Somewhere, the encouragement of moral victories ended for this team; they have been replaced now.

Replaced by the frustration of another close loss, and replaced by anger and bitterness with an edge so sharp that when Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was asked if there were any positives in the game, he couldn't find the will to reveal them.

"We got licked," is all he could mutter after the Nittany Lions 20-13 loss to Purdue.

The players couldn't provide any help, either. Paterno did not allow any of the Penn State football players to participate in interviews with the media after the game, thus shedding no more light on the high points of the best game the Lions have played all year.

According to the coaches, they took this one harder than the others, as they yelled and raged in the locker room over another near miss.

Paterno perhaps had concerns that they had the poise to speak with the media after such a loss.

"I think you got a bunch of guys that are mad, frustrated, but yet they know that we'll be a better football team because of this game," Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley said. "Those guys are a good group of guys in there. Everybody's not sure what they're like but that's a good group of people, a good group of young men who will be a really good football team one day. You just have to make some plays in the clutch."

Oddly enough, though, this came about after the team had played with more poise than they had in any game all season.

Penn State, for once, looked like a team capable of making not just the plays that it should, but also the plays it needed to make.

"The Penn State receivers, to their credit, they came up with some catches that I hadn't seen on tape," Purdue coach Joe Tiller said. "There were some guys that laid out and made some big catches today, too. I really thought that we played a football team today that played as good as they possibly can play. I can't imagine them playing better than what they played today."

Clutch plays were made on both sides of the ball by younger and older players, many stepping up like they hadn't earlier in the season.

True freshman Mark Rubin had just three catches, but all were for enormous first-down conversions, the first of which was a 10-yard catch on a third-and-7 in Penn State territory. That reception, in the middle of the second quarter, kept alive the Lions' only touchdown drive of the game.

The wideout's second catch was a 16-yard reception on third-and-13 just before the end of the half that led to Robbie Gould's game-tying 38-yard field goal. His third, and final, effort was a 12-yard reception on a third-and-10 that kept alive Penn State's only other scoring drive, which culminated with Gould's 27-yard field goal.

Much-maligned junior Terrance Phillips, who has been criticized for dropping key passes and running incorrect patterns, gave a jaw-dropping effort with two amazing, diving receptions. The second grab -- on which Phillips dove just beyond the cornerback and left of safety Kyle Smith, who was closing quickly -- fell onto his fingertips and went for 33 yards. It set up a Penn State first down at the Purdue 11-yard line, but the drive ended when quarterback Zack Mills was tackled on a fake field goal attempt.

But perhaps the grittiest effort came from true freshman Dan Connor, starting his first game and lining up at middle linebacker for only the second time.

"Dan Connor is playing middle linebacker. He has practiced there one day," Bradley said. "One day at middle linebacker. For a kid to go in there and to call signals and to do what he did -- that's a heck of a job."

That job included 10 tackles and a stalwart effort after the Lions lost linebacker Paul Posluszny, just a sophomore himself, to a right shoulder injury.

It was only at the end of the game that the play started to break down. The defense couldn't stop Purdue from getting a clutch fourth-quarter field goal in the last three minutes. Receivers couldn't seem to get as open as they had earlier and Mills' passes were not as on-target.

Maybe that's why the loss hurt the Lions so much.

It was another step closer but it was still a step that left them a few plays short.

"As much hard work as these kids put in, they deserve better," Bradley said. "Some day they'll get their due, and we'll keep getting better. But you know it doesn't matter. You lost."