[More Cowbell]

With better ball security, this game easily could have been a 3 or 4 touchdown margin.

This "we're even better than the final score because we fumbled the football" line of thinking is getting a mite old.

A couple of things to keep in mind (not even taking the wing-t into consideration)... The simple ODDS say if you run the football 50 times in a game, the football will find the ground once or twice (just like if a team threw it 40 times 1 or 2 INTs wouldn't be a shock). As to when they happen, that's pure blind luck and part of every game to a degree.

Everyone knows SV is an excellent team. But all the comments about fumbles come off much like complaining about an hourglass-figured girlfriend's big feet.

Not saying Shelby Valley is a better team than what the final score showed. On the contrary, the scoreboard at the end of the game said SV was 11 points better than LCA, so that's what I'm going with.

My point about the fumbles is just to state fact: with better ball security, the score could have been more lopsided. Which is 100% true, if Valley had scored touchdowns on those two drives instead of turnovers, the margin is much greater.

But I can't say that Shelby Valley is an even better team than what they showed, simply because they turned the ball over. Like you said, fumbles are a part of the game. The good teams are able to limit them, and overcome them when they do happen.

Look at the first SV-Prestonsburg game for example. Valley outgained P-Burg on the night, but lost partly because of costly fumbles. Am I saying Valley was the better team that night? No, because they were not good enough to overcome those turnovers. At the end of the night, the scoreboard shows that Prestonsburg was the better team, and that's all that matters.

The only reason I mentioned it was because some were attempting to discredit SV's win by saying "things would have been different" if Whitman had played. Would they have been different? Would LCA have won? Maybe, but we will never know. Part of having a good football team is developing depth, so that when injuries occur you have other guys ready to step in. And injuries are as much a part of the game as turnovers, so you might as well expect them to happen.

I guess it just comes down to this. If Valley hadn't fumbled, would the margin have been higher? Probably, but they did fumble, so that's that. And if Whitman had played, would the score have been closer? Probably, but you play with who you got, and that's that.