CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Defensive linemen Tamba Hali and Scott Paxson were there, talking frantically, while cornerback Alan Zemaitis fidgeted nervously and linebacker Tim Shaw stared off in silence.
And together, they sat there -- with the rest of Penn State's first string defense -- on an aluminum bench on the sideline, each wearing his exhaustion and frustration a different way.
But surely, to a man, they all were wearing it in some way at that point, with less than 3 minutes remaining in the third quarter.
They had just been pushed, pulled and dragged down the field on a 16-play, 74-yard touchdown drive by a dominating Boston College offense.
It was methodical -- the drive burned 7:51 off the game clock and the yards-per-play average was 4.6 -- and it was the defining drive that buried the Nittany Lions for good.
"Getting first down, after first down, it gets tiring the more [first downs the offense] gets," Hali said.
The sense of finality was what made it so defining. It punctuated everything in a game Penn State seemed destined to lose from the start.
It was also the final score in a 21-7 Boston College victory, and yet the first the Eagles really seemed to earn. The first two touchdown drives were the results of special teams penalties and a fumble.
But the third drive was different. It started with an 8-yard run by Andre Callender through a huge hole opened by the BC offensive line, which signified the theme of the drive.
It was, quite simply, domination of Penn State's front seven in the passing and running game. The beauty of it was how the Eagles kept the Lions off balance.
When BC had success hitting swing passes out of the backfield and the Lions started to defend the edges, the Eagles adjusted and hit the tight end over the middle.
When BC strung together a few solid gains on the ground and Penn State loaded up against the run, the Eagles got yards on play action passes.
The drive looked like a resurfacing of the problems last year's defense experienced all season long. A lot of those problems were blamed on youth then.
"We're young?" Hali responded incredulously when asked if the defense is still not experienced enough to handle a quality offensive team. "What do you mean by that?
"I'm not going to blame anything on how young we are," he continued. "You know, I don't think we're young. I think we were much better than this team [Boston College]. We made a lot of mistakes."
Even when the defense seemed to disrupt a BC play, the Eagles were often still able to get yardage on that final touchdown drive in the third quarter.
And that was mostly thanks to the mobility and heady play of BC quarterback Paul Peterson. His fleet feet and resourcefulness allowed him to avoid sacks, get out of trouble and complete passes.
"It definitely wears on you, especially when you're coming after him," Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny said. "You're trying to get after the quarterback, and he makes a couple plays on third down."
After 16 plays spent tormenting the Penn State defense, Peterson capped the drive by scrambling out of the pocket and finding fullback Mark Palmer, who had beaten Derek Wake's coverage in the back of the end zone.
The game was, then, effectively over, and the defensive players walked off the field to their seats in a row on the Penn State bench.
Maybe Penn State did contain the BC offense for most of the game, and maybe that third-quarter drive happened because the Lions were tired, but still the Eagles scored when they needed to close out the game.
And the Penn State defense was powerless to stop it.
"We weren't prepared," Hali said. "We weren't prepared to play this kind of game today."
