Michigan deserved an awful review.

And the Wolverines provided it themselves.

"It's embarrassing," Michigan secondary coach Tony Gibson said. "We missed big play after big play (and) couldn't get anything going."

With each of Michigan's previous two losses coming essentially on the game's final play, its deflating 35-10 defeat to No. 13 Penn State was the first time all season the Wolverines looked like last year's nine-loss team.

"It's really disappointing because I feel like we've really progressed since then," redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Ryan Van Bergen said about the defense after the game. "To go back and regress at this point in the season is just something that we didn't want to do."

And it's hard not to look to the defensive side of the ball when figuring out what happened Saturday.

Last year, the defense gave up 35 points or more on six occasions. Saturday was the first time the defense gave up that many all season, which left a struggling offense in a hole too deep to overcome in the final 15 minutes.

"Obviously we didn't prepare hard enough for our opponent," redshirt sophomore linebacker Brandon Herron said. "You know, (Michigan) coach (Rich Rodriguez) said it all in the locker room: big plays we've given up on the field have kind of hurt us. I just felt like we should've worked a little harder in order to win this game. No one's to blame."

But those mistakes Herron echoed are correctable. The most alarming part of that comment is about Michigan's preparation for this critical game.

Sophomore Mike Martin said that Rodriguez "told us he didn't prepare us as well as he could, so he took responsibility."

Even Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark noticed it in the defense, mentioning the Wolverines "had trouble lining up" on a few plays.

"They didn't do very much disguising coverages," Clark said. "I kind of knew where to throw the football."

The lone highlight of the defense was senior defensive end Brandon Graham, who finished with seven tackles — 3.5 of those tackles for loss, which tied a career high — and the first blocked punt of his career.

It's hard to pinpoint just one culprit, though. The big-yardage gains the Wolverines gave up were due to mistakes by everyone, and Penn State easily took advantage.

Senior Stevie Brown, a former four-star prospect, was beat twice on end-zone routes by a former walk-on, Nittany Lions wide receiver Graham Zug. Zug also caught a third touchdown with junior standout cornerback Donovan Warren covering him.

What was wrong with the defense?

"I couldn't tell you," Warren said. "I couldn't tell you what went wrong, man. No clue."

Warren credited Penn State for calling the right plays based on what Michigan was running schematically, but the huge, back-breaking gains were rooted in the smallest of mistakes.

Penn State capitalized on one of them on its first offensive play after the Wolverines gave up a safety late in the second quarter. Herron said he forgot to get his hands on the tight end to slow him down, so redshirt junior Obi Ezeh didn't have time to make his read.

The result was a 60-yard touchdown bomb to tight end Andrew Quarless that gave the Nittany Lions a two-possession lead they wouldn't relinquish.

"That was just a bad day for us, I guess," Martin said. "We just got to have a better week of preparation going into (Illinois) next week, which is a huge opportunity for us."

Though Michigan's collapse was a combination of many factors, including questionable preparation and countless mistakes, one thing is clear after Saturday: The Wolverines certainly won't be in the Rose Bowl as Brown talked about before the Penn State game.

And Michigan didn't even seem close to that level of play against the Nittany Lions.

"I'm disappointed we never gave ourselves a chance," Gibson said.