Friday the 13th all over

Friday the 13th all over
It seemed to me that Friday the 13th followed me all over the weekend.

I had a string of bad luck on Friday.

Friday was the regular oncology clinic blood test day. My day started off on the slow side but not that badly for me. Just after I left the flat things turned bad for me. I drive to the hospital using the most direct path possible; it saves both time and gasoline.

I got stuck in traffic between the cars behind mine and the railroad crossing guard rail when the guard rail came down. I had to sit and wait and watch while a slow moving 90 car freight train rolled through the intersection in front of me. I could not get out of the traffic; I was hemmed in.

Things did not improve when I had the blood drawn from me. The technician, who has drawn my blood several times before without any significant pain or discomfort for me, required three tried to find my blood vessel. That was painful.

I had to go see Doug before school on Friday. I left in plenty of time but ran into trouble because the usual way to the freeway was blocked by unplanned road repairs. This resulted is me getting stuck in traffic as everyone else in the area had to deal with the same mess.

Utah Football
The overflow of Friday the 13th hit our beloved Utes when they played TCU on Saturday. They played well but were outclassed by a much better team. TCU is likely to end up with a 12 win and no loss season and stay ranked at Number 4 or better in the BCS system. Utah is now holding on to a 9 and 2 record.

Utah will end up with a good record of either 10 wins and two losses or nine wins and three losses. All of its losses so far have been to teams, Oregon and TCU. which are ranked higher in the BCS.

Utah will play San Diego State University in Salt Lake this weekend. The Utes should prevail over San Diego State but only if the motivated Utah team shows up for that game. They will finish up their season on November 28th with a trip down I-15 to play BYU in Provo. The BYU – Utah game will decide which team will represent the Mountain West Conference as the champion in post season play since TCU, the likely conference champion, will be playing in one of the top BCS games.

The Princess and my Brother will be unhappy because their USC teams also lost this weekend.

On the plus side, my old high school team finished second in its conference and will go into the high school football playoffs starting next Friday.

No. 4 TCU sends a message after rout of No. 16 Utah
Horned Frogs deliver a 55-28 win to state their case for a BCS bid.
Associated Press
Fort Worth
Now that the hometown fans are finally taking notice of No. 4 Texas Christian, maybe the rest of the nation will also realize that the BCS-hopeful Horned Frogs are for real.

Utah certainly can't disagree.

In probably its last significant hurdle to an undefeated regular season, TCU scored three touchdowns in a 2 1/2 -minute span early in the second quarter and beat No. 16 Utah, 55-28, on Saturday night.

"If the nation didn't think that this was enough style points, then I don't know what is," Coach Gary Patterson said. "We're just going to go about our business."

The Horned Frogs (10-0, 6-0 Mountain West) stretched their winning streak to 12 games since a last-minute loss last November at Utah (8-2, 5-1), which had won 22 of 23. TCU also has won 13 in a row at home since losing when the Utes last visited two years ago.

With a record crowd of 50,307 -- a sellout at 79-year-old Amon Carter Stadium without the benefit of an instate opponent -- and representatives from the Orange, Rose and Fiesta bowls watching from the athletic director's suite, the Horned Frogs put on quite a show. Fans stormed the field when it was over.

Matthew Tucker had the first and last touchdowns (runs of 41 and nine yards) for TCU, with five teammates getting into the end zone in between. The 55 points were the most given up by Utah since 1996, a lopsided game that even caught TCU by surprise.

"Not in my wildest dream," defensive end Jerry Hughes said. "I figured it was going to be a dogfight."

Even without guaranteed access to the Bowl Championship Series, the Horned Frogs have changed the question about if they can be a BCS buster. Now it's can they be the first outsider to play for the national title?

TCU is fourth in the BCS standings, the highest a team from a conference without an automatic bid has reached. They trail only Florida, Alabama and Texas -- all winners Saturday.

Ed Wesley ran for 137 yards and a touchdown and Andy Dalton threw for 207 yards and a score. TCU had 549 yards overall, its third straight game with at least 500.

Utah's Eddie Wide, who had posted six straight 100-yard games, was held to 25 yards in 14 carries.

"It was one of our worst performances," Utah linebacker Stevenson Sylvester said.

The Horned Frogs, 10-0 for only the second time since its 1938 undefeated national championship team led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Davey O'Brien, play next weekend at wobbly Wyoming. They close the regular season Nov. 28 at home against New Mexico (0-10).

Visitors
We had another average week with the blog. We had 149 visitors who viewed 176 unique pages. We did have some soldiers drop by to check out the young women in skimpy bikinis. The blog is doing its part to support the men and women in our armed forces. The blog is partial to sailors and marines though.

Doug
Doug stopped by on Saturday on his way to see his girl friend. We talked for a while as we watched one of the college football games.

The Utah – TCU game was being broadcast by CBS College Sports, a service that I do not currently have. Doug suggested that I could call in and sign for the service in time to watch the game. I said that I would pass; I didn’t want to pay an extra USD$20 or USD$35 just to watch one football game.

Doug said that I had a point.


Be well and stay happy.