After the game, head coach Mark Dantonio and numerous the Spartan players said the next critical step was for the team to turn the negative of the loss into a positive, a message Dantonio reiterated at his weekly press conference Tuesday, as MSU prepares for next weekend’s game against Eastern Michigan (0-3) (3:30 p.m., Big Ten Network).

“It’s no different than taking a test in a classroom, not doing well on it, understanding why you didn’t do well on it, going back, studying hard (and) doing better on the next test,” Dantonio said.

“We’re going to be able to get up when we’ve been knocked down — same thing we’ve done before. We want to improve as a football team. We want to get ready for the Big Ten football season. We want to play Eastern Michigan tough and make a statement.”

Dantonio said the two nights following Saturday’s game were restless for him as he thought back to the few plays that could have changed the outcome in the game.

One area of regret was the extended use of the hurry-up offense, beginning in the third quarter, which limited junior running back Le’Veon Bell to four second-half carries.

Bell finished the game with 19 carries for 77 rushing yards.

“After looking through the film to evaluate mistakes, my main focus was (that) we needed to create one big play, one momentum changer just to swing everything in our favor,” Bell said.

“I sort of tried to force that issue, instead of maybe doing it the more conventional way. I think when you look back retrospectively, for myself, that was a bad decision on my part. That’s right here; that’s on me.”

Going forward, Dantonio said the defeat has the potential to have the same effect as last season’s loss to Notre Dame, after which the Spartans won eight of nine games en route to the inaugural Big Ten championship game.

“We can still have a very good football team,” he said. “All of our goals are in front of us. That’s what’s important in this aspect here — everything is in front of us. We start the Big Ten season next week.

“The focus right now is at the task at hand, Eastern Michigan, (and) getting better as a football team. The focus is on playing hard, doing the little things that allow us to win (an) doing the little things that allow us to dominate. That’s what we’ll try to do.”