The senior linebacker had just finished helping lead MSU to a 21-6 win against South Florida in which his defense scored two touchdowns for the second straight week.

As a second-year captain, Bullough is an unofficial spokesperson for the Spartans’ program, and following another feeble showing from MSU’s offense, he could have said a variety of statements.

He could have sugar-coated it and rambled on about how the Spartans will absolutely continue this pace of scoring twice a game on defense. He could have dodged it with a nondescript patting of the back.

Instead, Bullough was just honest.

And he is right, which means MSU’s offense has to start giving the defense a hand sooner rather than later.

It’s not remotely realistic to expect the defense to save the day every game, nor is it fair. If not for dominating efforts and a pair of touchdowns in each of the first two weeks, there would have been no guarantee that MSU would have won both games against overwhelming underdogs.

As impressive as this Spartan defense has been so far, the other side of the ball has been equally lackluster. Responsible for just two of MSU’s six touchdowns this season, the offensive unit needs drastic improvement.

MSU has held each of its first two opponents to less than 100 rushing yards, but that production is nearly negated when the Spartans have yet to throw for 100 yards in either game.

“The offense is going to get better, and I think that we do need that,” Bullough said. “We need our offense to keep improving and keep getting better. I think they showed spurts of that today.”

An extremely favorable schedule coupled with this defense could provide a recipe for MSU’s first Rose Bowl appearance since 1988 — that is, if the offense can form even a slight semblance of consistency and production.

The most promising development from Saturday’s offensive showing was that we actually saw different people, regardless of how they performed. MSU essentially wasted a top-10 defense in 2012 by placing faith in the same group of unproductive players en route to a 7-6 season.

For 14 straight games, head coach Mark Dantonio went with senior Andrew Maxwell as his starting quarterback. On Saturday, however, Dantonio opted to give sophomore Connor Cook the first start of his career, while also starting sophomore Macgarrett Kings Jr. over senior Bennie Fowler at wide receiver.

Cook and Kings weren’t offensive saviors, and neither was redshirt freshman quarterback Tyler O’Connor in the pair of drives he led against the Bulls.

The encouraging sign is that Dantonio, at times seen as loyal to a fault, is truly willing to shake up his pieces to find the best formula — even if it means benching veteran players he feels loyal to.

“There’s a sense of urgency because we want to be the best,” Dantonio said. “I think we have a championship defense. I think we can do things on special teams to a championship level, and we have to raise our performance on offense, because we’re not shooting for 7-6.”

After the USF game, co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach Dave Warner said the disappointment he felt was similar to that of week one, but isn’t calling the situation a crisis just yet.

“I still totally believe in us as an offense, (in) our players as an offense,” Warner said.

“There’s frustration there, but at the same time, we are going to get it taken care of because our defense is playing so stinking good; we’ve got to find a way to help them along.”

Stephen Brooks is a State News football reporter. Reach him at sbrooks@statenews.com.