Just Remember, in the End, a Win is a Win

I know the Gophers overall performance on Thursday night wasn't overly impressive, but getting greedy during week one is often unnecessary. It is important to look at the good things that came out of our first win of the season. Most importantly, the Gophers seem to have found a running game and they stuck with it the whole game. I know it got a little stressful during the second and third quarters, but by running the ball we wore down the MTSU defense and were able to roll over them in the fourth quarter and run time off the clock on our way to the victory. It was good to see that we were able to push their line around. It was nice to see Webber make big plays in the second half when we needed him to. It was also great to see that we did not panic when we fell behind. All of these are things to look at as positives. Oh, and that whole penalty problem we had last year seemed to disappear, a much overlooked flaw to our seasons past.

I know some people including myself wanted a blow out, but we went on the road against a 10 win team from a year ago returning most of their starters and won. If you think just winning isn't important, ask Ole Miss what they think. Granted their 'savior' at QB, Massoli was allowed to play just one day before the season began. Ole Miss jumped to a commanding lead, only to watch Jacksonville State (who???) win in double overtime - AT OLE MISS! I guarantee Houston Nutt and Company would gladly have won on a bad call by the refs, a lucky play or any other way to win possible.

It is different for some teams when they are competing for a National Title. Take Oklahoma for instances. At home, ranked number 5 in the country and playing Utah State - who I don' think anyone compares to Middle Tennessee State - Oklahoma struggled to win. Their fans have a reason to be upset, but still have to be happy with the win. Remember Iowa needed 3 field goal attempts to win at home against Northern Iowa last year, and they were one play from playing in the Rose Bowl with a loss at OSU. Not bad.

I know Gopher fans have a lot to nit pick about, but leave that to the coaches, just be glad we are 1-0. You can't win all your games if you don't win the first.