The first ever Duke’s Mayo Bowl, at least the first sponsored by the mayonnaise brand, was a wild ride. Wisconsin ultimately came out unscathed with a 42-28 victory over ACC opponent Wake Forest. A 28-14 second half margin in favor of UW, four second half interceptions by Demon Deacon QB Sam Hartman, and taking care of the football ultimately propelled Paul Chryst to a victory bath of “mayonnaise” that was definitely just water or clear Gatorade.
The pace of play was the story coming in, with Wake Forest wanting to speed things up against a methodical Wisconsin squad. Early on, the Deacs controlled the pace, and on their first two drives of the game used third down conversions to score in just 3:39 and 1:59 respectively. Hartman looked like the QB that had only thrown one interception all year long. He found junior Jaquarii Roberson for a pair of touchdowns in the first quarter.
Wisconsin’s defense was uncharacteristic early, allowing long third-down conversions and looking like a secondary that was ready to be torched all afternoon long. All of a sudden, Wisconsin was down 14-0 after the first quarter and reeling.
A long, Wisconsin-like drive got the Badgers back to feeling like themselves. A drive that lasted over six minutes ended shortly after the second quarter began with a John Chenal 2-yard TD run to make cut the Wake Forest lead in half. A fitting fullback-led end to a vintage Badger scoring drive.
Graham Mertz once again looked comfortably under center on the late first/early second quarter drive, and had his best series since week one at home against Illinois.
From there, Wake Forest mistakes and lockdown Badger defense gave Wisconsin control. A blocked punt late in the first half by Jaylan Franklin set up a game-tying Badger QB sneak TD by Mertz. The score was knotted at 14 headed to the break.
A quick Wake Forest TD saw Hartman looking like himself to begin the third quarter. Then disaster struck for the sophomore. The next six Wake Forest drives? Two turnover’s on downs and four, yes four, Hartman interceptions. Not only did the Wake Forest signal caller make critical mistakes on the turnovers, he missed numerous big plays by underthrowing his receivers deep.
With the interceptions, the credit to Wisconsin and blame on Hartman is a mixed bag, but there is no questioning the activity of the Badger LB’s in the second half. Duke’s Mayo Bowl MVP Jack Sanborn was everywhere, and led a key 4th down stop near midfield in the third quarter. He finished with a team-high 11 tackles, and came up with an interception.
The Wisconsin offense cashed in on excellent field position in the final 30 minutes. The Badgers had 176 return yards off of their four interceptions compared to just 144 passing yards all afternoon long. Despite Chase Wolf throwing an interception after strangely coming in for the final drive of the half, Mertz valued the ball and finished with a zero in the turnover column.
Six second half Wake Forest turnovers, three of which set up Wisconsin in the red zone, allowed the Badgers to score 28 points in the final 30 minutes. The Badgers capitalized on Demon Deacon mistakes and took home a 42-28 win.
Wisconsin improved to 4-3 to close out this strange 2020 season, while Wake Forest dropped to 4-5. Momentum is on the Badgers’ side headed into a 2021 year where expectations will be rightfully high in Madison.
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