Michigan Football: Kyle Whittingham 'Most Disappointed' in Unexpected Area vs. Iowa

This might not have been the answer many were expecting.

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The Iowa Hawkeyes drove the ball 91 yards on their final possession this past Saturday to give Michigan its first loss of the season. There was some flukiness involved, and there were self-inflicted penalties.

For starters, Iowa had two tipped balls that, somehow, the Hawkeyes were in the right place at the right time to come down with it. With two seconds left, Hank Brown was trying to get his team set to spike the ball, in hopes of getting another play off, but John Henry Daley was injured on the field.

And then there were the penalties. Michigan had eight of them for 75 yards, some coming in crucial moments. But it's not the penalties that were the most disappointing thing for Kyle Whittingham. Talking to Jon Jansen on 'Inside Michigan Football', Whittingham said it's the lack of takeaways from his defense.

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“Well, first of all, I thought we played our best game offensively," Whittingham said. "I think that we moved the ball well. I don't think I know we moved the ball well, and particularly against the number one defense in the country, at least through three weeks. So to put up 420 plus yards, we did have the one turnover, but typically we can live with one or less.

"One or less is doable, but that's assuming we're creating some of our own on defense, which probably the most disappointing thing in the game for me, or one of the most disappointing things, was our inability to take the ball away. We had zero takeaways, and we need to do a better job getting the ball to the offense in short field situations.

"We have not done a good job of that this year defensively. We've done a lot of good things on defense. Don't get me wrong, but that's not one of them.”

Michigan has struggled finding takeaways

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Under Jay Hill, his defenses have been known for wreaking havoc and forcing turnovers. There were at least two different times in the Iowa game where a Michigan defender had a chance for an interception, but they either mishandled the throw, or in the case of Chris Bracy, he was ready to land a boom on the wide receiver and wasn't ready for the ball.

But this season, Michigan has just three takeaways in four games, and the Wolverines have a -3 turnover margin. Bryce Underwood has two interceptions this season, and Michigan has lost four turnovers.

Whittingham wants to find a way for Michigan's defense to become more opportunistic in the coming weeks.

Other areas that concern Whittingham

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The lack of takeaways might be the most disappointing thing for Whittingham, but he's not discounting the other issues that have taken place. Michigan was just 2-for-4 in the red zone this past weekend and the Wolverines' special teams allowed a kick return for a touchdown.

“The penalties were too high again," explained Whittingham. "We had 70 something yards.
We need to cut that down 20, 25 yards, so we're in the 50 range or less. Really, the timeliness of the penalties was awful. We had some penalties that came at some crucial times. Some of the penalties are the cost of doing business, but some are just bad decisions.

"We've got to do a better job with the, I call them ignorant or thoughtless penalties. The old adage, you can't win a game until you first not lose it. I felt like we, I'm not taking anything away from Iowa, but we did some things that are not conducive to winning games. Turnover margin, like I mentioned, penalties, like I mentioned, red zone was a disappointment. They were better in the red zone than we were.

"Then two other factors, we let a 99-yard kickoff out the gate. I mean, that's unacceptable and really was, if you look at the score, that's one of the differences in the game, maybe the major difference. Then we have a chance to salt the game away with a four-minute offense.”

Michigan will look to get back on track this weekend when the Wolverines hit the road for the first time. Michigan is set to play Minnesota, a team that just went to Washington and won on the road. The game is set to kick at Noon ET on FOX.

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