EAST LANSING – Dave Warner is at a loss for answers. Some of you will argue that’s been the case for most of the last six seasons for Michigan State’s co-offensive coordinator and primary play caller.

At the sight of Warner’s name, you see red. Or at the sight of an MSU running play going nowhere, you think of Warner. Then you see red.

Warner didn’t help himself Saturday. I could picture the steam coming out of your ears after watching his play-calling on two of MSU’s fourth-quarter possessions, with the Spartans trailing by three points and backed up against their own end zone both times.

“Got to find a way to call plays that work,” Warner said, looking like a beaten man after the Spartans’ hope-deflating 29-19 home loss to Northwestern Saturday, dropping MSU to 3-2 on the season. “I’ve been searching for it every game, win or lose. I’ll take responsibility for that.”

Warner is not the problem nor the solution for this MSU offense. He’s just the easiest to blame and deserves some of the blame. So he gets most of it. Because blaming God for injuries or 20-year-olds for being below-average Big Ten offensive linemen is a more muddied and less satisfying approach.

But, man, Warner didn’t help himself in this one.

It’s always an uphill battle. His persona is not smooth or brash. He’s in charge of an offense that insists on balance, even when it doesn’t have the horses up front to make balance look worthwhile.

If you consider me to be a Warner apologist, you’re not entirely wrong. I don’t think he’s as bad at his job as many fans on my Twitter timeline do. Some of it is that I loathe angry mobs and tend to look to defend whoever is on the other end of them. If I reasonably thought Warner should be fired or relieved of his play-calling duties this week, I’d write it.

If he has another fourth quarter like that, calls another fourth-and-1 run behind the right side of the offensive line — even with an extra offensive lineman lined up at tight end, a pulling guard and a fullback leading the way — we’ll revisit that discussion. By now, MSU’s coaches should know the sensible play many other years isn’t the right play this year.

Yes, you ought to be able to get a yard there. MSU can’t. The proof was in before Saturday. Perhaps it’s partly on quarterback Brian Lewerke, who easily could have surged forward for a yard on a QB sneak, given the defensive alignment, but didn’t audible out of Warner’s slow-developing power run play.

I don’t think of Warner as an offensive guru. I think he can be predictable with his formations and sometimes forgets about things that have worked. But I think he’s pretty good at running the system head coach Mark Dantonio wants. And when Warner has the horses, it works.

He doesn’t have them this year. A pro-style offense requires a push from the offensive line to function properly. To function even passably, it requires adequate quarterback protection. This offense, this year, will never function properly. It might not ever function passably.

MSU’s possession with 4 minutes remaining, down 22-19, was the worst possession I’ve seen from the Spartans since Dantonio and Co. put Andrew Maxwell back in at the end of the Notre Dame game in 2013 in a desperate attempt to spark the offense.

On second-and-1 and third-and-1, MSU went with slow-developing pass plays, that ended with Lewerke desperately dumping the ball toward the ground incomplete rather than taking a sack in the end zone. A slant route, a bootleg with Lewerke, anything with a three-step drop — even the layman can see a better way. Or, if you’re going to run Heyward, how about do it on third-and-1 instead of fourth-and-1?

Lewerke has some autonomy. And he and Warner go over the plays Lewerke prefers on Friday nights.

“I definitely would not put it all on him, at all,” Lewerke said of Warner. “Obviously every quarterback and offensive coordinator have to have a good relationship. I think ours is great. It’s definitely on all of us.”

Lewerke is struggling to carry this team. But the kid completed 31 of 51 passes for 329 yards. He threw a couple spectacular passes and a few that were less than stellar — including an interception, where he said a lineman blocked his vision and he didn’t see the safety sitting there. MSU can win big with him under center. It can win big with Warner, too. It has. Like, a Rose Bowl, two Big Ten championships. With Warner calling one horrendous play after another, MSU set a school record for points in 2014 and won another 11 games.

You’re always going to be annoyed by Dantonio’s offensive coordinator, for the most part. You weren’t satisfied with Don Treadwell. You sure as heck didn’t like Dan Roushar. Because you’re often going to be frustrated with Dantonio’s offense. These pro-style attacks aren’t for simple-minded quarterbacks and soft linemen. They aren’t easily pretty. Maybe it’s the wrong offense some years at MSU. But it’s hard to make that argument with Dantonio, given the unprecedented winning that’s gone on in East Lansing during his tenure.

That said, you have to evolve. MSU is 16-15 in its last 31 games. If that .500-like record gets to about 22-22 about this time next year — again with most of this offensive personnel back — it’ll be fair to ask whether Dantonio, admittedly not an expert on offense, should consider a different system.

“We’ve got the same offense as last year. Only person that’s gone is Brian Allen,” senior receiver Felton Davis said Saturday. “But now we’ve got the injuries which puts new people in there.”

Truth is, MSU’s offense wasn’t that great last season. It gutted out 10 wins while averaging 24.5 points per game. This year, the Spartans are averaging 27.2. Granted they haven’t yet faced the teeth of their Big Ten schedule.

Injuries are part of the problem — running back LJ Scott and receiver Cody White and along the offensive line. Bad luck and a couple questionable and costly penalties didn’t help Saturday. Inexperience and development up front is an issue, too. Perhaps talent, as well. There isn’t player with the pedigree of five-star lineman Davontae Dobbs — who arrives next year — in MSU’s two-deep. MSU’s most promising offensive linemen are its youngest linemen. And, it turns out, Allen, now in the NFL, set the tone for MSU’s toughness up front last year.

“We came into this season with high expectations and with people talking about the potential of this offense,” Warner said.

I don’t know who those “people” could be (gulp).

“Potential doesn’t mean anything unless you follow through with it and reach that potential,” he continued. “And obviously we haven’t. We haven’t. We’ll continue to try to find ways to get there because we have good football players on our team. We have good players on offense and we’re not playing to our potential.”

I thought Warner was relatively creative with many of his calls Saturday, including a failed reverse flea-flicker, followed by, two plays later, a reverse for a 48-yard Felton Davis touchdown. But, if you’re Warner, it’s sometimes hard to know what is a good play for this team. La’Darius Jefferson had two fruitful runs behind good push from the line early on one drive. Then later, nothing on a similar play, losing 3 yards. It’s tough to call a game when you can't count on anything.

That said, Warner should do better than Saturday’s finish.

“We’ll find the answers,” Dantonio said. “I feel pretty confident in that. We’ll right the ship.”

When? How? To what level? This year?

He and Warner don’t have those answers right now. I don’t think they’ll like what they find out.

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Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.