If college football fields were 80 yards long, Penn State could very well boast the No. 1 scoring offense in the country. As it is, those last 20 yards -- the red zone -- have been a sore subject recently.

No Big Ten team has made more trips to the red zone than Penn State, but only Indiana, Northwestern and Illinois have scored fewer touchdowns.

"You know what it is? We always laugh about it, but it seems like we have no problem getting to the red zone," offensive tackle Robert Price said. "It seems like once we got in the red zone, we have a lot of problems."

That could spell trouble again this weekend. The Lions have scored 11 touchdowns in 25 trips to the red zone -- a conference-worst 44 percent touchdown efficiency. By comparison, Indiana is 8-for-14 at scoring touchdowns inside the 20-yard line (57.1 percent).

According to Price, mistakes and different defensive looks are at the root of the problem. When the field becomes smaller for the offense, Price said, defenses have a tendency to bring in the safeties and blitz more often. That throws off Anthony Morelli and the running game.

"It bothers me," Joe Paterno said, "when you go down there with really nice looking drives, and you come away with three points, six points and nine points in three drives."

Paterno didn't offer any clues as to how the team is remedying the situation and simply said those things usually fix themselves. But Morelli offered some insight by explaining that running the ball in those situations was key. He also said some different playcalling and better execution would help.

In both Big Ten games this season, Morelli has attempted only eight passes in 10 drives within the red zone. Morelli is 3-for-8 for eight yards, with the Lions choosing to run at more than a 2:1 ratio.

"Honestly, we've been concentrating on [red zone offense] every week," Price said. "That's something we're all gonna work on. Generally, we just have to get more of a push."

And if the Lions want to get back on track, this seems like a good opportunity to push the opposition around -- the Golden Gophers allow more than 380 yards per game.

Wideout Deon Butler said his team was taking a few steps to ensure it took advantage. Butler wanted a turnaround in the red zone from the last month.

"We're definitely starting to take notice of that in the red zone, trying to come up with a few new wrinkles in the offense," he said. "Once you get down there, it's kind of a pride factor. We've been practicing a little bit differently -- we've worked a lot more with the chains in practice where we recognize yardage and distance."