For some, opportunity comes knocking but once - for Penn State, however, it came knocking several times on Saturday.

Unfortunately for the Nittany Lions, no one was there to answer the door.

"Once or twice, a couple of young guys fell asleep," head coach Joe Paterno said.

Just as Anthony Morelli's deep spiral slipped through the outstretched hands of Derrick Williams in the third quarter, so too did Penn State's chance to burst on to the national scene with a win against No. 2 Notre Dame.

Williams, a receiver with game-changing ability, failed to reverse the fate of the Lions, who wound up on the wrong end of the second-worst loss in series history.

"It was not the best of Penn State football today, and it was not the best of D-Will today either," said Williams.

The sophomore playmaker's mistake was far from the only blemish for the Lions, who had plenty of blame to go around.

Jason Ganter, holder for field goal attempts, was involved in his third costly error in two games when he couldn't bring down Jay Alford's snap. Alford claimed responsibility, saying the snap was too high since he didn't get a good grip on the ball.

The botched field goal try put an unsuccessful end to a promising drive, just as Tony Hunt's untimely fumble at the Notre Dame 45-yard line with 17 seconds left in the first quarter killed Penn State's momentum heading into what would be the defining second period.

"The thing about this loss is that we did so many things that helped them out," Penn State co-captain Paul Posluszny said. "We made a lot of simple mistakes that we normally don't make."

Hunt did find success on a screen pass late in the second quarter. He broke free down the right side of the field, finally being brought down near Notre Dame's 20-yard line - only to have the play called back because of a questionable clipping penalty assessed to center A.Q. Shipley. The net result of the play, instead of an approximate gain of 30 yards, was a loss of six.

This, too, was a drive killer, as Penn State, trailing 13-0 at this point, was forced to punt the ball following an incompletion and a sack.

Jeremy Kapinos' punt left Notre Dame with possession at its own 31-yard line with around 90 seconds remaining and one timeout at its disposal.

From there, Penn State sat back in a prevent defense, allowing Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn time to pick apart the secondary as he led the Fighting Irish down the field.

After five completions and a pair of runs, Notre Dame found itself in the endzone with a 20-0 advantage, and all the momentum it would need to keep the Lions at bay.

"On the road sometimes everything doesn't always go your way," Penn State receiver Deon Butler said. "It might have been mental mistakes, it might have been questionable calls. We have to bounce back from stuff like that and find our rhythm as an offense, which I don't think we did today."