The Penn State football team is now 2-0, but Joe Paterno remains unsatisfied after another win over another overmatched opponent.
"I think we've played well enough to win two games, that's all I know," the head coach said. "I think we have to get better. How much better? I don't know."
Such is the consensus surrounding the Nittany Lions after a ho-hum 28-7 victory over visiting Syracuse (0-2) Saturday at Beaver Stadium.
The presence of Pro Football Hall of Famer Lenny Moore was not enough to bring this old rivalry back to its golden age.
Moore, who served as an honorary captain before Saturday's contest, took part in one of the greatest Penn State-Syracuse games ever in 1955. In that game, Moore was outrushed by the Orange's Jim Brown, 159-146. But his Lions came out with the 21-20 victory.
"Lenny Moore is probably the best player I've ever coached," said Paterno, who was an assistant with Penn State at the time.
Flash forward to Saturday. Paterno was still on the sidelines -- this time as a head coach -- but the Lions and the Orange combined for just 143 yards on the ground.
Evan Royster scored a touchdown on Penn State's first drive of the game for the second week in a row, but the Lions' rushing attack again looked average.
Royster, the Big Ten's leading returning rusher heading into the season, carried the ball 12 times for 41 yards, though he had two catches for 61 yards and a touchdown.
But the Lions as a team managed just 78 yards on 35 carries -- an average of 2.2 yards per attempt.
Despite the team's lackluster numbers, Royster felt overall that the Lions carried out Paterno's mantra of improving from week one to week two.
"It might not have been huge, but we're definitely getting better," Royster said. "It might be kind of slow with us because we're breaking in some new guys, but it's coming along and there definitely is an obvious improvement from my point of view."
The Lions can thank their captains for that.
Quarterback Daryll Clark threw three touchdown passes for the second week in a row and completed at least one pass to eight different players.
And linebacker Sean Lee looked just like the player the Lions lost to injury before the 2008 season. The redshirt senior made 13 tackles and had three tackles for loss.
With Navorro Bowman sidelined with a groin injury, Lee rose to the occasion to lead the linebacking corp.
"I don't know what more I can say. I think he's a great player," Paterno said of Lee. "I think he's a heck of a football player, and he plays every down and he sets an example for everyone out there."
But Lee saw room for improvement in both himself and his team with just one more game before it opens the Big Ten season Sept. 26 against Iowa.
"I think we're a good team, but if we want to be a great team we have a lot of work to do," Lee said. "We don't want to be one of those teams with a few losses. We want to be perfect, and to be perfect we will have to get better."
