While his team improved its position in the Big Ten standings, Joe Paterno believes Penn State showed minimal improvement from certain units during Saturday's 26-12 win against Illinois.

Offensive line play for the Nittany Lions (5-3, 3-2 Big Ten) was shoddy for the second consecutive game, severely limiting the effectiveness of both the running and passing attacks.

The line held a meeting after the game to discuss the poor showing.

"I would have hoped we'd be better than we were today," Paterno said. "We didn't win that game today, Illinois lost it. Illinois gave us a couple of easy ones. We didn't go out there and beat Illinois. Our defense kept us in the game until they made a couple of mistakes."

Penn State's defense was suspect against the run, but still managed to be the deciding factor in the game, causing four turnovers in the second half after playing its previous four halves (dating back to Oct. 7 at Minnesota) without forcing any.

After taking a 10-9 lead on Anthony Morelli's touchdown pass to Kevin Darling midway through the third quarter, Penn State's defense played the key role in protecting the slight edge.

Illinois quarterback Isiah "Juice" Williams was under heavy pressure on third-and-7 from his own seven-yard line when he was brought down from behind by linebacker Paul Posluszny, who stripped the ball during the takedown.

Conveniently in the area, cornerback Tony Davis scooped up the loose ball and ran the few steps into the end zone, giving Penn State its first defensive touchdown of the season and a 17-9 advantage.

Four plays later, Lions hero-back Anthony Scirrotto camped out under a Williams' deep ball and grabbed his second interception of the day.

"That made the difference out there," Posluszny said of the turnovers. "Anthony Scirrotto's tw o big interceptions and the touchdown we scored -- that was the difference in the game today."

At halftime, Paterno implored his defense to make a big play and not only prevent the Fighting Illini from scoring, but to put up some points for Penn State as well.

"We were lousy," Paterno said, a description he would later repeat several times. "You saw what happened, we were lousy. We have some guys that just haven't gotten any better. We've got to think out a couple of things."

In addition to letting his team have it at halftime, Paterno had some critical words after the game, too.

"It's kind of funny," defensive tackle Ed Johnson said. "He just goes off sometimes; it's kind of funny. We already know what we have to do. It's not like he's telling us anything new."

There was nothing funny about the first half for the Lions, who entered the locker room trailing 9-3. Penn State ran for 12 yards in the half while surrendering 124 to the Illini.

Tailback Rashard Mendenhall broke a 79-yard run on the first play of the second quarter. He sped through the line, eluded Scirrotto and ran down the Penn State sideline until Justin King caught him from behind at the 10-yardline.

The run was the longest recorded against Penn State in more than three decades.

Mendenhall finished with 162 yards on the ground, but neither he nor anyone else on Illinois could figure out a way to score. The Illini were limited to four field goals from Jason Reda, who was perfect on the day.

Penn State finished with merely 40 yards on the ground and two sacks allowed -- subpar numbers that actually represent an improvement from the week before against Michigan.

"We didn't win in the fashion we wanted to," Posluszny said. "We won the game and that's good, but there's definitely a lot of disappointment, and we just have to learn from the mistakes we made today."