ANN ARBOR - The boos were heard loud and clear.

Cincinnati had just marched 85 yards for a touchdown to open the second half against Michigan on Saturday, pulling to within three points.

Junior offensive lineman Nolan Ulizio was flagged for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Wolverines' next drive, putting the team in a fourth-and-18 situation. Michigan's offense was forced to punt for the fourth straight possession.

Fans inside Michigan Stadium expressed their frustration.

"We heard the boos," fifth-year fullback Khalid Hill told media on Monday. "That is dealing with Michigan fans, though. They always have been that way. I was a part of that 5-7 year (2014) when we weren't good. We didn't even make it to a bowl game and were getting booed by the home crowd all the time.

"But like I said, if you are going to criticize, criticize. Don't boo us and then hooray when we score a touchdown. It is your job as fans to help us, influence us, get us going. That is why you come to the games, to help us. Don't boo us, because we look to you all to get us hyped."

Hill might have been voicing his frustrations about the boos and costly penalties on offense, but explained that wasn't the case Saturday on the field.

"If you see our body language, none of it really affected us at all," Hill said. "If we get a holding call, it is a holding call. That is one thing I think as a team we have gotten a lot better at, taking negatives and we just gotta get rid of them. As soon as it happens, we have to get rid of it -- on to the next play. That is something we preached through camp and we are doing a good job taking that to the field and not letting it get to us and getting frustrated on offense."

Saturday's end result was a 36-14 victory, and the offense totaled more than 400 yards for the second straight game. Still, criticism of the offense, especially starting quarterback Wilton Speight, did not subside after the game.

When asked about Speight receiving criticism on social media after the game, Hill quickly came to the defense of his quarterback.

"It kind of infuriates us as a group because it's like, 'That is our quarterback,'" Hill said. "But at the same time, we are just going to go out and play. When we ballin' and everything is going good, people that say Wilton was doing this and that, don't jump on the bandwagon then. If you want to be a criticizer now, then stay a criticizer. Don't jump on the bandwagon when we get rolling."

Hill insists the offense isn't far off from getting to a more consistent and efficient level. The biggest issue, he said, has been penalties and little mistakes.

Michigan had seven penalties for 68 yards Saturday and also failed to get in the end zone after having first-and-goal from the 3 in the second quarter.

"Penalties were a big thing," he said. "Some of the penalties were just like, 'Ah, why are we doing that?' Other plays, it was stuff you don't think of happening in a game...It was stuff out of character for us that we usually don't do. We don't practice that way. We worked too hard to make mistakes like that. But we will continue to make an effort to condense those mistakes from happening."

Michigan's defense has helped buy some additional time for the offense to get clicking. Through the first two games, the defense has scored 21 points while only giving up 17.

Hill said he understands the offense can't always rely on the defense to provide that type of production, especially with Big Ten play approaching. The Wolverines host Air Force on Saturday before beginning conference play Sept. 23 at Purdue.

"It is good to make mistakes early," Hill said. "We can fix the mistakes now, because when we get into Big Ten play, we want to prevent those mistakes from happening. In other games, we can't just depend on our defense to get us out of situations like that (close games). As an offense, we are making plays, but it is little small mistakes that is kind of holding us back. We just need to continue working and bring the mistakes down, and we will be good."