The Wolverines were missing starting ends Aidan Hutchinson and Kwity Paye Saturday, and it showed. They moved Carlo Kemp outside and rotated several players along the line, but they couldn’t find a combination that was effective. Kemp did record the team’s first sack in three games, but Michigan didn’t register any quarterback hurries against the Badgers. They also were gashed for 341 yards on the ground. Grade: F.

Linebackers

Michigan had no answer for Wisconsin’s jet sweeps as linebackers struggled from sideline to sideline. Wide receiver Danny Davis even rushed for 65 yards and a score on seven carries. And the Badgers’ dominant rushing attack was without two of their top running backs. Michigan only had two tackles for loss, with one coming from linebacker Cam McGrone. Grade: F

Secondary

With its run game working, Wisconsin didn’t need to attack Michigan’s inexperienced secondary down field. Graham Mertz only went to the air 22 times, completing 12 passes for 127 yards and two scores. Michigan’s defensive backs weren’t at fault for either of the two passing touchdowns, so that’s minor progress. The team also had just one pass interference penalty Saturday, which was called on redshirt freshman cornerback D.J. Turner, who replaced the injured Gemon Green for a few plays in the second quarter. Grade: C-

Special teams

Quinn Nordin nailed a 46-yard field goal on his only attempt and he is now 2 for 2 this season. The team also had a few solid kick returns. Giles Jackson had two for 66 yards, including a 43-yarder, while Corum had two for 49, including a 32-yarder. However, Christian Turner had a costly roughing the kicker penalty on a Wisconsin punt attempt. Michigan was about to get the ball back late in the third quarter after just scoring to make it a 35-11 game. Grade: B-.

Coaching

The Wolverines have regressed every week this season, reaching a new low Saturday. Their 28-0 halftime deficit was their largest ever at Michigan Stadium as they were dominated on both sides of the ball. The confidence and energy from the players just isn’t there on a consistent basis, and part of that falls on the coaching staff. Grade: F

Nor did the Detroit News’ Angelique S. Chengelis:

The losses are snowballing for Michigan, which had a jumble of mistakes against Wisconsin as the Wolverines continue to reach new depths.

The Wolverines sunk quickly in the first half against Wisconsin, a team that had missed the last two games because of COVID-19 issues and played without a handful of starters Saturday night at Michigan Stadium, and could never climb its way from a deep, deep hole.

Just as was the case last year when the Badgers battered Michigan in the Big Ten opener, they took a 28-0 lead into halftime. Two of the Badgers’ touchdowns came off interceptions of first-year starting quarterback Joe Milton in their dominating 49-11 victory. Milton was intercepted on the Wolverines’ first offensive play of the game when it deflected off the hands of tight end Nick Eubanks.

Michigan is 1-3 for the first time since 1967 when Bump Elliott was coach, having lost three straight, to Michigan State, Indiana and Wisconsin, and is 0-2 at home in this abbreviated Big Ten-only season.

Jim Harbaugh, in his sixth season coaching the Wolverines, did not mince words after the game.

“We were thoroughly beaten in every phase and didn’t really do anything well,” Harbaugh said. “Did not play good, did not coach good. Not in a good place with the execution, not in a good place adjusting and what we were doing schematically. Not in a good place as a football team right now and that falls on me.

“And gotta get after really going back to basics and everything that we do and look at everything we’re doing. Everybody, everybody’s gotta do better and as I said, I’m at the front of the line with accountability.”

Nor did the Detroit Free Press’ Marlowe Adler:

If you thought Saturday was the night Michigan football would turn its season around, you are in for a treat.

Joe Milton threw interceptions on his first two pass attempts, and Wisconsin ran rampant over Don Brown’s defense en route to a 28-0 halftime lead at a quiet Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

According to the ESPN broadcast, it’s Michigan’s worst deficit at home since Michigan Stadium opened in 1927.

It was so bad, “Rich Rod” was trending on Twitter, with fans wondering if the former Michigan coach who went 15-22 in three season would do a better job than Harbaugh.

The Wolverines’ first four possessions gained six yards, with the struggling Milton going 0-for-4 passing:

Interception, interception, three-and-out, three-and-out.

Wisconsin had outgained Michigan, 189-6, after its fourth touchdown.

Milton’s second pick was one of the most egregious you’ll see, when he appeared not to see the Wisconsin linebacker directly in the throwing lane and threw it right to him.

