I sat in a sunroom last Saturday with my enthusiastic father-in-law, Richard Smith, watching the Iowa-Penn State game on ABC. When it became evident that Penn State would lose for the first time in 10 games this season, I began screaming, "Je-sus Christ." Then I turned to Rich and asked, "Why am I blaming Him?"

The blame goes everywhere: Why did Penn State pass three times into the wind on its opening drive and give Iowa good field position for a gift touchdown? How did Penn State dominate on three long first-half drives and come up with only a touchdown and two field goals? Why did Penn State go three-and-out in the fourth quarter and net only 33 yards with a 9-point lead? Why was Penn State passing into the wind on a promising drive in the fourth quarter that led to the interception that led to Iowa's final field goal?

What Penn State did not realize is that dreams are born and dreams are buried in the Iowa Caucuses. Ask John McCain. Ask Barack Obama. Ask Hillary Clinton. Ask Daryll Clark. Ask Joe Paterno. Ask Kirk Ferentz.

As Paul Smith, the Midwest quarterback for collegeBLITZ.com said succinctly in his telephone condolence message after the Nittany Lions' 24-23 last-second loss: "They did not seem to be have that usual edge and they were sort of playing not to lose rather than playing their usual aggressive selves and playing to win. They put themselves in position to lose."

How many times have Penn State fans watched dreams die that way? The nearest parallel memory is 1999, when the Nittany Lions went 9-0 and then were caught at home by Minnesota, which rallied for an upset victory that led to three losses in a row. Then came a brutal loss to Tom Brady and Michigan at home after leading by 14 with 5 minutes to play.

But as Paterno said last week about going 9-0 again before the Iowa game, Penn State had some players in 1999 who were more focused on the N.F.L. draft. The scuttlebutt is that LaVar Arrington, now a restaurant owner, organized a party before the Minnesota game and the Nittany Lions played as if they had been partying.

Paterno did not expect the Iowa upset of his team that was favored by seven and a half points, nor did his offensive coordinator Galen Hall, or his son Jay Paterno, the quarterbacks coach, who sat stunned in the coaches' box as Hall helped Paterno gimp his way out to the locker room.

"What can I say?" Joe Paterno said with a grin at the news conference. "We can cry on Sunday but on Monday we must be ready to practice."

After watching the game movies, as he calls the film or videotapes, he had more to say about a team that has had only three touchdowns in the last eight quarters — has the Spread HD become the no-fat spread? — at this week's news conference on Tuesday:

On scoring chances: "I don't think we've done a particularly good job when we've had opportunities to score. I think we got a 15-yard penalty when we're 3rd-and-3 and a couple little things we're messing up on. I think we at one time we were probably the best team around in the red zone. Last couple games we've had some troubles. But, I don't think you can take away from the fact that ... Iowa played a really good game, well-coached game, but it's a combination."

On missed offense: "We dropped passes, but we haven't been dropping any passes. That's the other thing when you talk about not being a little more productive offensively. We haven't made a lot of great catches, and we've dropped some catches that would have had an impact on whether we go for a field goal or do we get a touchdown?"

On dropped passes: "We had kids drop passes Saturday that I haven't seen them drop that many passes in practice and in games combined. I talked to the coaches and they were confused because they caught everything in the warm-up before the game. So it's hard to tell, you know. They're human beings and they make mistakes, maybe get a little careless, maybe want to make a big play when you're having troubles. You know, your team is in trouble, and all of a sudden, you're the guy that's going to deliver for them. Those little things, you make it harder on yourself."

On first losses: "I’ve always had rubber legs; we'll see. You know, I've reflected on some of the tough games we've lost through the years. In '82, when we won the national championship, in the middle of the year we got creamed by Alabama. We blocked our own punt. We had a personal protector back up into the punter, and we lost about 41 to 20; I forget exactly what the score was. And we went on and won the national championship. In '05 we lost a ball game on the last play of the game (Michigan). We still came back and had a good year and bounced back."

On the 1999 team: "Well, that was a different kind of cast of characters. We had more superstars. We had the first and second guy drafted in the whole draft, and I'm not so sure what happened, whether they got distracted by agents calling and all those kinds of things and all that happened. I do know we obviously took a real flop, and we're going to try to prevent that (from happening) again, obviously."

On Clark's performance: "I thought he was playing a pretty good, solid football game. He hadn't thrown an interception until that last one, and that was a tough call. I mean, he had the guy open but it was thrown into the wind. The coaches have to take a little blame for that. But, we were trying to get that ball close enough so we could get a field goal into the wind. As I said, I second-guessed myself in the second half. We should have gone the opposite way and played the fourth quarter at the end of the game and gave the ball to Iowa with the wind, and then we would have had the wind the fourth quarter. But, I thought we had pretty good control of the ball game. In the first half we were the dominant football team. I think we had the ball 23 minutes of the first half, 24 minutes of the first half. So when we had to make a decision at halftime, I said, 'We'll be all right, we'll just keep playing our game.' Now, if I don't make that decision, who knows what's going to happen?"

On the second-half shutdown: "We didn't make a big play when we had to, and when we had the wind in the third quarter, that's the time we should have been able to put it away, but we didn't."

On his personal reaction: "Saturday night was a tough night for me, no sense kidding you about that. Football games are tough on me these days because you go out there and you get in the cart and you go across the field and … then you take the flight home and then you get home and you play the game 10 times in your head. So that's tough. You don't get any sleep Saturday night. I've never had trouble sleeping the night before the game, but I've always had trouble sleeping after the game,whether we win or lose. So in that sense it was tough. But Sunday afternoon, you've got to get your head on. I was looking at Indiana-Wisconsin TV tape, which we take off the thing (satellite), the TV tape on Sunday morning."

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Up in Tallahassee, Bobby Bowden heard the Seminoles fans sing "Happy Birthday" many times on his 79th birthday and an unintended present arrived from Iowa City that moved him only one victory behind Paterno's 381 for the most wins by a major college coach.

On Sunday, as Paterno watched tape from "the thing," Bowden's postgame show from the field, as stadium workers cleaned up behind him, flickered on a Florida sports network. Earlier, the Florida Gators show with Coach Urban Meyer had appeared.

"Just curious," a Penn State alumni wrote, "why is a loss to Mississippi less bad than a loss to Iowa?"

Because the drive-by media are charmed by Tim Tebow and Meyer and the Southeastern Conference and are making it less bad. Florida lost a chance to tie Mississippi at home on a missed extra point. And the scores were identical: 24-23.

At the Fish House in Fort Pierce a cool Sunday twilight breeze came off the bay as Rich, in his Penn State T-shirt, and I sat at the bar talking with Marvin, who shared the same birth year as Paterno and felt a kinship with him all these years, even though Marvin is a Gator and wore a Gators jacket to display his love.

"I wanted him to win it this year," Marvin lamented. His dream, too, died in the Iowa Caucus.