Heading into the fourth quarter last week, it looked like MSU was poised to knock off Notre Dame in front of a national audience. With a 16-point lead and senior quarterback Drew Stanton under center, the Spartans looked confident.

But then a funny thing happened. Actually, a couple of funny things.

Stanton lost a fumble deep in MSU territory that Notre Dame turned into a touchdown.

Then, he forced a throw that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.

Then, he threw another interception with 14 seconds left that sealed Notre Dame's comeback win.

In the end, Stanton was left lying on the Spartan Stadium turf, wondering what went wrong.

"It's frustrating because there's two or three plays that you'd like to have back, and I play them over again in my mind," Stanton said.

Stanton finished just 10-of-22 for 114 yards. Those statistics, combined with the costly mistakes, made it easy to blame Stanton for the loss. The senior quarterback accepts the criticism as something that comes with his position, but his coaches disagree with those who want to solely blame him.

"When you have the ball in your hands every play, you're going to make mistakes, and the mistakes will be magnified," MSU quarterbacks coach Dan Enos said. "There's a reason we had 37 points on the board, and a lot of that has to do with Drew Stanton."

There's no question it was one of Stanton's worst statistical performances as a Spartan. But now the goal for Stanton is to forget about last week's struggles and prepare for Saturday's Big Ten opener.

"I told Drew this (Sunday) — if you want to lose that feeling in the pit of your stomach right now, the only way you'll lose that is by winning next Saturday," Enos said.

MSU might be able to get by a 1-3 Illinois team without fully recovering, but the Spartans must shake off all remaining effects of the Notre Dame game when they face No. 6 Michigan and No. 1 Ohio State, respectively, the following two weeks.

It didn't take long for Stanton to begin moving on. He was already watching film of Illinois on Sunday night, Enos said.

"He's a strong guy. He's a warrior," senior wide receiver Jerramy Scott said. "The next day, he came back ready as the same old Drew, getting us fired up."

And Stanton couldn't have a better coach to help him move on. Enos was MSU's starting quarterback in 1990 when MSU hosted No. 1 Notre Dame in front of the largest crowd ever at Spartan Stadium. Notre Dame scored with less than a minute left to escape with a 20-19 win.

At the next day's practice, then-MSU head coach George Perles challenged Enos to come in with a smile and go to work like usual, he said.

And while Enos can use his own experience to help Stanton come back from a tough loss, he also has an example to help the team recover and knock off the two Top 10 teams.

Three games after the loss to Notre Dame in 1990, MSU went into Michigan Stadium and defeated No. 1 Michigan, 28-27. Enos knows if the Spartans want to have similar success, they'll need to forget about last week.

"The only thing that matters is the next play, the next game, the next practice, the next day," Enos said. "If we let this game affect us at all during the rest of the season, then not only did they beat us Saturday, but they beat us several more times throughout the year."