[media-credit name=’AJ Maclean’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]EAST LANSING, Mich. — Wisconsin’s perfect season came to an end Saturday with a 49-14 loss to Michigan State (5-5, 4-3) at Spartan Stadium. With the loss, the Badgers (9-1, 6-1) fell to second in the Big Ten standings and dropped five spots to No. 9 in both polls.

“It was embarrassing,” safety Jim Leonhard said. “Our fundamentals were a little off; we missed a bunch of tackles that led to big plays. We can’t do that. We haven’t done that up to this point, and for some reason it showed up today. We’ll get it back.”

The Badgers charged out of the gates in the early going, forcing a quick three-and-out on defense and scoring on the ensuing possession. Tailback Anthony Davis broke a 15-yard run on the Badgers’ first offensive play. Two plays later, Davis exploded for a 45-yard touchdown run to put the Badgers ahead 7-0. The run moved Davis past Michigan legend Anthony Thomas into sixth on the all-time Big Ten rushing list.

The Spartans countered on their next possession, as quarterback Damon Dowdell sprinted through the Wisconsin secondary for a 61-yard run down to the UW 13-yard line. On the next play, linebacker Mark Zalewski dropped Michigan State tailback DeAndra Cobb for a loss of seven yards on a screen pass and the Spartan drive stalled in the red zone after Dave Rayner missed a 29-yard field goal attempt. The miss was just the third for Rayner in his last 14 attempts.

The Spartans put Rayner’s miss behind them in a hurry, staging a seven-play, 66-yard, scoring drive on their next possession. On third down and one from the 43-yard line, tailback Jehuu Caulcrick broke a 42-yard run up the middle and was chased down by cornerback Brett Bell on the UW 15-yard line. Four plays later, Dowdell hooked up with tight end Eric Knott in the end zone from four yards out to tie the game at seven with 7:45 to play in the first quarter.

Wisconsin took over on the 29, but could not get anything going offensively. On third down, defensive tackle Kevin Vickerson sacked quarterback John Stocco, forcing the Badgers to punt. Sophomore Ken DeBauche’s punt was blocked by linebacker Marshall Campbell and cornerback Travis Key recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. Campbell’s third block of the season gave Michigan State a 14-7 lead with 6:03 remaining in the first quarter.

On the Spartans’ next drive, Bell intercepted an errant pass from Dowdell to give the Badgers the ball on their own 34-yard line. The Wisconsin offense capitalized, staging a 10-play, 66-yard scoring drive.

The Badgers moved into the red zone on a 23-yard strike from Stocco to wide-out Brandon White. After runs from Davis and Brandon Williams put the Badgers inside the 10-yard line, fullback Matt Bernstein rumbled into the end zone from nine yards out to tie the game at 14 with 14:05 to play in the second quarter.

After the Badgers stalled on their next possession, DeBauche dropped a punt inside the two-yard line but the play was called back for an illegal shift from tight end Owen Daniels and DeBauche was forced to punt again. Unfazed by the penalty, the sophomore placed his next punt on the one-yard line, where it was downed by cornerback Scott Starks.

However, the Badgers were unable to capitalize on DeBauche’s remarkable display. On the first play of the drive, tailback Jason Teague broke into the secondary for a 17-yard run. Michigan State moved into UW territory three plays later on a 26-yard pass from Dowdell to Knott.

Four plays later, the Spartans took the lead on a bizarre sequence that led to a touchdown pass for wide receiver Aaron Alexander. Defensive end Erasmus James disrupted a reverse in the backfield, but Alexander got the ball on a lateral and connected with Teague for a 30-yard touchdown to give the Spartans a 21-14 lead with 6:22 remaining in the first half.

The Badgers failed to respond on their next possession, but DeBauche pinned the Spartans on the one-yard line for the second time. After a quick stop from the defense, safety Jim Leonhard returned a Brandon Fields punt 28 yards to the Michigan State 26-yard line.

A pair of runs from Davis and a seven-yard scamper from Bernstein gave the Badgers a second down and one on the two-yard line. Davis picked up the first down with a short run to set up a first-and-goal from the one, but the Badgers were unable to punch it in.

After Davis and Stocco each failed to cross the goal line, the Badgers tried a bootleg, but Stocco’s pass was incomplete. On fourth-and-goal, Davis was again stuffed at the one and the Badgers entered halftime trailing 21-14.

“That was definitely frustrating for us,” Davis said. “As an offense, that’s something we pride ourselves on, is short yardage. It’s something we work on every day in practice, and we weren’t able to come out and convert, get the touchdowns, on numerous occasions.”

The Spartans began the second half with a bit of trickery, recovering an onside kick on the opening kick-off. After the recovery, Michigan State took over on the 46 with a head of steam.

Michigan State head coach John L. Smith had another surprise up his sleeve in the second stanza, trotting out first-string quarterback Drew Stanton for the first possession of the half. Stanton was questionable coming into the game, after leaving in the fourth quarter of the Spartan’s loss to Michigan two weeks ago and sitting out for last week’s game against Ohio State.

The resilient quarterback didn’t miss a beat, leading a nine-play, 54-yard scoring drive on his first series under center. After Stanton found Trannon for a third-down conversion, Caulcrick broke a 31-yard run down to the Wisconsin 12-yard line.

Three plays later, Teague picked up a first down on fourth-and-one and set up a first-and-goal. Caulcrick finished off the drive on the next play with a one-yard touchdown run to give the Spartans a 28-14 advantage with 11:02 remaining in the third quarter.

“The onside kick and the score right after that at the beginning of the half, that really did hurt,” Starks said. “We weren’t able to really respond too much after that.”

Ten minutes later, the Spartans added to their lead with a three-play, 53-yard scoring drive. After a pair of runs from Caulcrick, Stanton launched a 31-yard touchdown pass to Trannon to put the Spartans ahead 35-14 with 1:19 to go in the third quarter.

The Spartans continued to pull away in the fourth quarter, scoring on their first possession. On the fifth play of the drive, Cobb sprinted through the Badger defense for a 55-yard touchdown run to widen the gap to 42-14 with 12:03 remaining in the game.

With time running out, Stocco and the Badgers marched downfield and took another shot from the goal line. Stocco connected with five different receivers on the 17-play, 79-yard drive, leading Wisconsin down to the six-yard line. After a pair of incompletions, Stocco took off on third down and was brought down on the one-yard line. On fourth-and-goal from the one, the Badgers failed to penetrate the Spartans’ goal-line stand for the second time, as tailback Booker Stanley was stuffed for no gain.

Michigan State took over on the one-yard line and staged a 99-yard scoring drive to put the final nail in the UW coffin. Teague opened the drive with a 12-yard run. Four plays later, Caulcrick exploded up the middle for 59 yards before he was chased down by Levonne Rowan at the UW 11-yard line. Teague capped off the drive three plays later with a one-yard run to give Michigan State a commanding 49-14 lead with 5:08 remaining.

The stunning loss, which came at the hands of a team that held a 4-5 record coming in, ended Wisconsin’s bid to become the first team in school history to hold a 10-0 record and knocked the Badgers out of the top spot in the Big Ten standings. The team is now left to wonder about the cause of the shocking defeat.

“It’d be easy if you said we didn’t prepare well enough; we didn’t come out ready to play, but that wasn’t the case,” Leonhard said. “We’ll take a long, hard look and see what went wrong.”