Michigan has been in this situation once before this season, enduring a loss and needing to find ways to recover and not allow it to snowball.

The Wolverines responded to an early-season loss to Texas with three straight wins, but then stumbled in their first road game of the season Saturday night at Washington, 27-17. They’re now 4-2, 2-1 Big Ten and at the midway point of the regular season without a game for which to prepare this week before playing at No. 23 Illinois on Oct. 19.

Michigan coach Sherrone Moore’s message to the team after losing to the Huskies was simple.

“This game doesn’t define us,” defensive tackle Mason Graham said of Moore’s message in the postgame locker room. “We control our own destiny. Just win the rest of the games on our schedule and we’re gonna be in a good place. Staying together is the big thing. Don’t let this break our team apart and spiral into something this team shouldn’t be. Just looking forward to the next opportunity, take this bye week and get back to business.

Winning the final six games is what Michigan will need to do to find its way into the College Football Playoff, but that’s a tough task. Of the final six opponents, only one, Northwestern at 2-3, has a losing record. Michigan State is 3-3, Illinois is 4-1, Oregon is 5-0, Indiana is 6-0 and Ohio State is 5-0. No. 24 Michigan plays road games at Illinois, No. 18 Indiana and No. 2 Ohio State, a combined 15-1.

Running back Donovan Edwards, voted a team captain this season, said the captains meet with Moore every Monday.

“It’s a collective thing,” Edwards said. “We’re gonna get back to the drawing board come Monday, but ultimately, it’s the captains’ job to continue to keep (up) this team morale. I’m gonna continue to uplift everybody the best I can but also at the same time, just like being a coach, you have to point out the bad things too.

“There’s a couple things that we have to clean up. But ultimately, it’s up to us. It’s a collective offense, collective defense, collective special teams, and we’re Michigan football, so me being on the offensive side of the ball, got to continue to (boost the) morale (of) the guys, continue to keep guys’ confidence up and keep doing what we’re doing.”

Among the issues these first six games, the biggest has been quarterback. Michigan has played three of them and two have shared the six starts. Davis Warren started the first three games but had six interceptions, and then Alex Orji took over and started the next three. Orji was replaced in the first half against Washington by Jack Tuttle with just less than 10 minutes left and the Wolverines trailing 14-0.

Warren and Orji had never started a college football game. Tuttle was at Indiana before transferring to Michigan ahead of the 2023 season and played in 15 games and had five starts with the Hoosiers. He also was voted a captain. Tuttle, granted a medical waiver for a seventh season this year, missed spring practice and was limited in preseason camp because of an unspecified injury. He was cleared by doctors a week before the Washington game.

He was by no means perfect against the Huskies, but Tuttle did lead Michigan to three straight scoring drives and a 17-14 lead in the third quarter. His good work, however, was overshadowed by the bad — two fourth-quarter turnovers, a fumble and interception, that Washington converted for 10 points.

Warren and Orji had never started a college football game. Tuttle was at Indiana before transferring to Michigan ahead of the 2023 season and played in 15 games and had five starts with the Hoosiers. He also was voted a captain. Tuttle, granted a medical waiver for a seventh season this year, missed spring practice and was limited in preseason camp because of an unspecified injury. He was cleared by doctors a week before the Washington game.

He was by no means perfect against the Huskies, but Tuttle did lead Michigan to three straight scoring drives and a 17-14 lead in the third quarter. His good work, however, was overshadowed by the bad — two fourth-quarter turnovers, a fumble and interception, that Washington converted for 10 points.

The quarterback-in-flux situation has been a major contributor to the issues on offense. Moore, in his first season as head coach, could not have imagined a situation like this so undefined, but this is where things are.

“It’s football. In football, you never know what’s going to happen,” Moore said. “We’re adjusting and working our tails off to get better. … Our job as coaches, whoever is in there, we have to make the best of it. We have really good players everywhere. We’re going to use their strengths to get better.”

Tight end Colston Loveland said there have been plenty of positives and negatives from the first six games.

“We’ve got to look at everything we did, reflect, see what we gotta do to clean up and move forward,” Loveland said. “It’s not what we expected. But the unexpected always happens. We’ve got to navigate around it and just keep sticking together and play better ball.”

And now it’s about avoid what Graham said about spiraling after a second loss.

“Stay together,” Loveland said of who to rebound. “Stay in the building. Put in more hours, do more, watch more film, go harder in practice, whatever it may be. Just do better in every aspect of our lives.”