Call it superior scouting. Offensive predictability, perhaps. Or even ESP.

But, whatever the reason, Iowa's defense had Penn State's offense pegged Saturday, to the point where it could anticipate plays before they happened, making it impossible for the Nittany Lions to get anything going.

"That was weird," quarterback Michael Robinson said. "I kinda knew they knew exactly what we were gonna do."

And when Robinson says "exactly," he means exactly, as Hawkeyes defenders were shouting out the exact play Penn State was about to run as they settled into position on the line of scrimmage.

"I don't know how, but we had a couple of times where they yelled out the play before the play started," tight end Isaac Smolko said. "I mean, I'm not going to say they knew everything we were doing, but there was definitely a handful of times where they knew exactly what we were doing."

Even the defense was aware of the situation, as it repeatedly heard its offensive teammates come off the field, grumbling and frustrated.

"The offense said that," safety Andrew Guman said. "Even after the game they were making comments, mentioning that [the Iowa defense] knew what [they] were going to do before they did it.

"I can see how it would be difficult to have success on the other team when you run plays and they know what's coming at them."

One potential reason for the predictability is that the Penn State playbook has been greatly shortened this season in order to simplify the offense and make it easier to execute.

"There's a significant part of the playbook cut out, but we still have so much that it doesn't really matter," Smolko said. "We do have so many different plays that having it cut down was a benefit for us. ... It will help -- I guess eventually -- our mistakes. I'm glad they did it."

While simpler for the offense, a smaller playbook also means a greater chance of Iowa accurately guessing the next play.

And that is doubly true when rarely used players are brought onto the field or when unorthodox formations are used.

"You watch film, and you see a certain formation where you've seen one play run so many different times," Smolko said.

"And sometimes with substitutions, one player might be in the game so far the whole year for two plays. So, it's not very hard to guess."

The clear problem is, when an offense isn't hard to guess, it isn't hard to stop, as evidenced by the fact that Penn State was held scoreless offensively in Saturday's 6-4 loss to Iowa.

Penn State coach Joe Paterno wasn't too willing to talk about Iowa's supposed ability to have his team figured out, as he simply offered up this: "Yes, it should concern me. It concerns me if it is accurate. Let's leave it at that."

But, by all accounts, it is accurate, so it should already be a concern -- an extremely troubling, worrisome concern.