Traces of the first five weeks of the season jumped up on the Wolverines' first drive on Saturday. Sophomore quarterback Denard Robinson picked up chunks of yards here and there. Michigan’s running back tandem of Vincent Smith and Mike Shaw darted through holes. And the Wolverines moved the ball down the field with ease.

Michigan didn’t even face a third down until the ninth play of the drive when the ball was placed on the Michigan State 10-yard line.

But then, as Robinson rolled to his right and looked toward the endzone, he threw a pass just behind redshirt sophomore wide receiver Roy Roundtree. The pass was intercepted by junior Spartan safety Trenton Robinson.

Had the rest of the game gone differently, the Wolverines might not have had to ask, "What if?" Michigan scored just two touchdowns in five red zone trips and lost 34-17, at the hands of Michigan State.

Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio called Robinson’s first interception the turning point in the game. And Michigan quarterbacks coach Rod Smith probably felt the same.

“We don’t play the what-if game, but obviously if he would’ve, if he would’ve connected early on it’s probably a different story,” Smith said. “Because (then) we don’t have to fight, scratch and crawl from behind the entire second half.”

It didn’t help that, at one point, the Spartans scored 31 points on five straight possessions spanning the second and third quarters. But without the turnovers, the Wolverines may have been able to keep up.

Michigan did have a chance to cut into Michigan State’s 24-10 lead early in the second half. But Robinson threw another red zone interception and gave the ball back to the Spartans' lethal offense.

Smith said that Robinson was making the right decisions on who he was targeting on those interceptions, but that Robinson just didn’t time the throws correctly.

Robinson had thrown just one interception all season before Saturday, when he threw three. And the Wolverines had previously converted touchdowns in 38 of 42 red zone trips — for a 90-percent success rate. Michigan reached the endzone on two of its five trips against the Spartans.

“All year, every time we get down there, we’ve been able to score,” fifth-year senior offensive lineman Steve Schilling said. “Obviously having those turnovers and getting zero points, not even coming away with three is tough. If we had those two touchdowns, it would’ve been a different game.”

Michigan’s offense wasn’t completely shut down by the Spartans. Although there were times of struggle, the Wolverines did finish with 377 yards of total offense. The difference in the game may have been that when Michigan needed to punch the ball into the endzone in order to hang with Michigan State, the Wolverines left with three points instead of 21.

“We preach ball security every day in practice and every week,” Schilling said. “It’s one of our goals on offense every week, to not have any turnovers. Obviously you see that when you have turnovers things don’t go your way and you lose games.”

As a team, Michigan threw one interception and lost four fumbles in five games before Saturday. And when Robinson threw his third interception of the game early in the fourth quarter, the Wolverines were down just 14 points despite the missed opportunities.

“Everybody gets frustrated when they lose,” Smith said. “We just have to get our timing back and be a little bit more decisive with our decision-making.”

The last time Michigan overcame a turnover differential as great as it faced on Saturday and won the game was in the 2008 Capital One bowl against the Florida Gators. In Lloyd Carr's last game as Michigan's head coach, the team won 41-35 even though Chad Henne threw two interceptions and Mike Hart fumbled twice.

“When you come away with three turnovers on defense and don't give up any on offense, it's tough to lose the football game,” Dantonio said.