Penn State Football: Winners and Losers from Nittany Lions' Win

The Penn State Nittany Lions played arguably their best game of the season against Eastern Michigan Eagles last Saturday. 

The Lions put on a 34-6 beat down at home for their fans, and showed the nation that they still have a shot at competing for a Big Ten championship. 

While it was only Eastern Michigan (two wins all of last season), PSU showed much better play from the quarterback position.

Between Matt McGloin and Rob Bolden, there was four touchdowns and only one interception. 

Keeping all that in mind, here are the winners and losers from the Nittany Lions' win. 

Winner: Penn State Quarterbacks

Penn State quarterbacks played their best game by far against Eastern Michigan. 

Matt McGloin went 14-of-17 for 220 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. 

Rob Bolden wasn't as impressive, but he went 7-of-13 for 115 yards, as well as one touchdown and one interception. 

This is the first game McGloin clearly outplayed Bolden, and this recent win over Eastern Michigan isn't making Joe Paterno's decision on declaring one starting quarterback any easier. 

PSU quarterbacks clearly showed up to play last Saturday. 

Loser: Alex Gillett

You could almost feel bad for Alex Gillett if you watched the game. 

Gillett went 18-of-31 for over 200 yards, which is usually fairly impressive, but he also had zero touchdowns and one interception. 

Gillett also attempted to take matters into his own hands by running the ball, but he only managed 22 yards rushing on 15 attempts for a measly 1.5-yard average. 

Winner: Penn State Rushing

Penn State racked up over 104 yards against Eastern Michigan on only 25 rushes for a solid 4.2 per rush average.

Silas Redd didn't have his best game, getting 48 yards on 12 carries. He got some help, though, from Derek Day (four carries for 18 yards) and Curtis Dukes (three carries for 29 yards). 

While it would be ideal for Redd to tear up Eastern Michigan's defense, I did like the fact that he got the majority of the carries this time around. 

Against Temple the week prior, Redd had 16 carries while Brandon Beachum had 11 carries—a little too even for my taste. 

The best running back on the team should get the majority of the carries. 

Redd did last Saturday, and he helped his team get a W.

Loser: Eastern Michigan Rushing

Eastern Michigan had 43 rushing attempts against the Nittany Lions. 

Do you know what they managed to do with those 43 carries?

Only 68 yards. 

Sad, sad, sad. 

Winner: Both Teams Receiving Cores

The Eastern Michigan Eagles caught 18 passes for 202 yards for a 11.2 average.

The Penn State Nittany Lions caught 23 passes for 364 for a 15.6 average and four touchdowns.

While the Eagles should've gotten their passing game going more, the Nittany Lions really stepped up their passing attack this game.

There wasn't a single passing touchdown before PSU's last outing against E. Michigan, now there's four.

Either way you slice it, it was a solid outing from both teams receiving cores.

Loser: Both Teams Punt Return Units

Punt returns are free yards.

Free, free, free.

Too bad Penn State and Eastern Michigan didn't want anything to do with them this Saturday.

Between both schools there were five punt returns for 19 yards. The longest return was for seven yards.

Both teams obviously have some fine tuning to do on punt returns if they want to win games in the future.