So when the Spartans took the field Saturday against Florida Atlantic, Martin said he had some extra motivation to go out and perform well in his special teams duties.

“I feel like I had a little something to prove because that’s the first time that ever happened to me,” Martin said of muffing a punt. “So I just had to approach it like, ‘You messed up, but you have to bounce back from it.’”

With 151 total yards on seven returns to go along with his 53 receiving yards, Martin bounced back in a big way in the Spartans’ 30-17 win over the Owls.

Two long returns by Martin — one a 47-yard punt return and the other a 46-yard kick return — put MSU inside of FAU territory. And although Martin was one broken tackle away from taking both returns to the endzone, he said he was happy to lend the offense a helping hand.

“It’s frustrating,” Martin said of being so close to scoring on the returns. “But I don’t really look at it like that. I just look at it as giving the offense good field position so that’s what I try to do.”

As Martin looks ahead to the rest of the season, though, he said he plans on converting more of those long returns into scores.

“I would like to have some of those go for touchdowns,” Martin said. “And I’m going to have some of those go for touchdowns.”

Efficient special teams

Martin was not the only star on special teams Saturday, as head coach Mark Dantonio said he was pleased with the play of each special teams unit.

Dantonio said he was especially happy with sophomore kicker Dan Conroy, who made three field goals from 41, 44 and 50 yards.

“Three big kicks, to come out and do that really in his first opportunity to kick three of them and be perfect like that,” Dantonio said.

After being in a battle for the starting position at kicker through all of last spring and fall camp, Conroy now is a perfect 4-for-4 on field goals this season.

Conroy’s competition at kicker — redshirt freshman Kevin Muma — has handled the kickoff duties in the first two games, and Dantonio said he also played well Saturday.

Combining the performances of Conroy, Martin and Muma, Dantonio said he couldn’t have asked for much more out of his special teams against the Owls.

“Those three factors I think lead to, I don’t want to say dominance on special teams, but I think (Saturday) was a very big special teams day,” he said.

Converting in the clutch

Fortunately for Dantonio and MSU, the strong play of the special teams might have made up for the inconsistent play of the Spartans in every other aspect of the game.

Both the MSU offense and defense struggled at times Saturday, especially on third downs.

The Spartans finished the game converting on just one-of-7 third downs, while the defense allowed FAU to move the chains 7-of-16 times when facing third downs.

Junior quarterback Kirk Cousins said MSU’s offensive deficiencies on third downs could be contributed to a lot of things, but regardless, the Spartans need to get better if they want to have success down the road.

“That’s not going to get it done next week against Notre Dame, that’s for sure,” Cousins said. “Sometimes a stat can be misleading, but 1-for-7 is 1-for-7, and that’s not going to get it done.”

On the other side of the ball, the inability of the MSU defense to get off the field on third downs helped contribute to a 37:33 to 22:27 disparity in time of possession, in favor of FAU.

The Owls converted on multiple third downs on both of their touchdown drives, including two fourth-down conversions on their way to scoring their final touchdown.

“We have to come up with more third down plays,” Dantonio said. “You have to be able to put them away, and they made plays when they had to a little bit.”