His face may not have shown it, but his play certainly gave away what was probably on his mind.

This is the best they can throw at me?

Iowa defensive end Matt Roth didn't see the Penn State lineman that was expected to match up against him when the game started, but it didn't matter.

Levi Brown, typically the Nittany Lions' starting left tackle, returned from a one-game hiatus caused by a knee injury and started at right tackle opposite the line from Roth.

Whether Brown was specifically moved to the right to counter Roth is up for debate, but the experiment did not yield very positive results. Roth blew by Brown on the Lions' second drive, smacked Zack Mills from behind and forced a fumble for his first of two sacks on the day.

"He practiced at right tackle so he was comfortable with it," guard Charles Rush said. "He wasn't just coming in blind. He was ready for that. I just know they were trying to work out Levi on both sides to see if he would be able to play both sides. He can, so it's more of an asset to the team."

But despite an overhauling of personnel that coach Joe Paterno and players had vaguely alluded to the week leading up to the game, the offensive line wasn't able to noticeably improve from a rough showing against Purdue.

The starting right side of the line up until Saturday -- guard Tyler Reed and tackle Andrew Richardson -- were singled out by Paterno two weeks ago and both spent the majority of the game on the bench. Reed saw some time back at his guard spot but Richardson's only action came on special teams.

Scott Davis got the start at right guard and John Wilson -- who had filled in admirably for Brown against Purdue -- started at left tackle. Rush and E.Z. Smith were the only members of the line not to be switched around.

Things seemed to be shored up during the bye week, according to Smith.

"I thought we did improve during the bye week," Smith said. "I don't think we showed it today. I think we could have come out and we should have played better, we should have won this football game, there's no doubt in my mind. But the way we played, we didn't deserve to win."

Whereas in the days after the loss to the Boilermakers Paterno lashed out at his offensive line, he sounded more resigned after this loss.

"We knew Iowa would be tough up front," Paterno said. "We thought there were a couple of things we might be able to do with them. We didn't get it done."

Reed and Richardson were not made available to the media after Saturday's 6-4 loss. When neither was in the game, they stood next to each other on the sidelines near the front of the mass of players.

When Roth and the rest of the Iowa front seven caused havoc to both the Lions running and passing games, Paterno tried shuffling around different combinations of linemen. Brown played a bit back at left tackle and Reed spelled Davis on a few drives, but nothing seemed to work for the Lions.

Though before the season, members of the line said one of the biggest strengths of the unit was that the former starting five had such great chemistry. But Rush said that the lineman rotation wasn't detrimental.

"Not really because we work on that in practice so we know whoever comes in is going to be able to play so there's no real transition at all," Rush said.