Michigan held Michigan State without a touchdown and lost by nine

Michigan State 15, Michigan 6, at Michigan Stadium in front of 111,172. Liam Boyd made all five of his field goals, from 21, 37, 38, 24 and 49 yards, and Michigan did not score until Savion Hiter ran 1 yard with 1:35 left. The two-point try failed. Michigan is 5-4 and 2-4 in the Big Ten, and the loss ended its four-game series winning streak, per Michigan's postgame notes. Michigan State is 3-6 and 1-5, and it was Pat Fitzgerald's first Big Ten win as the Spartans' coach. Seven things from the night.

1. Why Michigan lost: it handed Michigan State the field#

Michigan State never reached the end zone. It was 4 for 4 in the red zone and kicked a field goal every time. What it got from Michigan was field position.

Four of Boyd's five field-goal drives began at the Michigan State 38 or better, and they produced 12 of the 15 points. Two came off sacks. Midway through the second quarter Carr was sacked on first down and again on third-and-7, and Cam Brown punted from the Michigan 14 to midfield. Boyd kicked a 21-yarder. With 1:33 left in the half, Carr was sacked for 9 yards on second down, Brown punted from the 16, and Michigan State started at its 40. Boyd made a 37-yarder with five seconds left.

The other two came off turnovers in the fourth quarter. Carr was sacked on second down, then intercepted by NiJhay Burt on third-and-16, and Michigan State started at its 38 and kicked from 24. Burt then stripped Andrew Marsh after a 10-yard catch, and Michigan State took over at the Michigan 37 and gained 6 yards before Boyd's 49-yarder.

Michigan turned it over four times and Michigan State did not turn it over at all. Michigan held the ball 21:53. "It's not one step back. It's three steps back," Kyle Whittingham said.

2. Carr's first 17 throws gained 79 yards#

Carr finished 14 of 26 for 138 yards with two interceptions. The last drive changes those numbers. Before it, he was 11 of 17 for 79 yards with both interceptions, and by the catch spots in the play-by-play none of the 11 completions was caught more than 10 yards past the line of scrimmage. His two longest completions, 21 yards to Travis Johnson on fourth-and-21 and 31 yards to JJ Buchanan to set up the touchdown, came on that final drive with Michigan down 15-0.

He was sacked five times for 33 yards, four of them before the last drive. A week earlier at Rutgers he was 22 of 27 and not sacked on third down.

The first interception came on Michigan's first possession: Buchanan got a hand on a throw over the middle and it went off him to Devin Vaught. "You hit him in the chest it doesn't happen," Carr said, per The Michigan Daily.

Michigan has now gone scoreless in the first half in three straight home games: Penn State, Indiana and Michigan State. It scored in the first half in both road games, 14 at Minnesota and 14 at Rutgers. Michigan plays at Oregon next. The call here is that Michigan does not score in the first half in Eugene. The other side is Michigan's own record: it has scored before halftime in six of its nine games, including both away from home.

3. The defense held, and one drive took 10:41#

Michigan has not allowed more than 21 points in any of its nine games, and it allowed no touchdown here. Troy Bowles made a career-high 15 tackles and Daley had two sacks. Michigan State ran 43 times for 110 yards, 2.6 a carry with sacks and kneel-downs counted.

The exception was the drive that opened the second half. Brown pinned Michigan State at its 1 with a 52-yard punt, and Michigan State went 79 yards on 16 snaps and kicked a 38-yard field goal, using 10:41 of the third quarter. It ran 12 times on that drive for 63 yards. On its other 25 runs that were not sacks or kneel-downs, it gained 73.

Brandon Tullis carried 25 times for 86 yards, a career high per the AP, after a season as Michigan State's fourth or fifth back, per The Michigan Daily. Fitzgerald said Tullis had been held out of contact in Tuesday's practice. Michigan State ran 75 plays to Michigan's 52 and went 9 of 20 on third down. A defense on the field for 38 minutes held a team to 15, and the drive from the 1 is the stretch where it gave the most ground.

4. Jacob Baggett replaced Trey Butkowski and missed from 26#

Butkowski was 2 of 6 on field goals across the Indiana and Rutgers games. He lost the job to Baggett in a practice competition, per the AP. Baggett's first college kick, per The Michigan Daily, from 26 yards at the end of a 13-play, 71-yard drive in the second quarter, hit the left upright. It was Michigan's fifth missed field goal in three games, per the AP. "It was kind of deflating at that point," Whittingham said.

It was the only Michigan drive before the last one to get inside the Michigan State 40. Butkowski's only kick of the night was the onside try after the touchdown, which travelled 7 yards and was recovered by Michigan State.

5. Bryson Kuzdzal got the carries, and one of the fumbles#

Jordan Marshall started at running back and carried twice for 4 yards. Hiter carried six times for 17 and the touchdown. Kuzdzal led the backfield with nine carries for 49 yards, including Michigan's longest run, 16 yards on the drive that ended in Baggett's miss. A week after Hiter carried 20 times at Rutgers, three different backs have led Michigan in carries in its last three games: Marshall against Indiana, Hiter at Rutgers and Kuzdzal here.

Kuzdzal also lost the first of Michigan's two fumbles, punched out by Anelu Lafaele after a 9-yard run to midfield late in the third quarter, with Michigan down 9-0.

Michigan ran for 54 yards on 26 carries with sacks counted, and 74 on the 18 carries by its running backs and receiver Channing Goodwin. On first down, its 12 runs gained 39 yards, 3.3 a carry.

6. Jason Beck stays, for now#

Asked whether something has to change with his offensive coordinator, Whittingham said, "Not right now. Not as I sit here at this podium, no." He added, "I'll evaluate everything after the season and determine what the best course of action is," per The Wolverine. Beck moved from the press box to the sideline for the second half, per The Michigan Daily. Michigan gained 192 yards on 52 plays, and 65 of them came on the final drive.

Michigan needs one more win to be bowl eligible, and the three left are at Oregon, against UCLA at home and at Ohio State.

7. Injuries: Daley and Nichols returned, and two defensive backs did not appear#

The Big Ten's Friday availability report listed Daley, Dom Nichols, Brady Norton, Jake Guarnera, Rod Moore Jr. and Jordan Young as Probable, and Shamari Earls and Hogan Hansen as Questionable. Daley and Nichols both missed Rutgers, and both started on the edge. Norton, who went down at Rutgers, started at right guard, and Guarnera started at center. Moore played after not appearing in Michigan's participation release at Rutgers. Hansen appears in this week's release.

Earls and Young do not. Michigan did not say why in its recap or postgame notes, and Whittingham's published postgame comments in The Wolverine, The Michigan Daily and the AP's game story do not mention them or any injury during the game.

Kendrick Bell, Braydon Alford, Micah Ka'apana, Julius Holly, Ace Hamilton and Andrew Sprague were listed Out and did not play.

For Michigan State, quarterback Alessio Milivojevic was listed Questionable after missing the UCLA game, and he played throughout, 21 of 32 for 188 yards without a turnover. Vaught, also Questionable, had the first interception. Michigan State was without four running backs, per the AP.

Michigan plays at Oregon on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Pacific on FS1, per Michigan Athletics.

Sources: Michigan Athletics' official box score, play-by-play and drive chart, game recap, postgame notes and player participation release for Michigan State at Michigan, all dated November 7, 2026; the Big Ten's football availability reports for November 7, 2026; the Associated Press game story, November 7, 2026; The Michigan Daily (Drew Lenard; Nate Schreck; Grace Wright), November 7, 2026; The Wolverine (Clayton Sayfie), November 7, 2026; CollegeFootballData's 2026 game file for Michigan.