In a scene that has become all too familiar for Penn State fans, most of the players on the Nittany Lions football team, despite another loss, walked out of Beaver Stadium Saturday with their helmets off, heads high and spirits up.

Rashard Casey did the opposite.

He kept his helmet on and hung his head the best he could, oblivious to the solemn "It's alright, Rashard," condolences coming from the student section after the Lions dropped a double-overtime decision to Iowa, 26-23.

All season long, the Nittany Lions senior quarterback had deflected naysayers, proclaiming his innocence to an assault charge off the field and proclaiming his athletic dominance on it.

And now, it seemed those students, the same ones that had scorned him and his coach before, now wanted to support him.

But Saturday, he didn't need support. He needed a win.

"It was tough," Casey said. "We worked so hard since we got here, five years ago for me, and I waited four or five years just for this year, and for it to end up the way it's ended up, or the way it's going right now, it's just hard to swallow. We knew we needed all three wins to go to a bowl game, and that just counted us out. Just like that."

Mired in a second overtime after overcoming an early 13-3 deficit, one of Casey's passes — his 52nd — deflected off Lions tight end Tony Stewart and into the arms of Hawkeyes defensive back Ryan Hansen, giving Iowa the game.

"I didn't know what had happened," Casey said. "I threw the ball and right after I let it go, I got hit. I hit my head on the ground pretty hard, so I was trying to focus to see where everything was going. I heard the crowd, and I was facing the opposite end zone. When I looked back, I just saw everyone standing around, and when I heard their crowd cheering, I knew something had happened."

For Casey, it was his only interception. Yet, it not only cost Penn State a shot at a bowl game, but also a winning record for the first time since 1988.

"That was a long shot, winning five in a row," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. "We're just not that good, really. It was good for the kids to set goals. A lot of the younger kids started to play a little better. Michigan is a big game and Michigan State will be the last home game for a lot of the seniors, so that will be a big game for them."

Iowa's early lead, which lasted throughout the first half, came first from a short, six-yard pass from Kyle McCann to Kahlil Hill, and then courtesy of two booming field goals — one from 48 yards and a second from 49 — by placekicker Nate Kaeding.

Penn State's Ryan Primanti added a 43-yard field goal with about 40 seconds remaining in the first half to dampen the blow.

"I wouldn't say we underestimated them," Lions safety James Boyd said. "I think we came out a little flat in the first half. I think we started out slow. I mean, if we would have come out like we did in the second half, it would have been no contest."

After trading three-and-outs for the first part of the third quarter, the Lions cut the lead to a touchdown with another Primanti field goal, this one from 32 yards.

They tied the game on their next drive, with Casey hitting John Gilmore in the back of the end zone.

The score remained tied until Kaeding hit another bomb, a 46-yarder, midway through the fourth quarter. Primanti answered that four minutes later with one from 28, on a drive that included a questionable intentional grounding call against Casey.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz disagreed with the original no-call and called a timeout. After conferring with the referee, the officials changed the call.

"I think the call was right, because I don't think it did cross the line of scrimmage, but he didn't call it," Paterno said. "What bothered me was this isn't the NFL. We don't have a replay. That's what I was all upset about.

"They fed me a bunch of gobbledy-gook when they talked to me. I don't think they knew what they were talking about, either."

On the game's last drive in regulation, which gave Penn State just 25 seconds to advance from its own 20 yard-line to within field-goal range, tailback Eric McCoo took a draw 34 yards to the Iowa 39.

Primanti, however, missed the long-shot 56-yard effort short and barely to the right.

After the game, Paterno defended his choice to use the fifth-year senior, even though freshman David Kimball waited on the bench, with a stronger yet less-accurate leg.

"Primanti is perfectly capable of getting it if he gets enough distance," Paterno said. "A couple feet one way or the other and he would have had it. He's been more consistent and obviously has been in more pressure situations than Kimball."

Casey, hiding his frustration under a calm aura, referred to the game being "a couple of inches away."

In fact, about the only time he smiled was about an hour after the game, when someone asked him to conjure up his thoughts of his now-defunct legal problems.

"I told you guys before," Casey said, his teeth barely showing. "I didn't do anything, so I had nothing to worry about."