What does it say about two leagues when the doormat in one can take out the defending champion in the other… on the road? The Atlantic Coast Conference might not be as powerful as the Southeastern Conference in college football, but it sure dealt a disillusioning blow to the Sun Belt Conference on Saturday night.

Duke earned a rare road win out of conference win after beating Florida International 31-27 in Miami. FIU was able to exploit the porous Duke defense and gained a ton of yards, but Duke came out on top on the scoreboard by not turning the ball over and scoring at opportune times in the first and fourth quarters. In fact, both teams did almost all their scoring in the first and fourth quarters, with FIU adding only a field goal in each of the second and third quarters. The teams played mostly even football in the first and fourth quarters, while FIU dominated the second and third quarters but managed only 6 points despite racking up tons of yards.

Duke, as has been the case all season, had no running game to speak of, while FIU managed a balanced attack. Duke quarterback Sean Renfree was 28-43 for 335 yards with 2 TDs and no picks. His outstanding receiving corps came up big with Connor Vernon and Donovan Varner each having over 100 yards receiving. Vernon had 8 catches for 117 yards, including a 26 yard grab to put Duke up 10-7 in the opening quarter. Varner had 7 catches for 111 yards. Duke doesn’t completely abandon the running game, but it is limited in both attempts and effectiveness. The team only attempted 22 rushes for 49 yards, and 16 of those came on freshman Jamison Crowder’s only attempt of the game.