A look back and a look ahead...

Looking back...
Saturday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium, in Salt Lake City. It poured. It came down hard, it came down early, and it kept pouring until the final gun sounded. That was of course the Utah intensity I speak of. The weather? yeah it rained the whole game too. The scoreboard showed a 63-28 final tally, and despite your assumption, it was not a case of a team trying to run it up on another. Utah's starting QB, Alex Smith, sat down halfway into the 3rd quarter and the Utes took their foot off the throttle. The soon to be retired coaching legend, John Robinson, was given a parting gift by the Utes, as they knelt on the ball when on the one yard line at the end of the game, rather than letting the 3rd string QB get a TD.

New polls are out and have placed the Utes at #9 & 10 in the coaches and media polls, and all the way up to #6 in the BCS. If they can stay there, they would be guaranteed an invitation to a BCS bowl.

Up next, San Diego St. on the road. An early preview says that 2-5 Aztecs won't be much of a challenge. However, looking deeper you see they 0nly lost by 3 this year at #12 Michigan, and only one team has scored more than 24 points on them this year (UCLA 33). I think the game could be Utah's closest this year, but that isn't saying much as Air Force's 14 point loss is the only time an opponent has stayed closer than 17 points to the Utes. Vegas has Utah a 16 1/2 favorite at this point. I don't have a prediction other than I do not believe Urban will allow these guys to overlook the Aztecs.

Red Sox winning a world series? Don't engrave the trophy yet. I am not convinced. I do think Schilling is amazing and worthy, but I think the Red Sox are almost in the position they are naturally accustomed to residing. That is the perfect place to choke. Choking isn't as good if you do it early and easy, but doing so when it looks like you should and could win, is what makes Boston special. The NY Mets won a world title after loosing the first two games to the Red Sox. I think a couple of games in St. Louis are just what the doctor ordered to get the Redbirds flying.

More mumbling later...

Yanks, Soxs, and Christian Athlete

Yankees and Redsox game 7 tonight has nothing to do with the curse of the bambino. In fairness to the guys on the field right now, the curse has no impact. It's sports, its competition, getting there and winning is hard to do period. Better teams with bigger payrolls might do it more often, but recent World Series winners: Angels, Marlins, and Diamondbacks speak to the fact that the best team on a roll can win it all without respect to curses, payrolls, major market bias, or team history. This game tonight is fun because of the rivalry, the personalities, and the history the two teams share. The winner gets bragging rights and maybe a chance at Roger Clemens.

Schilling was amazing last night by the way. Pitching on that leg and doing that well was amazing. Did you see the blood on the sock? One of the things people are talking about today was his statement after the game. The statement that God was with him. I for one get it, but the sports radio guys are missing it today. It's not that God was for Schilling and for no one else, but a Christian can definitely make it through trials by relying on faith. In Schilling's case, reliance on God to help with the pain, the pressure, and performing to his best ability makes perfect sense. Even in a loss, Schilling could have received the same benefits. Christian athletes, or regular Joe's for that matter, can give the glory for the good things in their life to God.

What I expect tonight: I feel like one of the offenses will wake up and post 8+ runs. I think the other team will be stuck around 3 runs. That said, I'll pick the Yanks 8, Sox 3; A-Rod will be big tonight and the Sox will leave a bunch of runners on base.