EVANSTON, ILL. - Ed Johnson and Levi Brown talked quietly as they slowly walked off the field with their heads down.

Johnson looked at Brown and said, "We missed a lot of opportunities in the first half."

Brown responded even more quietly saying, "I don't know what to tell you."

Johnson was right, the Nittany Lions (2-8, 0-6 Big Ten) missed numerous opportunities in the first half and Northwestern (5-5, 3-3) took advantage of the bounces in the second half, coming from behind to win 17-7 on Saturday at Ryan Field.

The Lions have matched the 1931 team as the only other Penn State team to lose eight games. The 1931 squad finished the season 2-8.

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has lost eight games for the first time in his coaching career. The loss to Northwestern surpasses the loss total from 2001, when Penn State had seven defeats.

With the score tied 7-7, facing a third-and-14, Brett Basanez dropped back and threw it as far as he could. Yaacov Yisrael appeared to have a beat on the ball when fellow Chicago-area native cornerback Rich Gardner collided with him and the ball deflected away from Yisrael and into the arms of Brandon Horn, who tiptoed into the end zone for a 41-yard touchdown.

Game over.

On the ensuing possession, Zack Mills was intercepted attempting to make a play for the offense, which officially ended any threat of a Penn State comeback.

The most disheartening play of the game for Paterno was when the Lions were still leading 7-0 and Northwestern ran "fastball," which is a fake.

The Wildcats converted when the holder Eric Batis lined up as the quarterback in shotgun formation, faked a fumble on the snap of the ball, then faked the handoff and sprinted over the left side for eight yards, needing only seven.

"Everyone on the sideline was yelling, 'Fake, fake,' " Paterno said. "We weren't very smart."

It was a strange play from the outset. The Wildcats didn't have a quarterback or a place kicker on the field when the ball was snapped, but it worked for Northwestern football coach Randy Walker.

Walker ran a similar play against Wisconsin two weeks ago, except Batis handed it off.

But that play and the tipped touchdown pass wouldn't have had as big an impact had the Lions converted in the first half.

"In the first half we could have scored 28 points, if not, then easily 21," Mills said. "We didn't execute. One time a dropped pass, the other two times, we just stalled. That would easily have changed the game."

But the Lions didn't convert when they had the chance.

Penn State dominated every aspect of the first quarter of the game.

Total yards: Penn State 161, Northwestern 80. First downs: Penn State 10, Northwestern 3. Time of possession: Penn State 11:27, Northwestern 3:33.

The score: Penn State 0, Northwestern 0.

Following the Rich Gardner interception early in the second quarter, Mills threw deep on the first play for a wide-open Maurice Humphrey.

He dropped it.

"It was a lack of focus," Humphrey said. "I grabbed it and thought I secured it. I looked at the end zone and didn't have it secured."

Sandwiched around the Humphrey's miscue was a pair of missed David Kimball field goals.

The kicks were chip shots by Kimball's standards, but nonetheless he missed a 27-yard field goal wide left and 34-yard field goal wide right.

"The conditions out there were tough, but there is no excuse," Kimball said. "There is no reason to miss them. I didn't get it done and if I did, the game could have gone differently."

But it didn't.

Now, the Lions face the real possibility of losing nine games, which hasn't happened since Penn State started playing football in 1887.