Michigan State battled No. 3 Ohio State on Saturday night, but ultimately lost to the Buckeyes by a final score of 38-7.

While the lopsided score shows a dominant victory by the Buckeyes, that doesn't necessarily tell the whole story.

Ohio State was undoubtedly the better team on the field on Saturday night. However, the Spartans went toe-to-toe with the third-ranked Buckeyes for much of the first half before things got out of hand in the second half. Ultimately, three turnovers — including two crucial fumbles in the first half — cost MSU.

The Spartans were able to successfully move the ball in the first half, but struggled to end drives in the end zone. Michigan State redshirt junior running back Nate Carter saw that his offense found some success in spurts, but noted that it has to be more consistent, capitalize in the red zone and and limit the self-inflicted mistakes.

"We left a lot of points on the board," Carter explained. "Early on, we were moving the ball successfully on them in the run game and passing game, and (then) we get into the red zone, we'd just shoot ourselves in the foot, and we make mistakes and we have a lot of self-inflicted negatives. Especially with great teams like that, Ohio State, in order for us to compete with teams like that, we can't do that. So, it was tough, it was hard."

However, Carter is not going to dwell too much on the blowout loss to Ohio State. Michigan State has a quick turnaround with a game at Oregon this coming Friday.

"At the end of the day, we play another game in six days (at Oregon)," Carter noted. "It hurts, getting blown out in our house, and it happened. It is what it is. We've got to learn from it, we have to move on, and you can't sit in this. I think one of the things that we said in the locker room, which is really important, is that it's easy for good teams, for great teams — which I believe we have — to get to this point in the season where we lose a couple games and now it can go downhill.

"And I think the message in the locker room is for us not to allow that to happen, for us to be able to continue to push forward because you have a great team. And we're hurting ourselves, which is why we're unable to be successful. So, if we're able to stop those self-inflicted negatives, and continue to keep our confidence high because we have a great team, and continue to work — especially this important week with (it) being short at Oregon — it's gonna take a lot of work. So, we have to go in there with a new week, a new mindset, new confidence, getting ready to play on Friday night."

It isn't just Carter who has that mentality. The players in the locker room are already eager to bounce back and get to work. Carter noted that Indiana transfer rush end Anthony Jones Jr. cautioned the Spartans to not let this loss to the Buckeyes — and now back-to-back losses for the Spartans on the 2024 campaign — snowball further.

"Anthony Jones Jr., (Indiana) transfer," Carter said when asked who was vocal in the locker room after the loss to OSU. "He was a guy that really spoke up because he'd been a part of teams like this. He'd been a part of good teams that were great, and then they get into a rough stretch, and they'd lose a couple games, and now the season goes all the way down. So, he was very vulnerable in sharing his experience with that, and also motivating us as a team, like, 'Hey, I've been a part of teams like this. Let's not be them. Let's not dwell in the past. Let's continue to move forward because we have a long season ahead of us, and we have a lot of opportunities to win a lot of games still.'"

While Carter felt that his offense and team had some positive to takes out of Saturday's game, he also knows that is important for the Spartan players to hold each other accountable and that there is plenty that still needs to be cleaned up, which was evident against the Buckeyes.

Carter reiterated that MSU has to limit the giveaways and has to finish drives in the end zone when it gets to the red zone if the Spartans are going to find any success as the 2024 season continues.

"I think first, we just have to be real with ourselves," Carter said. "We have to hold ourselves accountable as far as the mistakes that we're making as an offense to put ourselves in predicaments where we can't finish the red zone — like turning the ball over, not holding on to the football, things like that. And then going from there, now the question is 'OK, what are you going to do going into the next week for you to be able to change that?' It's been back-to-back games where we had the same problems — not being able to finish in the red zone, having a lot of turnovers in the red zone — so what can we do going into this week so that doesn't happen come Friday night?"

Carter noted that the "next step" for Michigan State is being a "consistent offense." He believes the Spartans will do a "great job" of working on improving that consistency and working on being more efficient in the red zone this week at practice.

The Michigan State running game — including Carter — has struggled somewhat to get going in 2024. Through five games, MSU is averaging 132.4 yards per game on the ground, which ranks 10th in the Big Ten.

Through five games, Carter has rushed 53 times for 234 yards (4.4 yards per carry) and one touchdown. He is only averaging 46.8 rushing yards per game.

On Saturday, Carter took his first carry of the game for an impressive 19-yard gain. However, he finished with six carries for 27 yards, which means his other five carries went for just eight net yards.

Sixth-year senior running back Kay'ron Lynch-Adams led the Spartans in rushing on Saturday with a mere 35 yards on nine carries.

Carter discussed some of the issues in the running game that have been plaguing Michigan State.

"I think it just comes down to execution," Carter said. "We can't get all the way down there, and drive it to the red zone, and then just stall out. We work too hard for that and we just have to be able to put the work in and execute and focus on the little details — especially when we do get in the red zone — to take advantage of all the opportunities that we have.

"So, it's not necessarily the things that other defenses are doing (to stop us) — we have plays for the defense because we expect them to be in certain formations and we run those plays. We're not executing them to the best of our ability. So, once we get to that point where we're consistent in executing those plays in the red zone, then we'll be able to score points, then we'll be a much better team, then we'll have a different result than how it was (on Saturday)."

Another reason why the run game has had issues is because of injuries along the offensive line. Michigan State has lost two offensive guards for the season in redshirt sophomores Kristian Phillips and Gavin Broscious. On Saturday, redshirt freshman offensive tackle Stanton Ramil was listed as "questionable" ahead of the game and did not end up playing.

The Spartans turned to some true freshmen for help in the trenches on Saturday, with Rakeem Johnson getting the start at left tackle and Rustin Young seeing reps there as well. It is a lot to ask of first-year players to go up against the No. 3 team in the country.

Carter praised the play of the freshmen playing on the offensive line and noted that the Spartans need to "continuously (be) motivating them and encouraging them." Carter also believes that these experiences will give the youngsters "a lot of confidence going forward."

Even after the 31-point defeat, Carter is not deterred, and his teammates feel the same way. Carter believes the 2024 Spartans are resilient. They're strong mentally and ready to put the work in to improve moving forward. This is a notable change in attitude this season compared to last, according to the tailback.

"I think it's just the mindset," Carter said when asked what makes this year's team different compared to last year. "I think the mindset of this group is different. I think that this hurts. Obviously, no one wants to get blown out at their home stadium. It hurts, and I think that there's only going to be an increase from there. I don't see this team as being a team that just folds. I see a team that's hungry. I see a team of guys that's going to continue to work and that's going to continue to push and that's going to come in every single day and do what's necessary so that the results are better, so we can get those wins, and so we can focus on the little details so things like this don't happen.

"So, I see a lot of great potential in this team, and now, at the end of the day, we just have to come back on Monday and get right back to work. We have to put this game behind us, we have to get right back to work, because we've got to play again on Friday night against another good team (in Oregon). And we have a lot more games going forward. We play some really, really good teams. We can compete with these teams, and we can also beat those teams. We have to do what we have to do, and focus on ourselves, so that we can be able to get those wins."

Michigan State looks to bounce back on the road against Oregon on Friday night at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on FOX.

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