interpretation with a possible wrong route, per Elko — and netted 0 yards before Breydan Narveson’s 57-yard field goal.

There are four teams in the country allowing less than 10 points per game. Duke is one of them; the other three — Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State — all reside in the only conference with multiple teams that could match Duke’s physicality.

Duke has given up seven touchdowns in six games. When you dive into the nuance of those touchdowns, it sheds a brighter light on how stifling the Blue Devils have been:

- Clemson’s touchdown came after a muffed punt put the Tigers at Duke’s 18-yard line.

- Lafayette’s touchdown came after an offside on a field goal resulted in a first down.

- Northwestern had one marathon drive for a touchdown, and scored the other one with 1½ minutes left and Duke’s reserves on the field.

- Connecticut’s touchdown came with 12 seconds left.

- Notre Dame’s first touchdown came after a fake punt; the Irish’s second touchdown came in the final minute with the Blue Devils caught in a sellout blitz.

Maybe it’s hyperbole, but you can understand why Waters feels a certain way against the unit he spent fall camp practicing against:

“That’s the best defense in the ACC and we go against them every day,” Waters said. “I think that’s why we practice and run so hard.”

Duke’s recipe to win with a first-time starter at QB required this type of game from its defense.

It delivered.

Inexperienced quarterbacks don’t fare well against these Blue Devils. Saturday night was the fourth time this season Duke has faced a QB with fewer than five career starts — the aggregate score of those four wins is up to 135-24.

The irony of this one was Duke didn’t tap into its catalog of blitzes for every third down against MJ Morris — most of the critical passing downs saw Duke drop seven or eight into coverage. The Blue Devils still had four sacks, but this was more about containing Morris than pressuring him.

N.C. State’s sophomore QB went from completing 17 passes for 265 yards (average of 15.6) against Marshall last weekend to completing 24 for 193 (average of 8.0) against Duke.

Tougher tests than this will follow, and those are in the immediate future. Road trips to Florida State and Louisville in the next two weeks will determine how much Duke can accomplish in November. Both of those teams, for the record, have QBs in their sixth seasons of college football.

No matter who plays QB for Duke in those games, though, you feel like the Blue Devils have a chance. In 19 games with Elko as Duke’s coach, 14 have been wins — and the five losses are by a combined 23 points.

Duke will have a chance in every game because God is good and so is Duke’s defense.