It's awfully tough for Navorro Bowman to worry about overlooking Northwestern when the concept of a trap game is foreign to him.

"I don't think there is one," he said. "The schedule was made for a reason. You can't pick the schedule. You just gotta play whoever. You'll be able to tell by the end of the week if you'll be able to play that game."

Despite getting Monday off, the Penn State football team has nothing but black and purple on its mind, putting the statement win at Michigan in the past and keeping Ohio State off its radar a little longer.

The Buckeyes -- quarterback Terrelle Pryor, stout defense, border-state rivalry -- have been circled on fans calendars since the start of the season, but nobody, especially coach Joe Paterno, seems to care.

"I'm a little prejudice, but Northwestern's got a bunch of kids I really like, and I really like [Coach Pat] Fitzgerald," Paterno said. "Their kids play college football the way you like to see it played."

Traveling Penn State fans can say the same about their team.

The Nittany Lions posted two dominant road performances at Illinois and Michigan earlier this month, never really facing adversity beyond the third quarter.

Now with back-to-back road games for the first time since the Iowa and Ohio State games last year, Paterno is wary of his team getting worn out this late in the season, especially with no bye week.

Tight end Andrew Quarless is worried about Northwestern for a different reason. Last week, the Lions won at Michigan for the first time in 13 years.

Last year, Penn State's statement win up to that point came at Ohio State, its first win in Columbus since joining the Big Ten.

The Lions dropped their next game at Iowa, ruining their national title hopes.

"We got past the hardest games of the season," Quarless said. "We beat all them, then went into Iowa lackadaisical and saw what happened."

This year could be different because the Buckeyes sit on the other side of the trip to Evanston, Ill.

Unlike a year ago, the Lions already have a blemish on their record, meaning any more slip-ups could seriously fracture Penn State's BCS hopes.

"I feel like you can't even let that creep up in your mind," quarterback Daryll Clark said about overlooking Northwestern. "Once that happens, it will happen. We're doing such a good job with answering to adversity, stepping up to the plate and winning on the road. We have to make plays. The second we get complacent is the second the letdown happens."

And, Northwestern is a team that will jump on you if you think the game is under control.

Ask Indiana.

Last week, the Wildcats came back from a 28-3 deficit to win by one, their largest comeback ever.

Paterno chalks up the resiliency of the Wildcats to their coach, Fitzgerald, whose team feels each game is a chance to prove it's a player in the Big Ten.

"My whole career here we've always been the underdog to powerhouses of Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State," Northwestern defensive end Corey Wootton said.

"It's nothing new to us. We're just gonna go out there play our style of football. That's the fans and the media. The game is played by us, so we control our destiny."

Penn State center Stefen Wisniewski said the coaching staff might be concerned with keeping the team focused on Saturday's opponent, which pales in comparison to the excitement of former Western Pennsylvania quarterback Pryor returning to his home state next week.

That might be unnecessary, because Wisniewski and the Lions know with the last third of the season on the horizon, there's more to this season than beating Ohio State and Michigan.

"As far as the players, I don't think we're looking ahead," Wisniewski said. "We know that we got four games left, and we have to take them one at a time, win them all to end up where we'd like to at the end of the season.