CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Saturday night, Penn State gave Boston College a gift. It was a gift of the very best sort, although as soon as it was given, Penn State wished it could take it back.

The gift to the Eagles was the absurd first drive of Penn State's 21-7 loss to BC Saturday night, in which the defense forced BC to punt twice, but, through two roughing the kicker penalties, gave the ball back twice. BC was then able to capitalize on its luck -- and Penn State's accidental generosity -- by scoring the first touchdown of the game.

"The first [touchdown] was a given; that's like a gift," defensive end Tamba Hali said. "You don't get that. In the game, you usually don't get that."

The drive started off inauspiciously, with BC on its 20-yard line after a touchback on the opening kickoff. The Eagles then made their initial first down by completing a 12-yard pass. The Penn State defense, fresh and fired up, managed to stop BC's run attempts on the next two downs and on a last ditch pass attempt on third-and-11.

BC's freshman punter, Johnny Ayers, then came onto the field and, shortly after, the trouble began.

As Ayers booted the ball, cornerback Darien Hardy leaped to block the kick and, after seeming to get a piece of the ball, ran into the punter.

Though running into the punter is legal if a punt is blocked, the officials ruled that Hardy had not tipped the ball, and, thus, he was called for roughing the kicker. However, the ball followed a trajectory that would result if it had been tipped, prompting Penn State coach Joe Paterno to protest on the sideline.

"They said the umpire didn't think it was tipped," Paterno said after the game. "I think the other officials thought it was tipped. We thought it was tipped, obviously."

Hardy and his teammates also believed that he did indeed get a piece of the ball.

"I did tip it," Hardy said. "You could see the ball, how far it went. It hit me; I was right there. I went untouched, how could I not hit the ball -- it was right in my face. I came off the field excited and jubilant and all, so you would know, you would see, you would have some way of knowing I blocked the punt."

Despite Penn State protests, the penalty stood and the ball was returned to the Eagles for first-and-10 on their 46-yard line.

Once again, the Penn State defense did its job, forcing a three-and-out on the series, leading to another Ayers punt. Despite what had happened on the last play, the Lions' plan was to continue to be aggressive, with linebacker Paul Posluszny going for the block.

"We felt that they have a freshman punter, and we wanted to take advantage of that," Posluszny said. "We worked on our blocks a lot this week, and we thought we'd be able to get one for sure. And the first one I think it was a block."

This time around, however, there was no debate -- Posluszny failed to get a hand on the ball and subsequently ran into the kicker, leading to a second consecutive roughing the kicker penalty.

"The second [penalty], it's just a matter of inches whether it's a penalty or not," Posluszny said. "Sometimes things just don't work out -- a step to the left, a step to the right, you're out of there no problem. Sometimes little things just get you."

BC regained the ball on the 44-yard line for a third chance to do what it had failed to accomplish on the first two chances -- and this time the Eagles were successful, scoring the first touchdown of the game eight plays later.

Just as running back Tony Hunt's 77-yard run during Penn State's first offensive drive against Akron energized his teammates, so did this opening drive seem to extinguish the fire of Penn State's defense. After the first drive, Penn State was never as able to contain the run, nor did the defense as a whole ever again look as though it could make key stops.

Two BC touchdowns later, Penn State was in a 14-point whole it could never emerge from, and the gift of a penalty-ridden first drive that Penn State gave to the Eagles became something even bigger -- the gift of the game.

"Our special teams made two mistakes," Hali said. "The score could have been 14-7; we could have done something about that."