Penn State's talented defense finally met its match Saturday, being made to look rather ordinary, as Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn advanced his Heisman Trophy campaign while looking anything but.

As if going up against a loaded and well-coached offense wasn't enough, the Nittany Lions defense received little help from Penn State's other units. In the first half the Penn State offense had difficulty establishing long drives, leading to the defense having to spend a disproportionate amount of time on the field.

In the first half the Fighting Irish had an advantage in time of possession for almost eight minutes. As the second quarter wound down, the Lion defenders looked increasingly gassed, spurring Quinn to step up the pressure.

"There was that point at the end of the half where we were going to run our two minute offense and you could see them getting more and more tired the closer we got to the endzone," Quinn said.

At no point was Notre Dame's offensive dominance more evident than during that final drive of the first half. Starting on his own 31 with 1:24 to play and one timeout remaining, Quinn methodically picked apart Penn State's defense, seemingly throwing to whomever he pleased and scrambling when he felt the need.

Quinn was 5-for-5 for 58 yards on the drive, which culminated with the Heisman hopeful finding Rhema McKnight wide open in the back of the end zone for his second touchdown throw of the game. For the half, Quinn racked up 229 yards in the air, two touchdown passes and 24 yards of timely rushing.

Penn State's three down linemen alone were unable to establish much of a pass rush, frequently giving Quinn all the time he needed to find the open man.

For much of the day that open man happened to be tight end John Carlson, who took advantage of Penn State's coverage en route to career highs of six catches and 98 yards.

"Brady's great at giving the ball to the open guy," Carlson said. "That's what they were giving us and we exploited it."

Notre Dame used five-wide sets in order to create opportunities in which Lion linebackers would be forced to cover receivers or tight ends alone.

The strategy worked, and a weakness in the vaunted Penn State defense was revealed. Though not entirely the defense's fault on Saturday, the last time the Lions surrendered 41 points in a game was in the 2003 finale against Michigan State.

It should be noted, though, that Penn State's defense played a very respectable second half - even if it was against a significantly more conservative offense than what it encountered in the first.

"They were trying to get the linebackers isolated, throwing outs," junior linebacker Dan Connor said. "It tires you out and it wears you down."

Quinn could see that Penn State's defense was on the ropes, and, unlike the Lions offense, was able to put points on the board when necessary, converting on all six of Notre Dame's red zone visits.

After his rousing first-half performance, Quinn added another 58 yards and a touchdown throw in the second half, during which he fired only nine passes as Notre Dame focused on preserving the lead and, again, keeping Penn State's defense on the field as the game clock became an issue.

"They have a great quarterback who did an excellent job throwing the ball," linebacker Paul Posluszny said. "We just didn't do a good job covering."