No one could have figured at the start of the season that, even with a rebuilt offensive line, Penn State would be mired in the bottom one-quarter in the nation in rushing after playing two opponents certainly not near the level of those they will face in the Big Ten.

But at least playing Akron and Syracuse enabled the Nittany Lions to work out problems before the games fell off into garbage time, meaning that maybe Joe Paterno knew what he was doing all along in loading his nonconference schedule with weaker teams.

Now, though, with one tune-up remaining - Saturday against Temple (0-1) at Beaver Stadium - the Lions know they must get some things right with their line and their running game before Big Ten play begins the following weekend vs. Iowa.

"I do think there's a sense of urgency," center Stefen Wisniewski said yesterday. "It's definitely picked up. You could sense that feeling at practice [Monday]. With the meat of the season coming up, it's not going to be acceptable anymore to have the mistakes we had in the first two games. We're definitely stepping it up."

The Lions' rushing numbers over the first two weeks have been alarming.

They have averaged 107 yards - 94th in the Football Bowl Subdivision (Division I-A) - but if you erase Andrew Dailey's 37-yard scamper on a fake punt against Akron, the average is 88.5. They've gained 3.3 yards per carry, 2.8 without Dailey's run.

Evan Royster, who rushed for 1,236 yards in 13 games last season, is on pace for 663. His 102 yards on the ground (3.9 yards per carry) are about half the 205 yards he rushed for in his first two games in 2008.

Now they face a Temple team that limited Villanova, a Football Championship Subdivision team with an experienced and FBS-sized offensive line, to 64 rushing yards in its opener.

But the guy in charge of worrying about everything does not seem too worried about the offensive line or the running game.

At his weekly teleconference, Paterno said defenses had been geared to stop the run. He said Syracuse blitzed on every play "but maybe eight or nine" last week and kept eight, and sometimes nine, men in the box.

"Whether the offensive line improved that much, it's hard to tell because Syracuse just kept coming," he said. "They kept blitzing guys, linebackers and outside people, and kept their two safeties very close to the football. Once in a while when we did look like we might have a chance at the run, there was an unblocked safety. You're not set up for that, really."

The defensive schemes have made it difficult for Penn State's offensive linemen - three new starters and two holdovers (Wisniewski and left tackle Dennis Landolt) playing at different positions - to show noticeable improvement.

Paterno inserted his second-team guards last week for a look. While the prevailing wisdom is that individual linemen need to play together continuously to jell as a unit, he has as many combinations as possible working together in practice.

"It's not any different than what we usually do," said Landolt, of Holy Cross High in Delran. "We rotate guys in and out of practice all the time. The chances are that during a 12- or 13-game season, someone is going to go down. So it's important for all the guys to have reps in different situations."

Or as Paterno said, "When you analyze your football team, you're only as good as the poorest guy you've got, or the poorest prepared guy you've got."

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