It's probably the strangest game I've ever covered in any sport in three decades in this business. It was a decade ago today and Penn State's 6-4 loss to Iowa in the depths of a depressing 2004 remains one of the most memorable games in PSU annals for a lot of different reasons.

It's only 10 years back and yet college football has changed so much that it's almost impossible to imagine such a game today. Both teams combined for just 400 yards of total offense. Penn State twice had first-and-goal inside the Iowa 10 and came up with no points. And yet, the weather was not a factor. Though cloudy and a bit breezy, it was an otherwise ordinary dry, crisp October day.

The Iowa leader then is the Iowa leader today. Kirk Ferentz is the dean of Big Ten coaches in his 16th season as the Hawkeyes' boss. He was asked Tuesday if such a game could even happen now:

"Maybe a little less would have to happen. But yeah, there's still some people playing pretty good defense. It's unusual when two teams do that in one game but on that day that was the case."

I kinda doubt it. This was not only a different age in college football but a confluence of factors that simply isn't likely in any case.

Anyway, the game was a landmark for a lot of reasons but here are a few:

* Through pressure was born a diamond – Penn State's defense of the following season (2005) would become maybe the best in the history of the program and lead its renaissance from the 2000-04 dark ages. It was already very good and in that '04 season never allowed an opponent more than 21 points despite towing the burden of a legendarily impotent PSU offense.

* Iowa had so many injuries at tailback that it was playing a sixth-string walk-on in sophomore Sam Brownlee. He would lead the Hawkeyes in rushing that season with 227 yards – that's in the entire 2004 season. It remains the lowest season total by Iowa's leading rusher since the 214 yards in a mere 8 games in 1937 by none other than Nile Kinnick, a future World War II hero for whom Iowa's stadium was posthumously named.

* Penn State was 0-3 in the Big Ten (on the way to an 0-6 league start) yet was favored by 3 points. That was largely because Michael Robinson was again available at slashback after suffering a concussion three weeks prior from a shuddering sack by Wisconsin defensive end Erasmus James.

* The home team's score. At least in the hard-shell-helmet era, 4 points is a difficult final score at which to arrive at any point in a game let alone at the end of one. Penn State did it the only way you can, with two safeties. PSU actually had once scored three safeties in a 1966 game against Maryland (Joe Paterno's first win), all tallied by defensive tackle Mike Reid. The two safeties in this game both came on Iowa punts, one on a bad snap kicked over the end line, the second intentionally taken by Ferentz midway in the fourth quarter. Technically, the safety was assessed for a pair of holding penalties in the end zone by the Hawkeyes but those, too, were semi-intentional.

* Ferentz, a Pittsburgh-area native, was away from the Iowa team for three days tending to family matters in western Pennsylvania after the death of his father John from cancer on Sunday. No one outside the family knew except for team members and school officials until the day before the game when the Friday funeral was publicized. Ferentz's three sons all attended the game; Brian, a Hawkeye guard, played in it and younger sons James (later an Iowa center 2010-12) and Steven watched from the sideline. When Iowa clinched the win, Ferentz broke down in tears and hugged his sons.

* The final score was the same as that of the first recorded college football game ever played – Rutgers 6, Princeton 4 in 1869. This led to all sorts of references about Iowa and Penn State "setting college football back 135 years," not an entirely false claim. Back then, field goals (4 points) actually counted for more than TDs (3).

* Penn State's Robbie Gould, who would become the third-most-accurate placekicker in NFL history with the Chicago Bears (currently .860), missed both of his field goal attempts including a 25-yarder. He actually did not have a very successful college career and went undrafted the following spring which makes his emergence as an All-Pro all that more remarkable.

* Ferentz took that intentional safety with more than half the fourth quarter (8:04) still to go to make it a 2-point game. This you simply do not see. But such was the ineptitude of Galen Hall's offense at the time that Ferentz didn't think Penn State could get in field goal range and, if it did, Gould (then 3-of-8 on the season) would miss the kick. His strategy, paleolithic as it was, proved a shrewd match for the game. PSU's last two possessions ended with a Robinson interception and fumble.

* For Penn State, this game was, more than any other, the impetus for offensive change. It was homecoming and I can't remember a Penn State team – but mainly the offensive staff – being booed as lustily as it was that day. Afterward, I asked Robinson who exactly was in charge of the Nittany Lion offense. To this, he responded sardonically with a weary smile: "God."

The very next season, Penn State would overhaul its entire attack (with the help of a chalk trip to Texas) into a zone-option hybrid much more attuned to Robinson's skill set. Behind his leadership, PSU racked up 413 points (31.8 per game) and the senior QB was named Big Ten player of the year. So, in back-to-back years, PSU had statistically its worst-ever offense in the Big Ten era and one of its best.

DAVID JONES: djones@pennlive.com.