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Michigan State senior defensive end Marcus Rush had one of the Spartans' six sacks on Saturday and has been a bright spot on a defense that has struggled to avoid giving up big plays.

(Mike Mulholland | Mlive.com)

EAST LANSING -- Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi tried to tell you last spring that losing six starters was going to take a toll on the Spartans' defense.

Now, Narduzzi says, his defense is playing about as well as could be expected under the circumstances, and we'll all just have to wait and see if it's good enough to handle Nebraska next week in Spartan Stadium.

If you don't respect Narduzzi's coaching genius, you at least have to like his honesty.

Fact is, if Michigan State's defense doesn't improve quickly, Saturday's dominant 56-14 victory over Wyoming might represent the high tide of the season.

The Spartans (3-1) ran their streak of consecutive home wins to 10 and should maintain a spot in the top 10 of the polls.

But next Saturday night, Nebraska comes to town, and everyone knows the Cornhuskers have been a tough matchup for the Spartans the past few seasons.

Michigan State won last year's game in Lincoln, 41-28, due in large part to five Nebraska turnovers.

Cornhuskers coach Bo Pelini was quick to point out his team had out-gained the Spartans (392 yards to 361) and rushed for 182 yards on Narduzzi's defense.

"We've run the football on them for three years," Pelini said following last year's game. "They're a quality football team, but we've run the football on them before, and we'll run it on them again.''

So how equipped is the Michigan State defense to handle Nebraska and its Heisman Trophy candidate running back, Ameer Abdullah?

"I guess," Narduzzi said, "we'll find out next Saturday night."

That should make Spartans fans nervous.

This is not the Michigan State defense of yesteryear that was led by three-year starters like Max Bullough, Isaiah Lewis and Darqueze Dennard.

Narduzzi described this 2014 group as "average" following spring drills, and he concluded in a school all-access video last spring that "nothing has impressed me about these guys right now.''

Fans don't need to see the video: Narduzzi's assessment is playing out each Saturday in the form of missed tackles and broken assignments.

It wasn't any different against Wyoming, when a team ranked No. 99 in the nation in total offense averaged 5.6 yards per play and converted on 5 of 12 third downs.

Why take issue with any part of the Spartans' football team after such a lopsided victory? Because that's what weak competition forces you to do when trying to evaluate a performance.

Let's face it, all Michigan State had to do for its three wins this season -- FCS Jacksonville State, Eastern Michigan and Wyoming -- is show up.

The one game the Spartans needed to step up, at No. 2-ranked Oregon on Sept. 6, they played only one half of quality football. The Ducks made them pay, running them out of the Pacific Northwest by a 46-27 count.

Michigan State football wants to play with the big boys.

Mark Dantonio and his players make no secret of their goal to make the College Football Playoff and compete for a national championship, and so the Spartans are to be judged in that fashion.

If fact, Dantonio wants the bar set high in East Lansing without regard to what's going on in other Big Ten programs. It doesn't matter what's happening at Michigan, or Penn State or Iowa.

Michigan State is the Big Ten heavyweight champ.

At least to this point, the offense is packing a punch and living up to the hype.

The Spartans have scored 45 points or more three times this season, and on Saturday the offense was full of razzle dazzle and jet sweeps when Tony Lippett wasn't catching the ball or and Jeremy Langford wasn't running through truck-sized holes.

Just make sure you understand that junior quarterback Connor Cook is the star of the show, and that without him Michigan State's offense wouldn't be nearly as effective.

The defense is still searching for that sort of bell cow, a leader who can collar his teammates after an embarrassing play and say, "No more!''

Such a leader would have had a few such opportunities against the Mountain West Conference Cowboys:

-- There was the 57-yard touchdown run up the middle through a gaping hole that two Spartans safeties couldn't manage to fill.

-- There was a 41-yard pass over the head of cornerback Darian Hicks, and then a 52-harder that scorched team captain and preseason All-American safety Kurtis Drummond.

-- Wyoming tight end J.D. Krill was wide open for the Cowboys second touchdown of the day on a play that looked very similar to the one Eastern Michigan scored on last week.

Narduzzi, to his credit, has maintained his poise in front of the cameras.

"As coaches, you try to stop every one of them, but you can't be perfect,'' Narduzzi said after Saturday's game. "We never will be, as coaches or as players, perfect.''

It just seemed like last year's defense was perfect, as it finished in the top three in the nation in run defense, pass defense and total defense.

But that's where the experience made the difference.

It's not possible for middle linebacker Taiwan Jones or strong safety RJ Williamson to pack in three years of starting experience at their new positions in one offseason.

Narduzzi can't go out there and make the plays for them, and it wouldn't do him any good to throw his players under the bus, not even when Oregon lit up the defense for 28 points in the second half at Autzen Stadium.

"Big Ten play starts next week," Narduzzi said. "So I think the guys are revved up for that. We'll move on ... it's a whole new season."

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