The lights were on, the Beaver Stadium stands were filled, and the defense of a top 10 team was facing them on every down.

But at times in the Penn State football team's game Saturday night against Nebraska, it still seemed like Nittany Lions' wide receiver Bryant Johnson and quarterback Zack Mills were tossing the ball around in the backyard.

Johnson ran crossing route after crossing route and picked up big yards on the Nebraska secondary. He had 100 yards receiving in the first half alone with five catches, and finished the game with eight receptions and 147 yards.

The Nebraska defensive backfield wasn't expected to go down that easily. Cornerback DeJuan Groce had two interceptions in each of the Cornhuskers' last two games, making himself a Jim Thorpe Award favorite. The cornerback on the opposite side, Pat Ricketts, also picked off a pass the week before. However, the Nittany Lions knew before the game that Johnson would still be getting his hands on the ball.

"We knew that coming into this game that BJ was going to have a lot of opportunities to get open in one-on-one coverage," Mills said.

"We worked on a lot of crossing routes and whatnot throughout the week to get him open."

Johnson did what he had to do, and the Cornhuskers did what the Lions expected. On the second play of the Lions' first drive of the game, a second down and 10 situation at the Penn State 3-yard line, Johnson picked up 22 yards on an out route to get the Lions some room.

Johnson had another reception for eight yards on that drive, and a 20-yarder on the drive that followed, but he made his biggest play of the night on the Lions' first scoring drive of the game.

Johnson ran a fade pattern and Ricketts had inside position on him.

Mills' pass was thrown too far in from the sidelines, but Johnson stepped inside of Ricketts to make the reception for a 24-yard gain to the Nebraska 29-yard line.

Penn State would score three plays later on a seven-yard run by tailback Larry Johnson to give the Lions a 7-0 lead.

"That's just what we worked on in practice," Johnson said.

"Because the quarterback is not going to throw the perfect pass all the time. Regardless of where he throws it, you have to have the tenacity to go get the ball."

The crossing routes continued to work for Johnson throughout the remainder of the game.

They were crucial in helping the Lions continue drives.

Only two of his receptions were not for first-down yardage. One of those was a 14-yard reception on a second down and 15 situation, which allowed the Lions to easily convert on third down.

"We ran a lot of crossing routes, we were bringing a lot of crossers just to kind of confuse them," Mills said.

"We mixed a couple guys up, and a couple of times it worked. I'd just dump the ball off to BJ for five yards, and he'd run for another 30, because that guy got caught up in the mix."

Johnson managed to make plays against both of the Huskers cornerbacks.

"He ran against both of those corners," Penn State football coach Joe Paterno said.

"We didn't go in there thinking we were going to pick on anybody. They're a solid football team. There isn't a bad football player on that team."

This was Johnson's sixth 100-yard receiving performance.

The only time he registered more receiving yards was in the loss to Miami last season in which he had 149.

Johnson was happy that this time, such a performance came with a victory.

"It feels good," Johnson said.

"This is like the biggest game of my life."