CHAMPAIGN, Ill. >> Even the Michigan offensive players know they’re starting to say the same things after games to explain a loss.

The Wolverines, after falling 21-7 to Illinois on Saturday, had three turnovers and found themselves often relying on attempting big plays on third down to make up for inefficiency on the earlier downs.

“We’ve got to execute, do the little things right,” tight end Colston Loveland said. “Sounds like a broken record but that’s what we’ve got to do.”

Running back Kalel Mullings earlier in the week spoke about trying to find consistency in the offense and by that he meant creating more third-and-short situations. After the loss to Illinois, he pointed to the lack of consistency as a problem again.

“It goes back to staying ahead of the sticks,” Mullings said. “That became a theme late in the game but showed up early as well. When you have those second-and-longs and third-and-pretty-longs, it’s hard to get first downs and hard to sustain drives.

“It’s hard to win football games living off shots. Shots will hit sometimes but they won’t hit sometimes. We have to be able to make plays and sustain drives without having huge plays to bail us out. Those plays will come, but at the same time we have to be able to methodically and slowly drive down the field, wear down the defense and give the (Michigan) defense a break and come away with points from those drives.”

Michigan failed on two long drives and didn’t convert in the red zone because of a blocked field goal and an interception.

Head coach Sherrone Moore was asked how to fix a disjointed offense. It was particularly disappointing for the Wolverines considering they had a bye the previous week, therefore two weeks to prepare for Illinois.

“We have to reevaluate and see and look,” Moore said. “I feel disappointed in myself as the head coach that we didn’t come out and execute at a better level. There’s too many bits and pieces and not enough consistency.”

Campbell on the sideline

Offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell, who also coaches the quarterbacks, was on the sideline for the Illinois game, a departure from the first half of the season when he worked from the press box.

“That was a change,” Moore said. “We had him on the sideline and we thought he’d give some juice to the offense and keep those guys going. Obviously, we didn’t execute at a high level. I thought we had some scheme plays that were good. It’s not about scheme. We’ve got to go execute.”

Momentum boost

The Illini, on 4th-and-7 their first series of the second half, ran a fake punt and Tanner Arkin ran 36 yards to the Michigan 16-yard line.

“Momentum is a big thing and calling that fake was huge,” Arkin told reporters. “One of our keys for offense was controlling the tempo of the game, and I think we did a pretty good job of that.”

Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer scored on a 1-yard run and added the two-point conversion to give Illinois the 21-7 lead.