Yes, even football. It might be hard to believe that a sport which calls the NFL it’s professional league has any moral standards, but there are certain rules to this brutal game, and one of those rules was on display when No. 11 MSU (2-1 overall) defeated Eastern Michigan (1-3 overall) on Saturday.

Don’t run up the score.

Yes, in a game when MSU dropped a basketball-like score of 73 during a football game, head coach Mark Dantonio should be applauded for showing restraint and maturity of a coach that has been there, done that, and proven that he has nothing to prove.

Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich, take notes.

Although MSU scored so much, there is a fine line between running up the score and playing hard. Junior starting quarterback Connor Cook was out of the game well before halftime. Most of the offensive starters saw very little action in the second half. By the end of the game, MSU was on their fifth-string quarterback.

“Every player we put in there we expect to play hard. You can’t ask them to slow down,” Dantonio said. “I don’t want to run the score up on anybody, but you have to play every play to the fullest.”

He’s right. Football is a dangerously violent game that can’t be played with anything but 100 percent effort correctly. There is a difference between third and fourth stringers playing hard and what Oregon did to MSU.

With less than two minutes to go and a two-score lead in their Sept. 6 game, Oregon decided to go for it on fourth down instead of kicking a field goal. They scored a touchdown that wasn’t necessary, and put the nail in MSU’s coffin.

There’s a school of thought that states the best way to finish an opponent is not to kick a field goal and try to end the game with a first down or touchdown. It’s hard for me to see that this was Oregon’s strategy. In a game the committee might forget when it’s time for the College Football Playoff, seeing a score that was more lopsided in the game might help Oregon.

Mark Dantonio didn’t agree during his weekly press conference last Tuesday.

“I’m not interested in taking a time-out before the end of the game to get another seven points,” he said. “I’m interested in playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played.”

Dantonio backtracked, saying he didn’t think that’s what Oregon was trying to do. Of course Dantonio has never been confused as a good actor. I think what Oregon did bothered him.

There’s a right way and a wrong way. On Saturday, despite the lopsided score, Mark Dantonio and MSU played the game the right way.