AP Photo

Get to six wins, start booking bowl travel -- even if that means scrounging some gas money to drive to Ford Field -- relax and play the remaining three games knowing that at least that burden was removed from the Wolverines.

The Illinois game should have provided Michigan with that luxury. The Illini, after all, entered the game Saturday as the worst team in the Big Ten and, quite frankly, so very bad in so very many statistical categories.

But Michigan, which started the season 4-0 and returned to the AP's top 25 for a three-week run, imploded in the second half in stunningly bad fashion to lose, 38-13.