An ominous start kicked off the Duke's Mayo Bowl for the Wisconsin Badgers, but Paul Chryst's program rebounded to eventually defeat Wake Forest, 42-28, Wednesday inside Bank of America Stadium.

Four takeaways led to a trio of key second-half touchdowns for UW (4-3), which thwarted a potent Demon Deacons' offense that gashed the defense at times during the mid-week matinee in Charlotte.

BadgerBlitz.com presents its grades from the bowl matchup in the three phases of the game

Wisconsin only gained 266 yards, just over half of Wake Forest's 518, and converted on only 3-of-11 third down opportunities.

That said, its offense took advantage of short fields created by its defense (and one series in Wake Forest territory by a nice kickoff return by Devin Chandler) in the second half and scored 28 points in the final two quarters.

The ground game only gained 122 yards on 2.8 yards per attempt; however, UW scored five of its six touchdowns behind its offensive line.

For that matter, Wisconsin went a perfect 6-for-6 in red zone opportunities against Wake Forest (4-5), all ended with touchdowns.

Quarterback Graham Mertz totaled three touchdowns on the day -- two sneaks in for scores, along with a 14-yard touchdown pass to fullback Mason Stokke that was reminiscent of his first passing score of the 2020 season. The redshirt freshman finished the day 11-of-17 for 130 yards, the touchdown pass to Stokke and, most importantly, no turnovers.

Garrett Groshek led the team in rushing (13 carries, 41 yards, one touchdown), and a returning Jalen Berger tallied 34 yards on 15 touches with a score. Jack Dunn once again paced the team in receptions (six catches, 60 yards).