Slow start costs Northwestern in loss to Michigan State

It's not that Northwestern recoiled from its first true test of the season, against No. 23 Michigan State on Saturday.

It's that the Wildcats moseyed in for the exam a quarter late. This being an institution of higher learning and these being genuine student-athletes, it would seem that promptness would be something of a priority.

If there's a lesson in all this for Northwestern, it's that a college football game indeed lasts a full 60 minutes, just as coaches have been telling players for eons. Show up a quarter late, as the Wildcats did, and you end up losing 37-20, as the Wildcats did.

Northwestern trailed 17-0 at the end of one quarter. You don't need a Northwestern degree to do the math.

It's a shame, too, because it's not as if the Spartans are USC. You couldn't look at this game and say, "Now Northwestern knows how far it has to go to be as good as Michigan State." There's not a whole lot of difference between these two teams except for an extraordinarily bad first quarter for Northwestern.

That might be like saying the whole Titanic thing would have been different if not for the sinking. But there it is.

After a 5-0 start to the season, the Wildcats no longer are among the nation's undefeated. And their stay ranked No. 22 in the coaches' poll will be a short one.

Was it nerves? No.

Were the Spartans that much better than the Wildcats? No.

The Wildcats just looked sleepy. Maybe the late start (2:45 p.m.) threw them off. Or maybe coming off a week off was a struggle. It didn't help that, despite Northwestern's pleas for fans to show up wearing purple, many showed up wearing Michigan State green.

"It starts with me," Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "It's my job, it's my responsibility. If the team doesn't play with poise, focus and discipline, you get what you deserve. That's what we got."

He's right on all counts. If a team looking to be included in the national discussion can't arrive fired up for a game against its toughest opponent to date, then maybe it should look to outsource for its pregame motivational speeches.

The challenge for anyone who took in the action on a perfect fall day at Ryan Field is to say something definitive about what they saw. Northwestern quarterback C.J. Bacher threw 61 passes, and beyond what that means for a guy's rotator cuff, it didn't have a whole lot of meaning.

Would it have been different if Bacher had played better? Or is the more appropriate question whether this simply is what Bacher is—a quarterback who is going to throw as many interceptions as touchdowns, no matter the circumstances? He threw two painful picks, one into the middle of the field as he was being chased out of bounds. Can't do that.

"Throw that ball away, and maybe it's a different game," he said.

Maybe it is, but maybe he can't stop himself from trying that risky pass.

Most of the statistics favored the Wildcats, including a 459-297 advantage in total yards. They ran 30 more offensive plays than the Spartans. They "held" Michigan State's Javon Ringer to 124 yards rushing. Northwestern's Tyrell Sutton rushed for 142 yards.

But Sherrick McManis' fumbled kickoff return led to a Michigan State field goal, and a botched McManis return later in the first quarter left the Wildcats with awful field position.

"Northwestern beat Northwestern," Fitzgerald said.

His players said Michigan State is a great team. No, it isn't. A fine team, for sure. A beatable team, definitely, if Northwestern had showed up on time. Early in the fourth quarter, with the Wildcats down 34-17, Sutton and Fitzgerald had argued about the coach's decision to try a field goal rather than go for the first down. Afterward, Fitzgerald said he liked his running back's fire.

The team could have used some of it in the first quarter.

One thing the head coach preaches to his players is memory loss.

"All we have to do is flush this game," McManis said, just as they had "flushed" each of the five victories soon after they happened.

"If something bad happens, you have to be able to flush it," Bacher said.

This took place either in an NU interview room or at the union headquarters for plumbers and pipefitters.

In keeping with the toilet theme, both teams will be going to bowls. But the Wildcats let something needlessly drain away Saturday. They might have lost anyway, but they shouldn't have lost like this.

"We have to get a greater sense of urgency," safety Brendan Smith said.

How about just showing up on time for the school bell?

rmorrissey@tribune.com