A Win is a Win

...or so I thought. A co-worker of mine brought up an interesting topic this past week. She wished that Auburn had "really won". I am thinking, “really won”? What??? She went on to say that because of the way Auburn's defense played against West Virginia, getting interceptions, fumbles and things like that we didn't really win or it wasn't a good win; the points were not scored by the offense.

So, I start to think about this. Is she right? Did Auburn really win? Was it a "good" win?

Well, the score reflected an AU win - 41 to 30. In the end, that is what really matters, who has the most points at the end of the game.

I think when they invented football they said, let’s see how you can earn points. The most obvious way is through your offense. But, you can also earn points while you are on defense or while you are on special teams.

The rule writers said you could intercept the ball and run with it until tackled. They said there could be a fumble and whoever ended up with the ball got the ball and played offense. They said after one team scores or they have to punt, the other team has an opportunity to get the ball and run with it (whether that be for 5 yards or for a touchdown).

To me, a team knows these rules and practices and fine tunes their skills around this. It is what makes a good team a great team. You have to be good on all sides of the ball. You need to be able to run, pass, and block on offense. You need to be able to block, make stops and look for opportunities (and capitalize on those opportunities when they present themselves) on defense. I don’t know what you need to do on special teams but that is Jay Boulware’s job.

The whole conversation took me by surprise. I have only heard one other Auburn win contested and the rationale behind that was stupid (the other team won 3 of the 4 quarters – my thoughts: the final score is what matters).

My co-worker believed that Auburn could have done better for the SEC if they had scored all the points on offense. I have to disagree. If anything we showed that we can do it all; we are in it to win it, doesn’t matter which side of the ball we are on. Now, that does not go without saying, we have a lot to improve on (boy, do we have a lot to improve on). But, I didn’t think we would be 3-0 and right so now so I am pretty proud! War Eagle!!

Brad and me after our WIN against WVU