It's going to be a somber flight back home to Michigan for the Wolverines as its trip out to Seattle ends with a 27-17 loss to Washington and its season is firmly in flux.
Below are three final thoughts after the Wolverines' loss to the Huskies.
Fly too close to the sun, you're bound to get burned
Michigan had been living dangerously the last two weeks, with both USC and Minnesota making second-half comebacks that the program had to withstand in order to squeak out two victories. When you live dangerously, it's bound to bite you at some point and the Huskies did just that.
It's clear that the offense as it looks right now is not assembled to play from behind. When your defense is playing soft coverage and giving up easy yards so the Huskies can waltz down the field, the offense hasn't proved that it can punch back with an extended drive of its own.
Two of the Wolverines' biggest drives in the second half ended in disaster with a fumble and interception by Jack Tuttle. Blame it on the rust and blame it on the defense spotting the offense 14 points, this kind of performance almost felt inevitable with the way the Wolverines had been playing the last two weeks.
By the time the game was over, there were no limbs left to shoot off
U-M shot itself in the foot so many times on Saturday that all that was left was a wangled, bloody shell of what used to be feet. In fact, they had to resort to other limbs because of the number of self-inflicted wounds and mistakes both sides of the ball were having during the game.
If the mistakes were cleaned up, would the Wolverines have a better shot in this one? Absolutely? Could they have won? Absolutely.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda doesn't count in any sport and, at the end of the day, a loss is a loss but there were many moments this team would like to have back from a mental standpoint.
Not taking care of the football, bad throw leading to an interception and silly penalties have been the name of the game all season. For the most part this season, the Wolverines have been able to overcome it despite trying its best to get in their own way. Which is a far cry from what they were last season.
On Saturday, the mistakes were too much to overcome.
Perhaps the loss coupled with the bye week is enough for the team to reset and start to think inwardly about how to fix the mental errors, or perhaps this will be a lingering issue throughout the year.
Regardless, you can't expect to win if you're competing against yourselves in a game you're supposed to compete with the other team.
This will either make or break your season
This team is at an interesting crossroads right now. This loss can either galvanize the team moving forward or this is going to be the game you point to where things completely fell apart.
Despite all the talk and all the bluster, there is still a way for the Wolverines to make the playoffs right now if things turn around. While it's still possible, you're asking for the program to do a complete 180 and look completely different after having six weeks of the same tape and the same mistakes to go from.
Still possible, I suppose, but repeat performances like Saturday and the light is going to turn off quickly.
Perhaps the bye week is coming at the right time. This can be the inflection point where the team gets together to figure this out, or there simply isn't enough reinforcement to get the job done.
Either way, the road doesn't get any easier from here and this program needs it senior leadership now more than ever.
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