In the doom and gloom of a random week in the life of a 2-7 football team, the players get to answer all sorts of uplifting questions.

How does it feel to be booed on your home field? Why is the offense so ineffective? Is there any hope for the future?

Lost in the shuffle of all those cheery "big-picture" questions is the fact that there's actually a game to be played tomorrow, as unexciting of a prospect as that might be. And if there's one thing that might be able to alleviate at least some of the pain of the season, that thing might be the Indiana Hoosiers. Since the problem thus far in the Big Ten season has been that the offense can't get on track against opposing defenses, a game against a porous Hoosiers defense might be for the best. It's an opportunity for an offense that has only had success against teams from the Mid-American Conference to show that it can compete the Big Ten.

"I think we match up pretty well," quarterback Zack Mills said. "The key is to be able to run the ball. They blitz a good bit, so if we can run, maybe slow them down -- we need to make the big pass play. They play a decent amount of man-to-man defense, so we need to get something."

Back before the season began, what seems like an eternity ago, Mills talked about how much he loved the new wrinkles in the play-action passing game Galen Hall had brought to the offense.

Unfortunately for Mills and the Nittany Lions, the running game hasn't been all that spectacular, only starting to get back on track the past two games. Couple that with the fact that the Lions don't have a true deep threat at wide receiver, and the play-action game becomes fairly worthless.

"I am not going to kid you," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. "Nobody is going to be scared of us. Neither Indiana nor Michigan State is going to be afraid, except for Michael Robinson. I am talking about wideouts, not the running backs."

But Tony Hunt might be able to put some fear in those defenses. The sophomore tailback is not only the team's leading rusher, but also has the most receptions on the team, with 37.

With the exception of an inspired effort against Michigan earlier this season in which the Wolverines were held to fewer than 100 yards rushing, the Hoosiers run defense has been downright terrible, allowing 206.7 yards per game, dead last in the Big Ten. Aside from Hunt's, the Lions may also have an ace up their sleeve in freshman quarterback Anthony Morelli, who Paterno has more or less promised will see time this game, after Morelli warmed up the last few weeks, but ended up not playing.

The Lions may be tempted to test out Morelli's strong arm and send some of the team's speedier receivers, like Terrell Golden, out on deep routes if they can get the man-to-man matchups of which Mills spoke. Though a victory against Indiana may seem hollow this late in the season, at this point any offensive production greater than one touchdown might be enough to give the offense some of the confidence players say has been lacking.

"I think it's a confidence thing," current wide receiver Michael Robinson said. "The fact that we haven't had much success this year or last year, people don't know which offense is gonna show up."