Although the Spartans have started to hit their stride on offense, the Boilermakers come into the matchup touting the worst offense in the Big Ten, led by true freshman quarterback Danny Etling, who picked up his first career start in a 44-7 drubbing by Nebraska last week.

But if history has taught head coach Mark Dantonio anything, it’s not to take any opponent for granted, especially after stumbling to a 7-6 season in 2012.

“We can’t afford to take anybody and put this one past us and move to the next football team, the next one on the schedule,” Dantonio said. “That can’t happen for our football team. I hope we understand that and have a sense of maturity about us. Next one up has to be what we’re focusing on.”

Taking on an explosive Indiana team a week ago, the Spartans continued a strong offensive pattern that started the previous week against Iowa, accumulating 473 yards of offense, led by a strong performance by sophomore quarterback Connor Cook and 201 rushing yards split between junior running back Jeremy Langford and freshman running back Delton Williams.

Langford scored three total touchdowns against the Hoosiers, which earned him Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, not to mention a great deal of confidence moving to the latter half of the schedule.

“I’m gonna come out and play tough, play hard,” Langford said. “As an offense, we’re gonna come hard and ready to play. (We’re) tough against anyone we play.”

Meanwhile, the Boilermakers have lost five games this season by an average of a little more than 28 points, which balloons to close to 34 points if factoring out a 31-24 loss to Notre Dame.

As it stands, Purdue is ranked at or near the bottom of the conference in total offense, total defense, rushing offense and pass efficiency, among several other categories, along with being the only team in the Big Ten to punt more than MSU.

Preparing for an awakened Spartan offensive attack, Purdue head coach Darrell Hazell said the Boilermakers have readied for a familiar MSU attack while acknowledging the strengths MSU has exhibited in Big Ten play.

“They’re still doing a lot of the same things,” Hazell said. “Other than being real patient and the quarterback being better and the running back being better, in the last couple of weeks, they’re doing a lot of the same things. But the quarterback, you can see a difference in his play in the last couple weeks as well, as the running back in being more patient and hitting those creases.”

Although the Spartans are ranked 10thin the conference in total offense with 374.7 yards per game, the team has averaged 421.5 yards in the past four games, featuring standout performances against Indiana, Iowa and Youngstown State.

The most significant change for the team comes at the quarterback position, where Cook has thrown for at least 200 yards in three of the past four games and continues to develop chemistry with the wide receiver corps — most notably with senior Bennie Fowler, junior Tony Lippett and sophomore Macgarrett Kings Jr.

Cook said since the Spartans have had a little success on the field, it makes for a better mood in practice, which he said translates better on game day.

“Everyone has a lot of confidence; the whole offense is confident and the defense has always had confidence because they’re so good and know what they’re doing out there,” Cook said. “You can tell guys are getting more comfortable in their roles, especially the younger guys like (freshman wide receiver R.J. Shelton). It’s been fun and you can just tell the vibe is different and guys are ready to work hard.”