The last time Deon Butler was that wide open in a game, he was in high school, the redshirt freshman recalled.

To his own admittance, his exploits on the field Saturday were nothing that should garner too much praise, though. Entering the game, he knew Central Michigan's secondary would play off of Penn State's wideouts; he knew there'd be opportunities for success downfield.

His responsibility, as always, is to catch the ball first, then proceed to turn upfield and make plays. He did that so well on Saturday that by halftime he had four catches for 102 yards and two touchdowns, a large factor in the Nittany Lions' 40-3 dismantling of the Chippewas.

The Lions (3-0) did what they were supposed to do against a team like Central Michigan. They built an early lead at home in front of 100,000 people, they played lights-out defense for four quarters and they saw to it that the game was over by halftime.

And that's exactly the way they wanted to play entering the Big Ten season at Northwestern next Saturday.

From the start of the game, the direction in which the two teams were headed seemed obvious. After winning their fifth in a row, including wins in the final two games last season, the Lions appear to be gaining more confidence with each victory. Offensively, quarterback Michael Robinson threw three touchdowns in a game for the second week in a row. Out of his six touchdown passes in the last two games, half have been to Butler, and Robinson's been pleased with Butler's progress.

"It just happened that way," Robinson said of Butler's two scores. "That's the coverage they gave us. He ran great routes; he ran them real high to get away from the safeties, and he did a great job getting open."

Last season, Butler redshirted the entire year at cornerback. Because of the Lions' lack of depth at receiver, he was asked to move to wideout in the spring.

"We debated last year to move him to offense because we were struggling," Penn State football coach Joe Paterno said. "When the season was over, we had a couple of staff meetings to re-evaluate what we did, what we could have done and why we didn't do certain things. Butler came up all the time as a guy that I probably should not have held out."

When Butler wasn't on the field, he was on the sidelines, watching the Lions defense torture Chippewa quarterback Kent Smith. The Lions contained the 6-foot-5 scrambler almost flawlessly. Smith, who had totaled 478 yards in the Chippewas' 38-37 win at Miami University of Ohio the previous week, was held to 143 yards passing and minus-39 yards rushing.

"This quarterback was a pretty good athlete," defensive tackle Scott Paxson said. "And we didn't want him to do the same thing that happened last week to us. I thought we improved on that aspect."

The defense roughed Smith up and recorded eight sacks on the day, its most in a game since tallying eight against Michigan State in 2000. The Lions held Central Michigan to 14 yards rushing on 39 attempts, the fewest by an opponent since Northwestern had nine yards on 30 attempts in 2002.

Paterno said the next two weeks would determine whether his offense has truly taken a step forward among the Big Ten elite. Apparently, the Chippewas defense was less challenging than the Lions anticipated.

"They didn't have a great day today," Paterno said. "To be quite frank with you, their defensive scheme allowed us to do some things throwing the football."

Throwing the ball was the No. 1 concern for this offense coming into the season, but the Lions' offense has made strides. Butler has done his part to re-learn the position he played in high school and silence the critics for now.

"If you just play football, go out there and hustle, I don't care where you are playing, you are going to learn," Paterno said. "He has obviously turned out to be a good wideout."