BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana Hoosiers had their chances. They had the game, but they couldn't hold it. They could've won, but they didn't.
"I told the [Indiana] coaches, 'You've got a good football team. It's too bad you put it on the ground so many times,' " Joe Paterno said.
Penn State stole a win you could call undeserved, spoiling a cloudless afternoon for 41,251 homecoming fans at Memorial Stadium.
"A win is a win," wideout Deon Butler said. "I'm sure they'd rather have a win."
You can rationalize it like that if you want. That's fair. You can say that good teams capitalizing on opponent's mistakes or the importance of winning on the road and how that was a big hurdle for the Nittany Lions.
But you can't say Penn State won the game on its own, and you can't feel good yet about Saturday's game against Ohio State. The Hoosiers stammered and squandered their chances. And in the end, they gave away the game.
Literally.
They fumbled four times.
"The difference in the game was the turnovers," Indiana coach Bill Lynch said. "You just can't turn the ball over a lot. In a close game like that, whether it gives you points or changes field position, that really hurts a lot."
All of Indiana's fumbles happened in the second half, and three of them ended up in the Indiana red zone.
Penn State only pieced together nine points on three field goals off all those fumbles. Those nine points ended up being the difference late in the ball game. But the fact the Lions couldn't make more of their opportunities was disconcerting.
Three field goals aren't good enough.
"I just felt we wasted too many opportunities," Paterno said.
Even before the second-half turnovers, Penn State had trouble. Offensive inconsistency and mental mistakes that have plagued the Lions bubbled to the surface.
A fumble. An ugly interception. A few errant passes. A few poorly run routes.
Troubling? You bet.
That stuff had nothing to do with Indiana, which makes you wonder what comes next.
What, truly, can you expect given what we've seen? The Jekyll and Hyde that is the home-and-road masquerade will probably be left behind. Rejoice if you're a Lions fan. Temple and Michigan State are winnable games.
But Penn State will meet its most difficult test next weekend. White Out be damned, Ohio State is the best team Penn State has played or will play this season. Think the Lions have a shot against the Buckeyes?
Penn State doesn't have a prayer if it plays like it did against Indiana.
Mark Viera is a junior majoring in journalism and English and a Collegian football writer. His e-mail address is mcv5009@psu.edu.
