At high school practices around the country, coaches preach to their punt returners that if the ball is going to go over their head at the 10-yard line to let it go.

The thinking behind this is that most times the ball will bounce or roll into the end zone and the team would start at its own 20-yard line.

But if the returner calls for a fair catch then there is no chance of there being a touchback.

Penn State punt returner Calvin Lowry must not have paid attention during those drills.

Regardless of the situation, Lowry signaled for a fair catch on his own five-yard line in the fourth quarter.

This was one of the many special teams blunders that contributed to Penn State's loss to Northwestern Saturday.

Miscues on special teams have hurt the Nittany Lions' in many of this season's games.

It seems like a different aspect of special teams falters each week, whether it is poor punt coverage, a fumbled punt or a missed field goal that helps cost the Lions a game.

Lowry has been responsible for too many of the mistakes on special teams this season. Before the Iowa game, Lowry was moved to the punt coverage team and for two games he did an outstanding job covering punts down the field.

But the same can't be said about Saturday. With almost 13 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Lowry was whistled for kick catch interference after driving his shoulder into Kunle Patrick before the ball arrived. Lowry put his hands up to signify that he didn't do anything wrong to the officials, but they didn't buy it.

Lowry's miscues alone cost the Lions 35 yards of field possession.

Patrick had a 28-yard return that helped to set up Northwestern's go-ahead touchdown. The return gave the Wildcats the ball at the 37 yard-line setting the stage for the Brandon Horn 41-yard touchdown off the deflected pass.

As bad as Lowry's mistakes were, place kicker David Kimball was just as bad. Kimball missed two field goals that most high school kickers would make.

He missed a 27-yard kick and 34-yard kick, both in the first half.

"I just didn't make them," Kimball said.

"This is becoming more and more discouraging."

On the 27-yard attempt, the senior pushed the ball left with no chance of it hooking back through the uprights. The second kick had a lot of hook on it and it started between the goal posts but worked its way wide right.

Kimball said that when the team can't score any points when it has the ball inside the 10-yard line, the team will rarely win.

"A couple of times, we had it first-and-eight and we couldn't score a touchdown," Kimball said. "We can't get a field goal either. You can't win doing that."