Defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi said the long runs, including a 57-yard touchdown scamper from junior Shaun Wick, don’t concern him.

“If you watch it, we had substitution errors,” he said. “I didn’t have the people I wanted in there.”

Narduzzi said while perfection isn’t attainable, it should remain the goal.

“Obviously as coaches you want to be perfect,” he said. “You can’t be perfect. As coaches you’re never going to be perfect and as players you’re never going to be perfect.”

Junior defensive end Shilique Calhoun said the errors of the defense are small, and easily fixable.

“I think it was just a little bit of communication issues honestly,” he said. “Things we can work out easily, we just need to communicate better and be more vocal.”

Senior safety Kurtis Drummond said the long gains were opportunities he and the rest of the secondary missed to make a play.

“I didn’t see what went wrong, but I see that I could have made a play,” he said. “I put a lot on my shoulders. Any time anything like that happens I look to the secondary because we are supposed to be the backstop of the defense.”

On the offensive side of the ball, despite scoring 56 points and running for over 300 yards, the MSU offensive line was plagued by an uncharacteristically high number of holding penalties.

“Some of those penalties are things I have to fix-up, things like getting my hands inside,” senior offensive lineman Travis Jackson said. “It’s something I have to clean up this week and make sure I don’t have it happen again.”