Even still, the Broncos were able to stay within striking distance of MSU for a large portion of the game thanks in part to one common theme for the Spartans that head coach Mark Dantonio said has to stop.

“We got to eliminate the unforced penalties, which are disappointing when you’re a coach,” Dantonio said. “But we’ll continue to work at it.”

MSU committed a total of 11 penalties for 69 yards, including a personal foul that negated a long pass from junior quarterback Kirk Cousins to junior receiver B.J. Cunningham in the second quarter and resulted in a punt two plays later. Western Michigan, on the other hand, committed just five penalties for 25 yards while taking advantage of the home team’s blunders.

Although some penalties are to be expected in the first game, Dantonio said the Spartans were guilty of three or four unforced penalties that could have easily been avoided.

However, Dantonio also said playing in front of a crowd of more than 70,000 people in the first game of the seasons makes the mistakes like the ones the Spartans committed Saturday understandable.

“It’s loud out there,” Dantonio said. “We try to make a point of emphasis on it all year long, all camp long and all spring long. But it’s loud out there, guys are trying to go on movement, those types of things.”

In spite of the work put in during the offseason to prevent penalties, the abundance of them is not surprising, as it is not a new problem for MSU.

The Spartans finished second to last in the Big Ten in penalties committed last season with 55.4 penalty yards per game, and twice in the last seven years they have finished dead last.

Also last season, MSU lost to Central Michigan after an offsides penalty gave the Chippewas a second chance on a late-game field goal, which they converted on.

After losing a game in that fashion, Cousins knows even the slightest slip-up needs to be avoided.

“We made a lot of mistakes that I think down the road, if we continue to do them, will get us beat,” Cousins said. “Hopefully we’ll learn from those mistakes today when it didn’t cost us, and we can correct those when we get down the road and are in those situations again.”

Senior safety Marcus Hyde said the best way to correct any problem, including penalties, is to see what’s being done wrong.

“Film will prove it,” Hyde said. “It always proves to you what you did wrong and what you did right. If we just go and watch more film, that will help us a lot.”

Citing better discipline as the solution to the Spartans’ penalty issues, junior center John Stipek shared the opinion of his head coach and said it is nearly impossible to avoid committing any penalties. But as the season progresses, Stipek said he and his teammates need to take ownership of their mistakes in order to try and prevent them in the future.

“There’s no such thing as a perfect game, you’re going to make mistakes,” Stipek said. “But when you have errors like that when it’s on you, then definitely we’re going to have to emphasize that and get better about it.”