Michigan football suffered its fifth loss of the season on Saturday to 8th-ranked Indiana. However, this one had a much different feel than top-10 losses to Texas and Oregon.
Michigan had chances to make those games interesting and failed. It felt like the Hoosiers were on their way to a blowout before a Zeke Berry interception changed the tenor of the game.
The Wolverines' defense dominated in the second half and held Indiana to just 14 yards. The Hoosiers were held under 300 for the game and they had the second-best scoring offense in college football (47 points per game) coming in.
Michigan should have won this game. That's my biggest takeaway and here are three things we learned.
The Wolverines are still battling
Michigan football coaches are letting this team down, which is disappointing because for the second week in a row, the Wolverines battled their asses off.
The defense gave the offense the ball at the seven-yard line and still, the coaches couldn't come up with a play to get the ball in the end zone.
Michigan settled for two field goals on three trips inside the 10. That was the reason Michigan lost the game but the defense fought and made play after play down the stretch.
There were plenty of chances for Michigan football to give up in this game. But they didn't and that makes the coaching mistakes even harder to stomach. These players deserved a lot better than their head coach spacing out in the final minute with the game still hanging in the balance.