MADISON, Wis. — The Wolverines knew Wisconsin’s defense was going to be good. The Badgers routinely rank among the best teams nationally in most defensive categories, and were playing on their home turf.

But as well as Wisconsin played Saturday, the Michigan football team’s offense wasn’t ready to give them all the credit. In the Wolverines’ atrocious first half in which they mustered no points, two turnovers and just 96 yards of offense, Michigan believes many of its problems were self-inflicted.

“They played really solid defense on their end, but it was just up to us to capitalize when we could,” said senior tight end Nick Eubanks. “It didn’t turn out the way we wanted.”

The main culprit? First-half mistakes. Not unlike Michigan’s previous two games this season, the Wolverines opened their offensive game with a 68-yard completion to Ronnie Bell, then —for the third game in a row — fumbled on its opening drive two plays later on Wisconsin’s four-yard line.

Michigan’s fumble issues have been well documented, and yet another giveaway after two weeks of practice happened anyways.

“That kind of killed us a little,” Eubanks said. “And after that, we just kind of dwelled on that, and that kind of sent us downhill.”

Some of the breaks weren’t Michigan’s fault, of course. Wisconsin’s open-field tackling and pursuit angles were exceptional, and the Wolverines’ second drive stalled after a major completion to Bell was controversially ruled an incomplete pass.

But as the Badgers’ offense rolled, the fumble seemed to linger with Michigan. Drops, missed assignments, a tipped interception and other mistakes followed, and Eubanks took notice of some of his teammates mentally accepting the loss long before it was official.

“Yeah, when we went down 14-0, I looked around. There were a couple players dropping their heads,” Eubanks said. “You’re going to face adversity. It’s either going to knock us down and keep us there or we’re going to face it, tell it what’s good.”

As deflating as Michigan’s loss was, the Wolverines still have a lot of season left, and their most important challenge is finding a way to move on from the loss. There aren’t many defenses in the nation as good as Wisconsin, but Michigan faces plenty of them in Michigan State, Iowa, Ohio State, Penn State and Notre Dame.

Those are five games that, if self-inflicted mistakes continue, Michigan will lose. And dwelling will virtually guarantee the Wolverines get run out of the building again.

“This game early on in the season was a real gut check for us,” said fifth-year senior offensive tackle Jon Runyan Jr. “And now moving forward, we’ve just got to keep our heads down, keep working and doing all the things we can do to get better.”