With the exception of the Michigan game, the defense did decently.
The offense sputtered all too many times that year, since Tommy Rees was the QB, and the easiest way to slow down or even stop cold, the offense, was for someone to call a short zone defense, with an occasional zone blitz.
No real medium or long range downfield passing threat, no threat from the QB to at least scramble for a few yards, etc.
Three of those four losses were easily winnable.
Fast forward to 2022, it looks like Tommy Rees is trying to turn Tyler Buchner into another version of Tommy Rees. There are very few downfield passing plays called, it seems.
Of course, this may all be a moot issue if Buchner is badly hurt...