Trav's Thoughts

I have been surprsingly unobservant today. Pam and I have been watching games, switching back and forth between several. But we've been more chatty with each other, so I haven't been keeping my normal Sports Saturday running commentary.

Mr Tucker was doing the silly dance today. The silly dance is the hind leg jig cats do when they find a fly. But we didn't see a fly or a gnat or a little mosquito. There was nothing there, and he was silly dancing down the hallway. So we jigged with him and he started to YOW and we YOWed at him and it was just silly.

Florida has done what LSU was unable to do. The Gators defense put pressure on UK QB Andre Woodson. Woodson didn't make the big mistake under the pressure, but he also wasn't able to make a play. And the UK defense was unable to stop Florida's offense. That was the difference in the game. UK was able to score with Florida, but they could not get a stop when it counted all day. UK should not have given the ball up when they cut the lead to 38-31. They should have gone for the onside kick at that point and taken their chances. When your defense hasn't been able to stop the other team all day, what makes a coach think they can do it in the final 3 minutes?


Pam and I are trying to make a commitment to reading for an hour a day. We both love to read, and we haven't been doing enough of it lately. I've got a stack of books that have been on hold through the summer. But now that we have put Harry Potter away until November 2008, when the film Half Blood Prince is scheduled for release, it's time to get on with some other books. I'm currently reading Fool Moon, the second book in Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden Files. Pam is reading Pawn of Prophecy, the first book in David Eddings' Belgariad.

Washington hung in through the third quarter tonight against Oregon. In fact, it was tied 31-31 to start the fourth quarter. And then the Ducks exploded for 24 points and ran away from the Huskies. Oregon controls its own BCS destiny as they still have games against USC, Arizona State, and UCLA in the Pac 10.

Auburn came within a second from handing LSU its second loss in a row. But Les Miles made an agressive call in the final seconds. Instead of settling for the try at a game winning field goal, he called a pass play. And QB Matt Flynn threw a perfect pass to Demetrius Byrd in the back of the end zone for the score to win the game. It was THE gutsy call in a season of them for Coach Miles. I admire the man for his grit, but if that ball is incomplete, the game is over and so is any chance for the Tigers to play in the BCS Championship.

Depending on your perspective, either Cleveland stunk it up or Boston showed resilience. Whatever, the ALCS is now tied at three games a piece.



So for those who are interested, here are the results for the BCS Top 10 this week:

#1 Ohio State beat Michigan State
#2 South Florida lost to Rutgers
#3 Boston College was idle
#4 LSU beat Auburn
#5 Oklahoma beat Iowa State
#6 South Carolina lost to Vanderbilt
#7 Kentucky lost to #14 Florida
#8 Arizona State was idle
#9 West Virginia beat Mississippi State
#10 Oregon beat Washington

See ya tomorrow with NFL Sunday.