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Simply put, Michigan State did what it was supposed to do on Saturday.
Given the fact the Big Ten schedule awaits after today's meeting with Wyoming, you had to figure the ninth-ranked Spartans would want to pick up where they left off in last week's 73-14 win over Eastern Michigan.
Eight players scored in the 56-14 victory over Wyoming as the opening drive of the game, capped by a Connor Cook one-yard TD run on fourth down, showed immediately where the offense's focus was pointed at: the running game.
Jeremy Langford's long run on the first play from scrimmage set the tone for the entire day as Michigan State ran for 338 yards on the ground, including getting 137 yards and a TD from Langford, and had five of its eight TDs come via the running game.
Continuing to get Langford, Nick Hill and Delton Williams on track is pivotal with conference play opening up next Saturday night at Spartan Stadium against Nebraska.
While Connor Cook kept rolling along with TD passes to Tony Lippett and Josiah Price and his short TD run on the game's first drive before giving way at times to both Tyler O'Connor and Damion Terry as the Spartans tallied 533 total yards, Pat Narduzzi's defense has some work to do.
Despite forcing the Cowboys into three turnovers, the Cowboys were able to get big chunks of yardage through the run game at times, highlighted by Shaun Wick's first-quarter 57-yard TD run right through the middle of the Spartans' defense.
Wyoming piled up 286 total yards in the midst of scoring the same number of points, 14, it scored against the one common opponent it and Michigan State share: Oregon.
With Ameer Abdullah and the rest of the Cornhuskers coming to town next Saturday night, lapses in stopping the running game isn't going to work. Certainly provides some food for thought for both Narduzzi and Mark Dantonio.
Two fumble recoveries and a Kurtis Drummond interception of Cowboys' QB Colby Kirkegaard are nice, but for Michigan State to get to where it wants to get come Dec. 6 in Indianapolis, its defense has to learn from lessons learned at Oregon and shore up the little things.