ANN ARBOR, Mich. — On a day where the Michigan defense couldn't afford to make uncharacteristic mistakes, the Wolverines' defense did just that against Michigan State as the Wolverines were caught twice attempting to get players off the field as the Spartans were snapping the ball.

While the 10 free yards wasn't the difference in the loss, giving away free yardage certainly doesn't help the cause.

For U-M defensive lineman Mike Morris, the Wolverines were busy trying to match up against what the Spartans were doing offensively.

It just wasn't matching up to pace.

"We were just trying to match personnel," Morris told reporters on Monday. "Coach Mac loves to match personnel. So, if they have two tight ends, one tight end, two backs, or one back, he always likes to match it. This week, it didn't work out so well. Usually, we're on and off the field really fast and very frequently we would do it in a timely fashion. This week, it just didn't happen. The pace was too fast. We were looking for the call, we didn't get the call. It was just happening way too fast. We just didn't match up, that's what happened."

When asked whether the Spartan tempo was the issue, Morris declined the question. Instead, stated that the Wolverines simply didn't get the players on the field fast enough.

"It wasn't an issue, again, we were just trying to match personnel," Morris said. "They were close to their sideline and had people running on and running off. We were trying to figure out what was going on in the box and we just couldn't make it happen."

U-M head coach Jim Harbaugh had a less in-depth breakdown compared to Morris on Monday.

Instead, he simply acknowledged that the issue will have to be fixed moving forward.

"Yeah, something we’ve gotta work on, gotta fix," Harbaugh said. "Especially when they’re not substituting and going fast. It’s not the time for us to be substituting."