Opposing teams have solved Penn State's intricate, speedy Spread HD offense.

Or have they?

It looked like Indiana had found a way to stop Penn State Saturday, but after a first half of mistakes in the pouring rain, the Lions pulled away from the Hoosiers for a 34-7 win.

"I think now, they're starting to catch on to what our plan was early on [this season]," Penn State captain A.Q. Shipley said. "And now they're starting to, even when we're in the spread, still keep seven in the box and we only have six blockers. It's tough to execute in terms of that sometimes, but it took a while to get going,

but once we got going we were fine."

Penn State held just a three-point lead over one of the Big Ten's worst teams at halftime. The two quarters were forgettable for Penn State. The Lions held the ball for just over 16 and a half minutes, but had three punts, a fumble, a missed field goal and just 10 points to show for it.

Scattered boos from underneath the press box and from what looked to be a 70 percent full student section rang out when quarterback Daryll Clark was sacked at midfield on Penn State's second to last drive of the half.

Those boos, and the frustrations of the rain-soaked 108,445 in attendance were more noticeable on the next play, when Penn State was called for holding. That penalty backed the Lions up to their own 39-yard line. Two plays later, Penn State surrendered and punted the ball

to the Indiana one-yard line.

"We really just shot ourselves in the foot," senior wideout Jordan Norwood said. "We had a lot of good drives going, but we had a holding penalty, fumbled the ball, but those things happen, you gotta just play through."

In the media room after the game, Penn State players were asked if their loss to Iowa last week hurt their confidence.

"Everybody's saying it might have been a hangover, whatever, we just came out flat," senior wideout Derrick Williams said. "The Iowa game is behind us. We still have a game in front of us, a tough game against Michigan State. We just came out flat today."

Williams wasn't flat, however.

The wide receiver/running back/quarterback/return man hybrid racked up 164 all-purpose yards and scored twice. Williams' first touchdown came on a 39-yard touchdown pass from Clark. Williams made a nice mid-air adjustment to the ball, then stepped into the end zone. He scored again in the fourth quarter, this time on a 36-yard run to the end zone.

One of Penn State's other playmakers, sophomore tailback Evan Royster, had just 12 carries, only five in the first half. Despite Royster's decreased workload after carrying for a career-high 26 times at Iowa last week, Joe Paterno insisted Royster isn't hurt.

Instead, Paterno said he wanted to get redshirt-freshman Stephfon Green more work in order to keep Royster fresh. Penn State rushed for just 51 yards in the first half.

Shipley said the coaching staff wanted to get Clark into a groove early on to establish the passing game and help build the quarterback's confidence.

"We gotta get Royster some more carries though," Shipley said. "Royster's a heck of a running back, we gotta get him some more carries."

Michigan State will make the trip to Beaver Stadium next Saturday to play Penn State with the winner getting at least a share of the Big Ten Championship.

Sitting in the media room, Green insisted his intentions are turned to the Spartans.

"We've gotta get a 'W' against a good Michigan State team," Green said. "They've got a tough running back in Javon Ringer. They've got a good defense. Their linebackers, secondary, everybody's good as a team so we're just going to get focused come Monday and get ready for Michigan State."