If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

In the case of a "bend-don't-break" pass defense though, the idea is to fix it before it gets "broken."

Penn State employed that philosophy to near-perfection against Akron in the first game of the season.

Unfortunately, a similar-looking game plan against Boston College couldn't produce the same results.

It worked well enough against the Zips. In fact, it was probably the best game plan available against a dangerous quarterback like Charlie Frye and a team with no running game to speak of.

The Lions secondary repeatedly gave Zips receivers a comfortable cushion underneath to catch the ball -- which they did, a total of 29 times. But Penn State's talent stuck those receivers almost immediately after they caught the ball, surrendering small chunks of yards but not once giving up the big play.

The strategy worked so well that Frye only attempted one deep ball the entire game and Anwar Phillips intercepted it.

The Boston College game was a different story.

The Lions cornerbacks continued to play well off the line against an above-average group of Eagles receivers, and BC made Penn State pay.

Safety Andrew Guman said that while he didn't think the team's strategy was to give a cushion to BC receivers, other teams may study how the Eagles were able to successfully throw the ball against their defense.

"I don't think we were really trying to give up the short pass and protect the deep ball," Guman said.

"Some of that seems to happen naturally, but we definitely have to take that into account. Teams might try to look at that. It was obviously a success for Boston College. A 6-yard pass here and a 5-yard pass there and they have a first down."

Those five and 6-yard screen and swing passes that were being stopped short of first downs against the Zips were instead converted and sustaining drives that repeatedly killed the Lions' momentum.

BC utilized the speed of wideouts like Grant Adams and threw short crossing patterns over the middle that went uncontested and Adams was able to beat the corner covering him to the sideline.

Eventually the success of the Eagles last week destroyed its very purpose. BC quarterback Paul Peterson was able to hit the deep balls that Frye wasn't able to set up the week before.

The loss and big passing plays stung the secondary, but the unit realizes they have to put the entire game behind them.

"Every loss affects me personally because I am a junior out on the field," cornerback Alan Zemaitis said.

"As a corner you have to have the mentality that you forget and move on. I'm fired up and ready to go for [yesterday's] practice. I can always move on. It doesn't stay in my gut for too long except that we lost."

Though one of the contributing factors to the fracturing of the secondary was the success of the Andre Callender and the Eagles' run game, Penn State coach Joe Paterno said the BC air game was a bigger factor in the Lion'sloss.

"It wasn't the running game that killed us," Paterno said. "It was the five turnovers and the three touchdown passes. I thought [BC's] quarterback was the difference in the football game. He made some great plays. He scrambled around and found some people who were open and got the ball to them."

Paterno hinted after Saturday's loss that he might make some changes on the defense for this week's game against Central Florida.

But after watching the game tape, Paterno said there were no real personnel changes that he made as of yesterday, other than switching Gio Vendemia back to cornerback from wide receiver.

"I don't think we need to panic," he said.