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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan had five turnovers, one first down and 21 total yards in the first half. The home crowd of 109,833 booed the Wolverines (2-2, 1-0) as they trotted off the field down 19-0 to visiting No. 9 Wisconsin at intermission. At that point, the game was all but over.

But the Badgers’ dropped passes and inability to finish drives with touchdowns — which seemed meaningless before halftime — came back to haunt them in the end, as the Wolverines scored 27 straight points to beat Wisconsin (3-1, 0-1) 27-25 in stunning fashion.

“We didn’t finish, we didn’t take advantage of opportunities we had,” cornerback Allen Langford said. “We had them where we wanted them to be, but we didn’t finish. We’ve got to play four quarters, and that’s something we just did not do.”

Down 27-19, the Wisconsin defense forced Michigan to punt, giving the offense one more chance to tie the game with 1:19 left on the clock. Quarterback Allan Evridge orchestrated a drive that ended in a touchdown strike to David Gilreath with 0:13 left to play. And after Evridge completed a two-point conversion pass to tight end Travis Beckum — who didn’t play until late in the fourth quarter because of a lingering hamstring injury — it seemed as if the game was headed for overtime. But an “ineligible receiver downfield” penalty nullified the play, pushing the Badgers back five yards.

“[Travis] lined up over to the right, we got him over to the left, Kyle (Jefferson) tried to adjust him, but he lined up on the line of scrimmage,” head coach Bret Bielema said. “Obviously he should have lined up off it, which would have made the play legal.”

UW was out of timeouts, and Beckum’s confusion at the line proved to be costly.

“It’s stuff like that that we practice all the time and should be second nature,” co-captain Chris Pressley said of the mental mistake.

Moments later, Evridge’s pass sailed over the head of wide receiver Isaac Anderson, sealing the Michigan comeback victory.

“I got hit,” Evridge said of the missed conversion. “[Isaac] was in the back of the end zone, I tried to go high with it; I didn’t even see where it went.”

It was that kind of day for the Badgers, who failed to put the home team away when they had the chance early.

“There were a lot of missed opportunities out there on the field from an offensive standpoint, and we just let that linger,” Bielema said.

The Wisconsin defense was dominant in the first half, as Michigan quarterback Steven Threet headed into the locker room 2-for-10 for negative-7 yards passing. But when the Wolverines finally got on the board in the third quarter after a 26-yard connection from Threet to tight end Kevin Koger, the tides began to turn.

“They definitely came out swinging in the second half,” Langford said. “Once they got that first touchdown, it kind of swung [the momentum] in their favor, and we weren’t able to catch up with it.”

After a pair of Brad Nortman punts, the Wolverines got the ball back on their own 15-yard line. The Wisconsin defense seemed to come up with a big stop, but a “roughing the passer” call on defensive end Matt Shaughnessy kept the Michigan drive — which ended in a 35-yard Brandon Minor touchdown run — alive, bringing the score to 19-14.

“Defensively, after that first touchdown, they had good eyes on the sidelines,” Bielema said. “But when that second one hit, I think their confidence value really went down.”

On the next play — after a Bryan Wright touchback — Evridge’s pass hit wide receiver Kyle Jefferson on the hip and went straight up into the air. Linebacker John Thompson grabbed it and followed a wall of maize and blue into the end zone. The Wolverines missed the ensuing two-point attempt, but the damage was done. Just like that, Michigan took its first lead of the day 20-19, one that it refused to surrender.

“They just wanted it more in the second half,” co-captain DeAndre Levy said. “We didn’t execute, and they took advantage of it. They got the momentum, and we couldn’t get it back.”

Freshman running back Sam McGuffie provided the dagger on the Wolverines’ next possession with a 3-yard touchdown run following Threet’s 59-yard scamper up the middle.

“[Our defense was] out there quite a bit [in the second half,]” Bielema said. “[On offense] we went three and out, three and out, three and out and anytime you do that, you’re going to have a lot of fatigue physically and mentally as well. Our inability to convert first downs and move the chains on offense had an adverse effect on our defense big time.”

A confused Levy disagreed.

“I don’t think it was fatigue,” the senior said. “I don’t really know what it was; I’m baffled. I don’t know what just happened.”

His teammate, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as shocked.

“I’m not surprised. This is college football; anything can happen,” Langford said. “That definitely just happened right there. It’s definitely one of the hardest losses I’ve been a part of. But it did just happen. We’ve just got to take advantage of this and not let it beat us twice.”

Wisconsin will look to rebound Saturday when it hosts Ohio State at Camp Randall Stadium at 7 p.m.