This. That team was tremendous, and Palmer was one of the best QB's of the last 15 years.
Though I will say that MAYBE it would have been more competitive if C.J. had not taken the opening kick back for a score. That just seems like a bad omen. The Bears lost when Hester did it, OSU when Ginn did it. And it wasn't the opening kick, but PSU's first play from scrimmage this year against us was a 79-yard TD pass. Now, rather than voodoo, I have a more rational reason for such plays possibly having a correllation with losing: it's too big of an emotional explosion, too early. Rather than letting emotion out over the course of the game, a play as big as the previously mentioned on the opening kickoff (or first play from scrimmage) releases it all at once, leaving the team emotionally spent before the game is even 30 seconds old.