After striding up the field on perhaps its most fluid and consistent drive of the game, MSU fumbled its opportunity to punch in a score that might have staved off the humiliation of losing five games in a row.

The skid-stopping set-up dropped at the Maryland six-yard line.

It ended on an unnecessary effort by fifth-year senior wide receiver Monty Madaris, who tried to turn a first down into a touchdown only to be wrapped and sandwiched by two Maryland defenders.

The ball, jarred from his left hand, fell to the turf. Two seconds later, Maryland turtled on top of it.

“Inexperience shows at times, and obviously the fumble at the five-yard line was guys trying to make a play,” head coach Mark Dantonio said. “Monty Madaris is trying to make a play and the ball pops out, but it’s first and goal on the five in a tie game.”

It’s uncertain if MSU would have scored a few plays later, or if those points would have mattered in the end. But it was another missed opportunity on a promising drive to boost the lead and increase the chance of winning.

Dantonio dialed up a fake field goal with a second to go in the half and the wind at MSU’s back. The fake went four yards, 31 yards short of the end zone it was intended to end up in.

“I was looking for a big payoff,” Dantonio said. “That was the gamble we took, and that’s on me.”

Plays like these have been absent for the greater part of the last decade for MSU football. Fumbles were rare, turnovers were at famine levels. In 2015 MSU was plus-14 in turnover margin. This year it’s minus-3. Even the fakes worked.

Cue the automatic description. MSU football shot itself in the foot. For the first time this year, the description seems all too fitting. The Spartans gave away 84 free yards in penalties, schemed poorly when it mattered most, failed to protect the ball, struggled to find the end zone at the more inconvenient times and whiffed on sure tackles.

“There is no going back and there’s no hitting reset,” Dantonio said. “This is not a computer game, this is real life. It’s real tackling, real blocking and real catching the ball.”

The Spartans tacked on three points the next drive, but that could have been more. Again moving the ball with consistency, free of penalties, freshman quarterback Brian Lewerke under-threw freshman wide receiver Donnie Corley, as he had earlier in the game.

This time it didn’t end in an interception, but in a ball glancing off the turf into Corley’s ankles, stopping the drive at the Maryland 17-yard line.

“That would have been a walk-in touchdown and put us up,” Lewerke said.

The ensuing Maryland drive was the easiest for the Terrapins and was dotted with the same MSU inability to wrap up, stand up or gang tackle. Ty Johnson ripped off back to back rushes of 44 yards and 18 yards, respectively, easing out of would be tacklers and evading open field tackle attempts.

“Tackling in space and keeping the ball off the perimeter is major, and you can’t let them gas you up the middle,” Dantonio said. “You have to be able to make adjustments, and that’s coaches and players.”

MSU has struggled with and continues to be hampered by arm-flailing tackles and flat-footed attempts at securing a ball carrier.

Often times Maryland was able to wade into the second level of the defense unabated, slipping multiple tackles before finally going to the ground.

“Those running backs made people miss,” Dantonio said. “We had them dead a couple of times and they snuck out and got first downs or got the edge and we just have to be better in that regard.”

At some point, the frustrations or lack of focus boil to a point. Fifth-year senior linebacker Riley Bullough committed three personal fouls in the first quarter: one for a later hit out of bounds, one for roughing the passer and the final one for a targeting, which ended in his ejection from the game.

His last two came on Maryland’s 96-yard scoring drive, where the Terrapins collected 30 yards on Bullough’s behalf.

“It’s tough because we see him as the leader of our defense,” junior linebacker Chris Frey said. “It’s just like we went back to two weeks ago when he wasn’t playing.”

It’s another week of lost inches, inches that haven’t swung and might never swing in MSU’s favor. MSU no longer has the benefit of the doubt.