Northwestern’s game against Michigan State had all the markings of a trap game. And the Wildcats fell right into it.

The No. 8 Wildcats made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes and the 13.5-point underdog Spartans made a lot of uncharacteristic plays. The result was Northwestern’s first loss of the season, a 29-20 upset to the Spartans that snapped the program's five-game Big Ten winning streak.

The Wildcats’ brief flirtation with the College Football Playoff is now over, but the Big Ten West title is still squarely in their sites. That’s what a disappointed head coach Pat Fitzgerald focused on after the game.

"All of our goals are still in front of us," he said.

But that is the only comfort that will be afforded to his team on a day they saw their dreams of an unbeaten season vanish in an empty Spartan Stadium.

Maybe we should have seen this letdown coming. The Wildcats (5-1) were coming off of a big, emotional win over Wisconsin and had a brand new a No. 8 ranking in the first College Football poll. They were playing on the road against a team that had last week off to add some new wrinkles to their game.

The difference in this contest, according to Pat Fitzgerald, was turnovers. Northwestern, which came in ranked fifth in the nation in turnover margin, committed three of them. Michigan State (2-3), which came in ranked 125th, gave it away just once.

More importantly, the Spartans cashed in those three turnovers for 13 points, while Northwestern gave its one takeaway right back on the next play.

NU quarterback Peyton Ramsey had an uncharacteristically off night, going 21 of 43 for 210 yards, with two interceptions and no touchdowns. He was sacked four times and hurried on eight more of his throws.

His counterpart, Rocky Lombardi, completed just 11 passes in 27 attempts, but he made his count, with two scores and one interception. He also did a lot of damage on quarterback draws, picking up several third-down conversions on his way to 65 rushing yards on 10 carries.

That was another theme of the night as the Spartans, which came into the game averaging just 73.5 yards per game rushing, finished with 195 yards on the ground. Northwestern again struggled in the running game, producing just 63 yards on 37 carries.

The Wildcats dug themselves an early hole, falling behind 17-0, just like they had at Iowa in Week 2. They also came back to take the lead, 20-17, early in the fourth quarter.

But two fourth-quarter turnovers that led to a pair of Matt Coghlin MSU field goals sealed the Wildcats’ fate.

The Wildcats looked to be in control early in the final period until two turnovers changed the complexion of the game and took the wind out of their sails.

The first came after Paddy Fisher picked off Lombardi aerial at the MSU 40 for Northwestern’s first takeaway of the game. The Wildcats, who were surging after just taking their first lead of the game, were set up in MSU territory and poised to add to their 3-point lead.

But on the Wildcats’ very first play, McGowan fumbled the exchange on a jet sweep and it was recovered by Jack Camper at the 47. Now, the Spartans had the short field and the momentum.

Fitzgerald admitted that the fumble was a turning point.

“It was a big momentum swing,” said Fitzgerald. “It was a self-inflicted wound. It looked like we had a big play the way it was materializing.”

Instead, the Spartans had the ball at midfield. On a third-and-2, Lombardi hit Jalen Nailor for a 20-yard gain. The Wildcats’ defense didn’t allow another yard, but Coghlin salvaged the drive with a 44-yard field goal into the wind to tie the game at 20 with 10:11 left.

The next big play was the second interception by Brown, who caught Ramsey’s pass at the 50-yard line while delivering a hit to Holman that knocked him out of the game with an apparent head injury. Again, Coghlin hit a field goal, this one from 48, to give MSU the lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Northwestern looked flat right from the outset as Michigan State was the aggressor early.

After a Michigan State three-and-out to open the game, Northwestern drove down to the MSU 18-yard line, where they faced a second-and-1. They gave it to Drake Anderson, who lost a yard. They brought in Wildcat quarterback Andrew Marty on third-and-1 to run the ball, and he gained one to set up a fourth-and-1.

This time, Isaiah Bowser came in to run it, but it didn’t matter. He was stood up for a one-yard loss and the Wildcats gave it up on downs.

The Spartans took advantage of the turnover and punched Northwestern right in the mouth. Rocky Lombardi threw a 75-yard touchdown strike to Nailor, who got behind Cameron Ruiz for an easy score.

Northwestern again crossed into MSU territory but disaster struck again on another fourth-down play. Facing a fourth-and-4 at the MSU 42, Ramsey was picked off by Shakur Brown, and he returned it 54 yards to the NU 11. There was a flag thrown on the play, but referees decided to pick it up after deciding that there was no interference.

This time, the defense stopped MSU at the doorstep and forced Matt Cognlin to kick a 22-yard field goal to make it 10-0 MSU.

Fitzgerald accepted responsibility for the 10 points that resulted in his decisions to go for it on fourth down, but he has no regrets.

“I’m going to be aggressive,” he said. “I believe in my guys.”

Michigan State’s next drive was the one that signaled that NU’s defense, ranked fourth in the nation in scoring, wasn’t itself on this day. The Spartans drove 85 yards in 13 plays to go up 17-0 on the first play of the second quarter. Lombardi threw the 15-yard touchdown to Jayden Reed on a fade route over Ruiz – the corner the Spartans were targeting throughout the half.

The Spartans, who came in averaging just 73.8 yards on the ground per game, eclipsed that total in the first quarter.

After that score, Northwestern seemed to settle down. The Wildcats scored the next six points but had to settle for field goals after two drives stalled in MSU territory.

Northwestern converted a third-and-15 with a 24-yard Ramsey-to-Holman connection, and then a fourth-and-2 on a Ramsey throw that McGowan reached back to snag. Kuhbander had to come on to kick a 42-yard field goal, but at least they were on the board and had stopped the bleeding.

After the defense forced a punt, Northwestern’s next drive followed a similar pattern, as they reached the MSU 14 but couldn’t punch it in after a third-and-7 fade to McGowan was just out of bounds. Kuhbander pushed through a 32-yard field goal to make it 17-6 at the half.

Northwestern finally crossed the goal line on the first drive of the second half. The Wildcats came out firing, with Ramsey throwing to Chiaokhiao-Bowan for 27 and to Lees for 16. Then, Lees threw to Marty for 12 on a reverse throwback to the quarterback.

The Wildcats got down to the 1-yard line when things again tightened up in short yardage. On second down, Bowser ran for no gain. On third down, a Ramsey sneak was stoned. But this time, on fourth down, the Wildcats faked a handoff up the middle and Ramsey practically walked in around the right end on a naked bootleg to close the gap to 17-13.

After both teams punted a couple times, Northwestern’s offense got set up on a short field after MSU was whistled for kick catch interference to give the Wildcats the ball at the Spartan 37. Ramsey fired a 20-yarder to Lees over the middle on third-and-12 to get the ball to the Spartan 5-yard line.

Then, freshman running back Cameron Porter, of all people, came in as the Wildcat quarterback and ran it in on a draw to give the Wildcats their first lead of the game, 20-17, with 13:54 left in the final period.

The Wildcats looked like they were going to dig themselves out of trouble at that point, until the back-to-back turnovers swung momentum back to the Spartans’ sideline.

After Coghlin’s second fourth-quarter kick made the score 23-20, the Wildcats got the ball back two more times.

The first time, they went three-and-out and didn’t gain a yard. The second time came with just 25 seconds left. After two incomplete passes and an intentional grounding call, Northwestern tried a hook-and-lateral play that wound up fumbled into the end zone, where Kalon Gervin fell on it for a touchdown on the last play of the game. No extra point was attempted.

Northwestern can still win the Big Ten West and earn a berth in the conference championship game for the second time in three years with a win at Minnesota next Saturday.