Michigan lost its second game of the 2024 season on Saturday night in Seattle against a familiar opponent with a recognizable face as its head coach. Jedd Fisch, a former quarterbacks and wide receivers coach at Michigan, and his Washington Huskies sent Michigan back to Ann Arbor with a 27-17 defeat.

Neither team played perfectly, but the home team made just enough plays to pull away from the Wolverines late.

The Michigan offense ignited in the second quarter when Jack Tuttle entered the game in place of Alex Orji. The spark carried over into the third quarter, but it was quickly extinguished by Washington.

Meanwhile, Wink Martindale's defense was set up in unfavorable situations multiple times in the second half. Tuttle's turnovers on back-to-back possessions allowed Washington to begin two drives inside Michigan territory.

In the end, too many things went wrong on both sides of the ball for the defending national champions, and the national runners-up from a year ago got the better of the Wolverines in the rematch.

After the game, senior running back and captain Donovan Edwards, who ran for a 39-yard touchdown in the game, explained his duty as a leader to help the team rebound.

"It's a collective thing," Edwards said. "Coach meets with us every Monday, and we're gonna get back to the drawing board come Monday, but ultimately, it's the captain's job to continue to keep this team's morale up."

Michigan will have nearly two weeks until it plays its next game — a bye week stands between Saturday's loss and an Oct. 19 showdown with Illinois in Champaign — and Edwards is taking it upon himself to make sure the season doesn't go south after the team's second loss.

"I'm gonna continue to uplift everybody the best that I can, but also, at the same time, just like being a coach, you have to point out the bad things, too," Edwards said. "And there's a couple things that we have to clean up, but ultimately it's us. It's a collective offense, collective defense, collective special teams, and we're Michigan football. So, just me being on the offensive side of the ball, just gotta continue to morale the guys, continue to keep guys' confidence up, and just keep doing what we're doing."

Now halfway through the season, Michigan is 4-2, and it has arguably a tougher six games ahead in comparison to the six games it's already played.

Following the aforementioned game against No. 24 Illinois, the Wolverines will face Michigan State and Oregon at home, Indiana on the road, Northwestern at home, and it will of course end its regular season in Columbus against the Buckeyes.

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