For the past two games, Penn State football players have spoken of a playoff format, a tournament the Nittany Lions must win should they desire a bowl game berth.

And now, they've reached the third round.

"I think everyone's bought into what we talked about a couple of weeks ago, the start of a five-game playoff," senior defensive end Justin Kurpeikis said. "That led to a sense of urgency that I think was lacking at the beginning part of the season. With that established, I think the guys have really bought into it and responded."

Tomorrow, in what has become a distinct rarity for Penn State's football team, the Nittany Lions will walk into Beaver Stadium not only expected to win, but also with a substantially better record than the opposition.

Together the two teams, Iowa and the aforementioned Lions, have but five wins and 13 losses between them, but Penn State is coming off its first win "streak" of any kind since last season, when it went 9-0 before dropping its next three games.

The Lions actually have taken three of four, defeating Big Ten leader and Rose Bowl favorite Purdue before falling at Minnesota, then rebounding against Illinois and Indiana.

The Hawkeyes, on the other hand, have lost 16 of their last 17, with a lone 21-16 win against Michigan State in their first Big Ten game this year to show.

And to think that some even called the win against the equally hapless Spartans (also 1-4 in conference play) "stunning."

The higher seed, if you will, has hardly been familiar to the Lions, and Penn State coach Joe Paterno knows it.

During his weekly conference on Tuesday, the 35th-year coach (now just three wins shy of the all-time Div. I-A record), spoke not of a team devoid of talent, but instead of a team devoid of lucky breaks.

"Iowa really had a tough time against Wisconsin," Paterno said. "They fumbled where they had a chance to score. They really had a touchdown pass where the defensive back from Wisconsin grabbed the kid by the shirt and pulled him away from the football. The kid intercepts the ball. Iowa is a good football team, not a great team, but a team that when you looked at them earlier, were just not very good. Now they are playing an awful lot of young kids.

"They are a very, very young football team and they are getting better, better and better each week," Paterno added. "Coming off of the Wisconsin game, they are going to have a lot more confidence in their ability."

In a way, Penn State paralleled Iowa, at least through the first part of the season. Both teams started slow, the Lions at 1-4 and the Hawkeyes at 1-5.

But now, even as each team comes in sporting records that would look better as reciprocals, the Lions still have an outside shot at the Rose Bowl. Of course, they would need help in the form of the top-tier teams winning, but so long as the "2" remains in the conference loss column, the possibility remains.

Iowa, on the other hand, is trying to show it can win a third of its games — a task that has become improbably, if not impossible.

"I don't know if it is a mystery," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "They did start slow. But one thing you have to remember about Penn State is that coach Paterno is capable of running that program."