Michigan State fell 38-7 at home to the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday night, in what was an underwhelming performance from the Spartans.

Saturday night’s loss marks the ninth straight meeting the Buckeyes have won between the two teams. Redshirt-senior linebacker Cal Haladay had been to five of them now and had never tasted a win over the Big Ten juggernaut.

After the loss, Haladay was asked how he thinks the program can close the gap on the talent and level of play the Buckeyes have had for nearly a decade.

“I think we just have to perform better,” he said. “I mean, I think if we had cleaned up a few things today, gotten off the field, given the ball back to the offense and instead of being on the field for so long, that could have been a puncher’s chance for this game. “I think the game was a lot closer than the score suggested, but at the end of the day they made more plays than we did and that’s just what happened.”

Haladay totaled five tackles en route to a 38-point, three-touchdown invasion by the Buckeyes in the first half. The Spartans’ defense had a few opportunities to get off the field on third and fourth downs, but three of the Buckeyes’ six scoring drives were 10 plays or more.

“I mean, we just have to take advantage of opportunities,” Haladay said. “As far as defense goes, I think we did what we wanted to do, let them drive the field, and they just made too many plays and we had to make some plays too. “We knew they really had one were explosive offensively and had a lot of talent on their team and that their players made a lot of good plays today.”