Michigan Football: 3 takeaways from an empty loss to Illinois

The 100th anniversary of the Illinois victory over Michigan football featuring Red Grange was the theme of Saturday's broadcast. CBS turned back the clock with the opening sequence to commemorate the event.

When the pads started popping on the field, Michigan's defense got tested early and hung in there after Illinois jumped out to a 13-0 lead. They took their final drive of the first half the distance and capped it off on fourth and goal from the one-inch line. Kalel Mullings dove over the pile below him for six. Illinois drove into field goal range by the time that half neared, but the attempt was blocked and Michigan football was fortunate to be down only six at intermission.

Illinois came up with the play of the day on fourth down in the first five minutes of the third quarter. They faked a punt that nobody saw coming and the tight end had open space to carry it all the way to the redzone. A few plays later they went up by two scores with a one yard quarterback sneak by Luke Altmeyer. He lost his helmet in the fray, so his backup came in and converted the two-point conversion.

Michigan's offense got the ball inside the 10, but sputtered to find points. Their field goal attempt was blocked, for Dominic Zvada's first miss of the season. Jack Tuttle got the ball back and somehow connected to Colston Loveland on fourth and 18. However, on the next play Tuttle stared down Loveland and didn't see the defender step in the throwing lane for his third turnover of the day. You know the rest.

Here's three of the takeaways from the dubious defeat.