Defensively, Michigan had no answer for Wisconsin’s offense, which ran some misdirection plays to create space and used play-action to open up the defense.

The Badgers’ fourth touchdown was against a Michigan defense that had no effort as the seas parted for an easy 10-yard run for Nakia Watson, his second touchdown of the half.

It was almost like they took a page out of Matt Patricia’s Detroit Lions playbook, allowing the opponent to score in order to get the ball back quicker.

“Just demoralizing,” ESPN color commentator Kirk Herbstreit said after the play. “I can’t believe this is the Big House and we’re watching Michigan right now down 28. I can’t believe this is happening.”

“It’s a good thing the Big House is the empty house. There would be deafening boos right now,” play-by-play man Chris Fowler said.

And when Michigan finally moved the ball on its fifth possession, Milton was stuffed on fourth-and-goal at the 1 on a quarterback keeper Wisconsin was ready for.

The Freep’s Rainer Sabin pours salt into the wounds:

Hours before Michigan arrived at the lowest point of Jim Harbaugh’s tenure as coach, one of the Wolverines’ old rivals provided an oblique diagnosis of their woes.

On a TV set thousands of miles away from Ann Arbor, former Ohio State coach and current Fox college football analyst Urban Meyer advised that a coach of a struggling team should assume its problems are caused by one of three phenomena: Trust issues among players, selfishness that undermines a collective effort or a dysfunctional environment that spawns entitlement instead of hard work.

As Wisconsin steamrolled Michigan football during a 49-11 rout on a frigid night in Ann Arbor, Harbaugh had to wonder whether  a combination of those factors had torpedoed his football team — transforming it from one that was ranked in the preseason to an unsightly mess that is off to its worst start since 1967. The Wolverines, after all, looked discombobulated, lifeless and uncompetitive throughout a disastrous performance that left Harbaugh crestfallen.

“Not in a good place as a football team right now and that falls on me,” he said.

The week before, following a loss to Indiana that was devastating in a different way, Harbaugh tried to sell the idea that the Wolverines were nearing the point of playing well.

He explained that the sound performances in practices were not being replicated in the games for some inexplicable reason.

But by the end of Saturday night, he had scrapped that rationale and simply accepted the harsh reality.

“Every part is not close to where it should be,” he confessed. “Stopping the run. Stopping the pass. Running the football offensively. Throwing in the passing game. All things are thoroughly not where they need to be in terms of execution, so that starts with me. It starts with our coaches and also every person here.”

Harbaugh promised there would be fixes and that everything would be evaluated. He told reporters Michigan would go “back to the basics” and “try to win by all means necessary.” Harbaugh vowed the Wolverines would reexamine the schemes, the players and the performance of all involved.

Yet Harbaugh acknowledged he doesn’t have a magic potion to cure the Wolverines.

The coach who returned to Ann Arbor with the reputation as a sorcerer of X’s-and-O’s seemed at a loss for answers.

Instead, he was the one asking questions.

“If someone is not executing it, why is that?” he wondered aloud. “Are we communicating? Are we coaching it well enough?”

It was strange to hear Harbaugh like this. For so long, he has been so self-assured — even cocky. In the face of previous defeats, he often exuded confidence and defiance as if he knew the pain was temporary and success was just around the corner.

But after he watched Wisconsin roll through Michigan’s front seven to gain 341 yards rushing, after he saw his starting quarterback Joe Milton throw interceptions on his first two pass attempts, after he witnessed the Wolverines trail the Badgers by four touchdowns at halftime for the second straight year, he simply appeared defeated.

He knows there is no easy solution because he admits that everything is on the table.

“Everything we do is going to aim at improvement,” he said. “Anything we can identify that we can do better.”

The problems, though, are systemic. A wave of transfers has depleted depth and diminished the talent pool. The approach to practice and preparation has been questioned by multiple people inside the program, including offensive coordinator Josh Gattis and receiver Giles Jackson. The coaching — from evaluation of the roster to the play-calling — has also invited skepticism. The culture of Harbaugh’s organization that has allowed complacency to seep in and unwarranted arrogance to mushroom is now under the microscope.

In essence, Harbaugh’s Wolverines have become the quintessential example of the broken team Meyer described on Fox’s pregame show.

The former Ohio State coach saw what had happened to Michigan before Harbaugh did.