Matthew Rice was baffled after the Northwestern game.

Baffled, not so much by the loss, though that was part of it, but moreso baffled by his team in general.

I asked him this: "This team seems to be an uncommon team in a lot of ways -- do you think that's true?"

Rice, a junior defensive end, let out a half sigh/half chuckle, and paused, eyes focused downward for a few lengthy seconds.

"It's just been crazy," he said, finally. "I never experienced anything like it before."

This has been a crazy, crazy season for the Penn State football team and, as strange as any observer has found it, it's even more telling that players themselves are equally befuddled.

It's more than just the fact that the team is losing, or that the players don't have the answers as to why that is. That's true for every losing team.

It's about the way in which they lose -- no matter the quality of the opponent, the game is always within reach, yet never actually reached. That's a kind of torture cornerback Alan Zemaitis hasn't known since his days playing junior varsity basketball.

"We would go against the best team, we'd lose by one," he said. "We'd go against the worst team, we'd lose by one. Yeah, I've had that feeling before."

Utility player Michael Robinson explains it as always playing to the level of the opponent, never more, but, statistically speaking, that has to be against some odds.

"You'd almost rather be blown out," fullback Paul Jefferson said.

It's also about the components with which they are losing. This team will end up with a record within one game of last year, but yet, so much about it is improved. This remains unexplained: how a defense can do everything it didn't do last year and more, most notably stop the run, but, in effect, see that improvement wasted because the results, in terms of record, aren't any different.

"Even though we had a losing season last year, we still stepped it up in a lot of different positions," Rice said. "Especially on defense."

Fellow defensive lineman Scott Paxson was of similar mind.

"Last year, to tell you the truth, we really weren't that good," he said. "This year, I really think we are good, we just can't win."

And it's about the circumstances in which this team loses.

Beaver Stadium was so eerily quiet Saturday, that when Penn State's offense was on the field, the Penn State sideline could hear Northwestern's defensive coordinator calling out the plays. As the players leave the field, they are heckled walking through the tunnel. And after they exit the stadium, some are embarrassed to be recognized as football players.

"You definitely hear [the booing] and it doesn't feel good," tight end Isaac Smolko said. "It makes you kinda walk around campus trying to hide, instead of trying to be happy about being a Penn State football player."

Since when has that ever happened at Penn State?

These are, certainly uncommon times, but not uncommon in a good way.

These are uncommon times in a difficult way -- difficult in that the team can't find a way to win close games, difficult in that there are enough offensive problems that the defense can't compensate, difficult in that this university has now become a less-than-ideal environment in which to play football.

"I'm to the point now where if this is a job, man, I would have to send in my resignation or find another job, another place of work," Zemaitis said. "After a while, it just becomes too much. But I'm lucky this is a sport I love to play, and guys I'm willing to lay down for."