SAN DIEGO — How many distractions can one football team block out before it all becomes too much to handle?

Thursday night, Washington State took the field for the Holiday Bowl at SDCCU Stadium against Michigan State missing its top two receivers (Tavares Martin Jr. was dismissed, Isaiah Johnson-Mack transferred), without its star defensive tackle Hercules Mata’afa (suspended for first half due to targeting penalty), with rumors surrounding the reported impending departure of defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and, perhaps, most significantly, minus senior quarterback Luke Falk.

Falk’s status for the game was questionable all week after he was seen with a cast on his left (non-throwing) arm at a WSU practice.

The Cougars kept the status of their starter a secret until kickoff. During pregame warm-ups, Falk was dressed in uniform and throwing the football before he changed and re-emerged in a sweatsuit right before the game.

With all that going on leading to this game, the game itself almost seemed like an afterthought this week.

Could the Cougars block all the noise out and come together to trump 18th-ranked Michigan State and finish with their first 10-victory season since 2003?

The answer, was a resounding no, as the Spartans trounced WSU 42-17 in a game that was all but over by halftime.

“I didn’t think we played well consistently on offense, and we never could get them off the field,” said Cougars’ coach Mike Leach, who’s now 1-3 in bowl games during his tenure at WSU. “Their quarterback did a really good job of keeping us honest. Any time they needed a key play, their quarterback did a good job converting on third down.

“And we gave up some explosives and things like that defensively, which I felt was certainly uncharacteristic.”

MSU quarterback Brian Lewerke went 13 of 21 for 213 yards with three passing scores, and also piled up 73 rushing yards.

WSU sophomore Tyler Hilinski made his first career start against the Spartans, but was ineffective throughout most of the game, going 17 of 24 for 89 yards in the first half as WSU went three-and-out four times, converted only two of seven third downs and amassed an underwhelming 102 offensive yards.

Hilinski finished 36 of 46 for 253 yards with two second half touchdowns, and one interception. The Spartans outgained WSU 440 to 276, and, remarkably, never punted until the final minute of the game.

“We just weren’t executing, was what it came down to,” Hilinski said. “The three-and-outs really killed us. They had the ball for a long time, and just kept us off the field and we really couldn’t get in a rhythm.”

WSU put the first points on the board with a 45-yard field goal by Erik Powell, but other than that, 18th-ranked Michigan State was by far the more poised, focused and energetic team as it blew the doors off this game in a 21-0 second quarter scoring spree.

The Cougars’ offense seemed lackluster and the defense looked confused as the Spartans imposed their will on WSU in what, by halftime, felt eerily similar to last year’s WSU collapse against Minnesota.

Things started to go Michigan State’s way by the end of the first quarter, when Lewerke led the Spartans on a slow, grinding methodical 16-play, 81-yard drive that spanned the last two minutes of the first quarter and half of the second as the MSU offense steadily wore down the Coug defense.

The Spartans capped that drive with a 15-yard pass that Lewerke threaded between Darrien Molton and Jalen Thompson and into the waiting arms of Cody White in the back of the end zone.

WSU’s offense couldn’t respond. So the Spartans went right back to work, this time demonstrating that they were capable of putting together quick, efficient drives too.

Lewerke got the offense to about midfield, then the Coug defense bit on a fake option, and as the secondary charged downfield, Lewerke lofted the ball to Felton Davis, wide open around the 15 yard line with no one around him except Isaac Dotson, who was about 10 yards away.

Touchdown, Spartans. MSU 14, WSU 3.

After yet another three-and-out from the WSU offense, the Spartans went for the kill, gaining yardage in great chunks. Lewerke hit Davis for a 27-yard pickup, found Darrell Stewart for 12 yards, then in a savvy display of quarterbacking, pump-faked to the right, and dumped off the ball to L.J. Scott on the left, who took it 16 yards to set up his 3-yard rushing touchdown on the very next play.

So trailing 21-3, the Cougars began the second half, this time with vaunted consensus All-American Mata’afa back in the lineup on defense.

But alas, it was much of the same.

Defensive gaffes by WSU led to offensive touchdowns as the Spartans scored another two unanswered scores — punctuated in between by a WSU turnover on offense when Hilinski fumbled the handoff to James Williams.

The Cougars did not manage a touchdown drive until MSU was up 35-3. Then, WSU finally strung together a seven-play drive — aided by a defensive pass interference penalty — and drove 80 yards to score on a 14-yard pass from Hilinski to Tay Martin with 2:06 left in the third quarter.

By then, it was too late.