PHILADELPHIA — When Wisconsin and Penn State face off on Saturday night, each team will be shouldering a two-game losing streak of sorts that could spawn one of two reactions.

There is the "Woe is me" reaction or the "I'm mad as heck" reaction.

How each responds could determine the outcome.

For the Badgers, the pain of back-to-back late-game losses is fresh. After a 3-0 start propelled it to a No. 9 ranking, Wisconsin (3-2 overall, 0-2 Big Ten) fell at Michigan two weeks ago and to Ohio State last Saturday.

After leading in Ann Arbor, 19-0, the Badgers surrendered 27 consecutive points in the second half. They answered with a late touchdown but failed on the two-point conversion and lost, 27-25. Last week, Wisconsin outplayed the Buckeyes and led by four with 6Z\x minutes to play. But Ohio State scored a last-minute touchdown and escaped Madison with a 20-17 win.

Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema spun the blows the best he could.

"We're five points away from being a 5-0 football team," he said Monday.

For No. 6-ranked Penn State (6-0, 2-0), its two-game losing streak is a four-year-old ache. The Nittany Lions' last two trips to Wisconsin ended with bruising defeats. In 2004, the Badgers knocked both Penn State quarterbacks out of the game before winning, 16-3. In 2006, the Lions' offense was ineffective again, and lost, 13-3.

This time, Wisconsin knocked Penn State's coach from the game when Badgers linebacker DeAndre Levy upended Joe Paterno on the sideline.

The 81-year-old Paterno, whose rickety legs could force him to coach from the press box on Saturday night, spun the blow the best he could.

"I had a lot of fun going out," Paterno said of the collision that broke his left leg. "Didn't enjoy it coming home."

Still, the players will decide how each team counters its dubious past, both recent and distant.

Wisconsin had the unfortunate luck to become the first Big Ten team to open its conference schedule with Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. Whether that affected their psyche, the Badgers dropped the first two and have seen their conference and national-championship aspirations dry up.

"Certainly, as they look at the tapes of the last two games, they're saying to themselves: 'Boy, we could have had both of those games. Let's see if we can make up for it,"' Paterno said Tuesday.