Since I’m not a fly on the Penn State sideline, I don’t know exactly how to split the blame between offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne and head coach James Franklin.

What I do know is that the Lions’ offense has lost its mojo, and the fault is not with the players.

The latest fall-from-ahead heart-breaking loss — Saturday’s 21-17 setback against Michigan State — leaves me wondering if things would be different if Joe Moorhead were still working in Happy Valley. In two seasons as Penn State’s offensive coordinator, Moorhead created the high-octane attack that made Trace McSorley a folk hero and allowed the Lions to return to national prominence ahead of schedule.

But for two games in a row now, the offense has gone into its shell — as I pointed out after the 27-26 loss to Ohio State — with the game on the line.

Starting with the 2016 Rose Bowl, Penn State has five losses by a total of 12 points. One more score probably wins every one of those games. Adding up the scores from the last 8 minutes against the Buckeyes this year and the fourth quarters of the other games, it’s opponents 62, PSU 6.

Worse than the numbers is the increasing passivity of Rahne’s unit.

Needing one first down to ice Saturday’s game, Penn State ran the ball three straight times. The call on second-and-7 was a terribly unimaginative straight handoff to Miles Sanders. Nothing like running the play the defense is most likely to expect.

What might have Moorhead done differently? He might have trusted his third-year starting senior quarterback to throw a pass. He might have moved McSorley with a rolling pocket with a run/pass option — even if there was no intention to throw the ball. At least make the defense respect the possibility.

Penn State’s line play is as good as it has been in Franklin’s five seasons. Sanders racked up 162 yards on 17 carries, including a two spectacular long runs. But the other 15 carries went for only 36 yards. Both of the big plays came in the first half.

As improved as the line is, Penn State is not going to close out Big Ten power programs with deep handoffs against stacked defenses.

Against the Spartans, it never should have come down to fourth-quarter plays.

What might have Moorhead done differently? He might have put the ball in the air a lot more against a defense coming off a home loss to Northwestern in which the Spartans allowed 373 passing yards.

Unlike NU’s Clayton Thorson, who put the ball in the air 47 times, McSorley threw only 32 times. Unlike the Wildcats, who established Flynn Nagel (10 catches for 111 yards) as their go-to receiver, Penn State made its top pass-catching threat, KJ Hamler, seem invisible for large chunks of the game. Hamler finished with 5 catches for 66 yards. He easily could have doubled those team-high totals if Rahne had designed a game plan to exploit MSU’s weaknesses. He had two weeks to prepare. I’m left scratching my head.

Why has Penn State seemingly lost its identity? Why does the offense suddenly look conservative, like it’s playing careful and scared?

Hamler and tight end Pat Freiermuth are both true freshmen, but they’ve played so well it’s hard to buy an argument that the offense has to be simplified for them at the mid-point of the season. Sanders, behind the improved line, is doing a fair impersonation of Saquon Barkley.

Everything seems to be in place for the offense to continue to grow. Yet it seems to have gone stale. It looks different. It didn’t look exactly right even in back-to-back 63-point efforts in September, as crazy as that sounds.

The scheme seems less varied, less complex, less able to spread and then dissect defenses. What happened to the fun and the daring? What happened to screens and backs slipping out into pass patterns? Sanders and Ricky Slade didn’t catch a single pass against the Spartans. Running backs have 2 catches for 2 yards over the past three games.

What happened to backup junior QB Tommy Stevens and the “Lion” role? Was he more injured than we knew to start the season? Or have Rahne and Franklin simply decided to scrap Stevens’ multi-purpose offensive role? By all appearances, Franklin is wasting the junior season of a 6-5, 240-pound athlete with huge potential. We’re about due for an explanation.

I believe Franklin is the right guy to get Penn State to the “elite” status he talked about after the Ohio State loss. But Penn State will not further that goal by playing passive on offense this season. The Lions, this year, are the same type of team they’ve been the past two seasons. Not elite, not even “great” as Franklin has assessed them.

Penn State remains a good team that can over-achieve its way into the top 10 playing fun, reckless, attention-getting, program-selling, high-octane offense. The defense is making strides, the past two end-games notwithstanding.

The defense played well enough to win against Ohio State and Michigan State. The offense, in Year 1 post-Moorhead, did not.

When Moorhead took the reins this season at Mississippi State, he told QB Nick Fitzgerald to make room on his mantle for the Heisman trophy. Fitzgerald is not going to win the Heisman, and Moorhead’s Bulldogs (4-2) are averaging 12.0 points over their past three games. Life in the SEC is not going to be that easy.

But Moorhead was sending a message about mindset and confidence not only to his quarterback but to his entire squad. Rahne and Franklin would do well to re-embrace that nothing-to-lose philosophy.

There may come a time when Penn State can have greater success with less fun, but that time is not now. It’s a shame it took two crushing home losses to drive home that point.