Went to see Navy play Duke yesterday. A Navy fan, I knew I would be in good company, as I have never been to a Duke football game where the fans on the visiting side weren't louder (and often more numerous) than those on the home side. Curious thing that. How could there be so many Duke basketball fans and so few Duke football fans?

Great football weather, which is something we football fans say. Clear, sunny, and cool. Of course there is also the great footbal weather which is overcast, gray, and frigid. I think the only thing we don't call great football weather is electrical storms, but those are as rare in November as a Duke win, which as of now there are none. Which is not to say Duke has a bad team. They nearly upset Alabama, and staged a furious rally against Miami. I approached this game with great trepidation.

Walking up to the game I bought a $10 ticket for $10, just to avoid standing in line to buy one. $10 gets you a general admission seat at Duke, which with the number of empty seats at Wallace Wade Stadium means you sit anywhere you want, up to and including the fifty yard line. Nobody checks, nobody cares, which about describes the atmosphere around the Duke football program. College teams always have an advertising slogan. This year I think Duke's was "At least we don't play lacrosse."

Wallace Wade is a beautiful old stadium surrounded by trees and the campus itself. It once, back during World War II, saw the Rose Bowl. In October it saw the Rolling Stones. Both seemed unimaginable at the time. After the National Anthem there was a flyover by two F-18 Hornets from Oceana NAS. The Navy jets went over low and exceptionally fast. At halftime the pilots and weapons officers (who had landed in Raleigh and drove back over) were recognized to warm applause from the crowd.

Duke struck first after a long pass on which the Navy defender just fell over his own feet. The extra point was wide. 6-0. Navy drove right back to go ahead, then fielded a short punt and soon punched it in again. Within a minute of the second quarter starting it was 21-6, then it got much worse.

Navy (6-3) runs an option offense and is among the nation's leaders in running yardage. Saturday they racked up 435 yards on the ground, lead by their second string quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada, with 119 yards. The first string quarterback was injured against Rutgers and is out for the season.  The defense is good, by Navy standards, but the players are all human sized because of Naval Academy height and weight restrictions.

Navy had an uncharacteristic number of penalties and lost three fumbles. Coming off the losses to Rutgers and Notre Dame, the team hadn't practiced hard this week and it showed. The flip side is they had more energy than against the Fighting Irish, so Coach Paul Johnson obviously made the right call in giving them a break. I can imagine they will pay for it this week in practice, however.

A few other notes. I can't recall going to a game where one team never punted. Navy didn't. There was also an incident where a Duke player kicked the Navy quarterback while he was down. The player was ejected, and more interestingly, won't be on the 6 o'clock news or in ESPN replays. It was handled quickly and firmly and the refs kept the game under control.

Navy had 29 first downs, which is good news and bad news for a Navy fan. The bad news aspect is that the Navy pep band plays "Anchors Aweigh" each time there is a first down or score. I'll be hearing that in my sleep for a week. When it was over it was 38-13 Navy and you could do a quick head count of the Duke fans still on their side of the field. I didn't, but it was likely about 200.

When it was over, it was over. I left having enjoyed the game and hoping Duke's football team can get straightened out. 0 and 9 has an ugly ring to it and they deserve better. As for Navy, the win locked down a berth in the Meinicke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte. I plan on being there, and hope the outcome is similar to the Duke game. It's only Navy, and it's only a game, but it's not a bad game at that.