Gut reactions to an ugly loss by Michigan football to Illinois

There are five games left in the 2024 Michigan football season, but for all intents and purposes, the season is over.

Michigan football dropped another game on Saturday, it's the second straight and third of the season. That's the same number of games the Wolverines have lost in the previous three years combined.

Jack Tuttle isn't the answer at quarterback. It once again makes you wonder what the Michigan football coacing staff was doing in the offseason. The defense actually was better. It improved, but the offense and special teams were so bad it didn't matter.

With proper coaching and an actual FBS level quarterback, Michigan football could maybe be a playoff team. Right now, six wins might be tough to reach.

Here are the gut reactions to the 21-7 loss to Illinois.

Michigan coaches are a problem

There are so many issues on the coaching staff it's hard to know where to begin. Purdue scored 49 points against Illinois last week. The Wolverines scored seven.

Kalel Mullings was absent for long periods because this staff forgot who the best offensive player on the team was. The offensive line was atrocious (allowed five sacks) and Tuttle was too, but there is no other option.

The Wolverines have to live with it at this point and it's not going to get much better.

Turnovers are killing this team

Michigan football has little margin for error, so being minus three in the turnover ratio is a death sentence. The Wolverines turned it over twice in the red zone. They missed opportunity after opportunity.

Colston Loveland was wide open in the first quarter and Tuttle missed him. He didn't even give him a chance on the last interception, one play after converting a 4th-and-18 by throwing it up to Loveland.

Donovan Edwards also fumbled. It's hard to win with three giveways even if you're a good team and Michigan isn't that right now. So in order to win again, they have to clean up the turnovers.

The defense did more than enough

It was disappointing that the run defense allowed almost 200 yards but the defense did more than enough to win the game. They finally wore down, but time and time again, they kept the Wolverines in it.

However, at least three first-round picks on defense will be wasted this season because Michigan has the worst offense in college football. That might be a tongue-in-cheek, but it's not that far from the truth.

A bowl isn't guaranteed

There are five games left on the schedule: Indiana, Michigan State, Oregon, Ohio State, and Northwestern. There aren't any guaranteed wins on that schedule. I don't see any way possible that Michigan beats Indiana, Oregon, or Ohio State.

So it's a two-game season to reach a bowl game. Or, maybe the Wolverines should just accept some punishment from the NCAA and if there is a postseason ban, get it out of the way.

The season, outside of beating MSU and pulling the upset of upsets over Ohio State, is over and the drop-off was all much bigger than we expected.

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