An assortment of big plays hit the Beaver Stadium turf Saturday, when the Penn State football team decided to take the training wheels off of its freshman wideouts.

Redshirt freshman Deon Butler only grabbed two passes for 73 yards, but one of those was a 45-yard, go-route bomb from quarterback Michael Robinson in the fourth quarter of the Nittany Lions' 42-24 win over Cincinnati.

"All of the new [wideouts] have that attitude," Butler said. "That, 'It doesn't matter what you do, I'm better than you.' "

Fellow freshman wideout Derrick Williams captured five of Robinson's passes for 60 yards, the second week in a row Williams has led the Lions in receptions.

Justin King made more appearances on the offensive side of the ball, too. The second-string freshman cornerback converted his only catch -- a 59-yard catch, almost identical to Butler's -- into a big touchdown.

King's and Williams' on-field swagger was clearly noticeable Saturday, Butler said.

"We all love to see each other do well," Butler said. "We all love to help each other."

Nittany Lions head coach Joe Paterno was impressed with the play of the young, speedy threats, but had trouble finding adjectives that separated Butler's play from the rest of the wideouts.

"He's like the rest of them," Paterno said.

Still, the shoot-first and ask-questions-later offense didn't develop quickly.

Penn State scored on its first drive of the game, after Alan Zemaitis jumped all over a pass from Cincinnati quarterback Dustin Grutza.

"When he threw the rock, I just converted on it," Zemaitis said.

Zemaitis has two takeaways so far this season. The first -- against South Florida -- was a fumble recovery that the fifth-year senior cornerback scooped from the ground and ran into the end zone, ending the Bulls' first offensive series. The second, on Saturday, was the interception.

"I really don't bask in the glory of the 'W,' " Zemaitis said.

The Bearcats did move the ball well against the Penn State defense. Grutza, a redshirt freshman, threw for 286 yards and a touchdown.

Saturday was the second week in a row that an opposing team has put up at least 200 yards passing against Penn State.

"It drains on you physically, and it drains on you mentally," Zemaitis said. "You just gotta keep it together and press on."

Paterno said toward the end of the game -- including when Penn State gave up two touchdowns in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter -- the defense began to give.

"We let [Grutza] off the hook too many times," Paterno said. "Not against the run, but when we had to pass rush -- keeping lanes, jumping with our hands up -- when we should have been running right through to the quarterback."

Cincinnati's 24 points were the most allowed by the Penn State defense since the final game of 2003, when the Nittany Lions lost to Michigan State, 41-10.

"I think they got a little tired," Paterno said. "It was like in 1994 when [former defensive coach] Jerry Sandusky would come over to me and say, 'Please don't score in a hurry; we'll get tired.' "