Michigan State was unable to maintain a brutally dominant first quarter start for the remaining 45 minutes of regulation, falling 24-17 to rival Michigan Saturday night in Ann Arbor.

The loss drops the Spartans to 4-4 on the season and 2-3 in Big Ten play. The loss also marks a third-straight in the series to the Wolverines, meaning MSU has only won 10 of the past 17 meetings as a result dating back to 2008.

Running back Nate Carter turned in an impressive performance with 118 yards on 19 carries including a touchdown and an MSU season-long rushing gain of 34 yards. Carter also added 56 yards in the air to lead the team in receiving yards on two catches, tying the night's team-high of 30.

Aidan Chiles finished the night 17-for-23 through the air for 189 yards and one tochdown.

In the receiving corps, Montorie Foster Jr. turned in the team-high for the wide receiver room with 44 yards on four catches, tying Carter for the night's long. Nick Marsh added 42 yards on four catches with a touchdown and a long of 20. Jack Velling also added 40 yards on four catches.

Malik Spencer led the Spartans in tackles with 10, including a team-high seven solo. Nikai Martinez, D'Quan Douse, and Maverick Hansen all tallied a tackle for loss, and Cal Haladay was second on the team with six tackles, including four solo.

Overall, MSU finished the night with 352 total yards, including 163 on the ground, besting UM's 265 total yards and 119 rushing. So Saturday's matchup marks a rare instance in the series where the team that won the rushing battle didn't win the game.

It was a tale of two quarters in the first half as the Spartans dominated the first and the Wolverines the second. Zone blocking the MSU's offensive line resulted in a dominating performance with MSU entering the red zone on both of its drives. Michigan State had 17 carries for 93 yards and ran 22 total plays to Michigan's four plays with just one yard rushing.

The Spartans received the ball to start the game and marched it down the field 73 yards to set up a fourth-and-goal from the two-yard line. Among the highlights of the drive was a 26-yard gain by Carter on a pass from Chiles to get into enemy territory at the Michigan 34.

MSU opted to go for it on fourth down, but was drew a delay of game penalty that forced the coaching staff to send out the field goal unit for a 25-yard attempt. The kick was no good as Jonathan Kim missed just his second kick of the season and so the Spartans strong drive ended in a turnover on downs.

After MSU's defense forced a three-and-out on UM's opening possession (the first play of which resulted in a one-yard loss), the Wolverines were forced to punt it away with Foster calling for a fair catch at the MSU 38.

The Spartans' offense once again marched the ball down the field set up by a dominating performance by the offense line. Two big plays highlighted the series as Chiles connected with Marsh on the second play of the drive for a 15-yard gain that advanced MSU to the Wolverine's 46-yard line. Then three plays later the run game came up big as Carter rattled off a 34-yard gain for the longest rushing play of the season for the Spartans. MSU was once again in the red zone at UM's 11 yard-line.

Just four plays later, Carter found the two yards needed for the first score of the night with a touchdown for MSU. The PAT by Kim was good and MSU took a 7-0 lead with :10 left in the quarter.

After the touchback on kickoff, Michigan finally got a first down on the last play of the opening stanza. The Wolverines would head into the second quarter starting at the UM 39 yard-line thanks to a 14-yard gain on a pass from Davis Warren to Colston Loveland.

The second quarter found the Wolverines having to punt it away on the next set of downs. The Spartans were forced to do the same on their next offensive series as well, gaining a single fresh set of downs before stalling out and having to rely on punter Ryan Eckley for the first time since the third quarter at Oregon seven quarter prior in Week Six. Eckley boomed it 51 yards to the Michigan 30 with 9:12 left in the half.

Both teams would be forced to punt it away on their next respective possessions before UM finally found a rhythm on offense. The Wolverines took over with 2:58 on the clock and promptly advanced 62 yards for a touchdown. A bad snap resulted in the Wolverines being forced to try for two and failed, keeping MSU in the lead with a narrow 7-6 advantage.

Disaster struck for the Spartans on the ensuing drive. On just the second play, Chiles was forced to scramble out of the pocket and Michigan's Josaiah Stewart chased him down and caused Chiles to fumble the ball as he was pulled down to the turf. The Wolverines' Kenneth Grant managed to fall on it to give UM a short field from the MSU 34 with :!4 remaining. After a quick 15-yard gain by Donovan Edwards, UM settled for a 37-yard field goal to make it 9-7 Michigan. Chiles kneeled it with the two seconds remaining to send both teams into the locker room at the half.

The Wolverines carried over the momentum from the second quarter into their opening drive of the second half, marching the ball 75 yards over 11 plays for a touchdown. The PAT was good and UM immediately jumped out to a 16-7 lead.

The Spartans responded with a strong 67-yard drive that stalled out at the Wolverines' 28 yard line. Kim was called on the for a field goal and knocked it through from 46 yards to cut MSU's deficit to 16-10.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Spartans' coaching staff decided to try for an onside kick that resulted in a Wolverine recovery at the MSU 47 yard line. MSU's defense held firm to a three-and-out and forced a punt. MSU's offense did the same and the Wolverines would have possession heading into the fourth quarter.

A video replay on the final play of the third quarter during the break determined that Jordan Turner had committed a targeting penalty on the final play of the prior quarter, thus rendering him ineligible until the second half against Indiana next week. The call seemed controversial on replay as his helmet cannot clearly be determined to have made contact with Michigan's player, but the NCAA rule is poorly written and thus Turner was sent to the bench.

As for Michigan, four plays later the Wolverines found the end zone to put the game out of reach with a 24-10 lead following a two-point conversion.

Not going quietly, the Spartans mounted an impressive 13-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a touchdown on a 20 yard catch by Marsh. The PAT was good and MSU trailed just 24-17 with 6:12 remaining in the game.

The defense needed to come up with a quick stop of its own to give Michigan State a chance for a tie or even the lead and came up with just that, forcing a three-and-out as Michigan punted it away with 4:38 left in the game. On top of that, the punt was a short one at just 25 yards, giving the Spartans excellent field position at their own 49.

Despite a huge setback to second-and-24 due to an intentional grounding penalty by Chiles on the opening play, a 14-yard catch by Velling set up a third-and-10 that found Chiles connecting with Carter for a huge 30 yard gain to the UM 21 yard line.

Unfortunately for MSU fans, the drive stalled on the next set of downs and the Spartans were forced to go for it on fourth-and-five from the UM 16. Chiles threw short and was almost picked off in the end zone.

That was all she wrote as UM managed to get two first downs on its final drive, causing MSU to burn its final timeouts and allow time to expire.

The Spartans return to Spartan Stadium next week to take on the Hoosiers. Game time was just announced late Saturday night following the loss to UM and will be 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The game will be streamed exclusively on Peacock.

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