The Northwestern Wildcats wanted to keep the ball away from the Penn State offense -- and they did just that. When the first quarter had ended, the No. 2 Lions had only run two offensive plays.

Unfortunately for Northwestern, by that point, the Lions were leading, 14-0.

The defense logged an unusually large amount of playing time in the No. 2 Lions' 45-17 win over the Wildcats on Saturday. The Wildcats slow, methodical marches down the field consumed a total of 41 minutes, 37 seconds. The Lion offense, meanwhile, was on the field for 18:23.

The lack of possession time in the first quarter forced the Lions to adapt to a different game plan. It also made it harder to judge the game.

"It was a tough game to get into," Coach Joe Paterno said. "It was just so out of whack as to most games we play, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think we did some things really well and obviously we didn't do some things as well as we had been doing them."

One aspect of the game that the Lions certainly did well was capitalizing on Wildcat errors. Free safety Kim Herring picked up a loose ball and took it 80 yards to the Northwestern end zone to open the scoring midway through the first quarter.

Following the ensuing kickoff, the defense was back on the field.

"I think when you go into the game, you want to get that first play out of your system," offensive guard Jeff Hartings said. "It wasn't a real good feeling standing on the sideline that long."

Once again, the defense came up big. And once again, it was Herring who made the play. He intercepted a Steve Schnur pass at the Lions' 25-yard line and returned it 21 yards to the 46.

"We haven't been making big plays on defense, (and) we made them today," Paterno said.

The Lion offense then made its first appearance of the day --albeit a very brief one. After a four-yard run by Ki-Jana Carter put the ball at midfield, quarterback Kerry Collins hit wideout Bobby Engram behind the line of scrimmage with a short pass over the middle. Engram motored through a hole and sped untouched into the end zone. After a 19-second rest, the defense was back on the field.

Such was the case all day for the Lion defense. The longest offensive scoring drive consumed 5:04. Each of the other five offensive scoring drives took less than two minutes, two of which took less than one minute.

"When you're on the field as much as we were in the first half, anyone's going to get tired," linebacker Brian Gelzheiser said. "And they're a physical team and that makes it even harder."

The Wildcats rang up a total of 475 yards on the Penn State defense, but they allowed four turnovers and managed only one touchdown against the Lions' first-team defense. For Gelzheiser, that was a positive sign.

"I think we went out there and everybody gave 100 percent," he said. "It's one of those things where you're not going to win every battle, you just try to win most of them."

The Lion offense won many of their battles on the day. Despite abbreviated appearances, Collins went 9-for-17 for 160 yards and one touchdown. Carter accumulated 107 yards on 12 carries -- his eighth 100-yard rushing day of the season --and scored three touchdowns.

"It was a strange game because we never got to do what we were trying to do as an offense," Collins said. "It was one of those things where we had so few plays that we couldn't get a good feel for how well we did. (But) I have a good feeling coming out of this game. I think we did O.K."