The ace is out of the hole. It's just another card on the table now.

The Penn State football team's secret weapon is not a secret anymore.

Since Penn State football coach Joe Paterno pulled his talent-dripping backup quarterback out of his sleeve and started using him at every skill position possible on offense, teams have had a chance to figure him out. The previous week, Louisiana Tech couldn't stop it when they knew it was coming.

This past week, Iowa did.

The Robinson factor was almost non-existent Saturday. The redshirt freshman carried the ball four times for minus-2 yards. He lost eight on a sack on a wide receiver pass. He lined up at split end and took a handoff from quarterback Zack Mills on a reverse, then looked to throw before Hawkeye linebacker Kevin Worthy slammed him for the sack.

Robinson was in for six plays at quarterback and never attempted a pass. Four times he ran the ball himself, and twice he pitched the ball to tailback Larry Johnson on the option. Johnson took one of those runs for five yards, which became 11 yards because of a face-mask penalty. However, Robinson never gained more than four yards on a keeper, and gained just six yards on those plays.

He lined up several more times as a wide receiver, but only got the ball on the pass play. He was open on the game's last play, but Mills didn't see him and attempted to throw another screen to Larry Johnson.

The Hawkeyes knew of Robinson's exploits. He had scored three touchdowns on his first three carries against Louisiana Tech and also had two scores against Nebraska.

"You have to prepare for it," Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz said. "I think you know the statistics better than I do how productive he is. We had the intention to do that, because he's a dangerous player."

By Saturday, the Hawkeyes knew when Robinson was going to get the ball, and they bottled him up easily. There were no holes for him to run on option plays, and he couldn't run up the middle.

"We knew what to expect right away when he was on the field," Hawkeyes cornerback Jovon Johnson said. "We knew the plays that they ran. We just tried to get in position to make plays, and we limited the things he did."

The Hawkeye defense was already stonewalling the Lions' running game. They allowed just 37 rushing yards in the first half and 54 for the game.

Johnson wasn't getting any holes, and by bottling up Robinson, the Hawkeyes showed that a change of pace on the ground wouldn't work either.

The wide receiver pass was the only new play the Lions worked into the game plan for Robinson, and by anticipating the possibility of him getting the ball, the Hawkeyes were able to stop even what they hadn't seen.

"They bring him in the game to produce big plays, he's a big-play person," Hawkeyes safety Derek Pagel said. "When he lines up on the field, you're thinking about where's he at. You almost have to anticipate what he's going to do. When he was on the field, I think a lot of guys stepped up on him. I think we eliminated plays with him that could have hurt us."