Elon put up a fight in the first half, battling Duke to a 10-10 halftime tie before the Blue Devils took them to the woodshed in the second, outscoring the Phoenix 35-7 for a 45-17 win.
Darian Mensah got going after the break, throwing for three second half TDs. He finished 27-34 for 389 yards and was perfect in the second half, hitting 11-11 and connecting on his last 14 passes overall. Only Dave Brown had a better debut at quarterback for the Blue Devils, racking up 444 against Wake Forest in 1989.
Elon did cut the lead to 24-17 but Duke ripped off 21 straight to put the game out of reach.
There was a period of adjustment in the first half as Duke started the season with a new quarterback and a number of players taking on new roles, but ultimately the team settled down and began to excel.
They probably won’t have the luxury of adjusting like that next week as #12 Illinois comes to town and the margin of error will be much smaller.