Lloyd, Cassandra, Preacherman and I were just hanging out, watching the crowds from East Lansing, West Lansing, and something called the "You Pee" filter into "Our Lady" ready top drop some cash, kill a few brain cells and leave convinced that the girls really liked them.
We hadn't seen much of Mr. Davison. After our last encounter here, he had kind of vamoosed...if that's really a word. Anyway, his absence had allowed for us to concentrate on other, important things, like a few runaway cases, an embezzlement scheme and a background check for a security firm. Sheesh, talk about paranoid.
Now it was game time. We had gathered together to break down the game. This one is HUGE. Inside track for the LegendS division, lasting relevance in the National Championship debate, and a classic offensive strength vs. defensive strength debate.
"Lloyd!" I shouted to get his attention away from his iphone. "Tell me how the offense beats this Sparty defense."
"On the ground," he said, briefly closing his phone with a swipe of his finger. "Bo and Tim have to commit to the ground game and short passes. Sparty loves to blitz, and they trust their d-backs enough to play one and one and force the qb into a 'hot read' situation. The MSU front seven is tough and aggressive, but kind of soft against the run. Keep Taylor out of 3rd-and-longs, and use the run to set up play-action passes and the offense should be fine."
He reached for a sip of his coffee. Always the coffee, with Lloyd.
"I think the Huskers should run a few screen plays, traditional or bubble. Against a hyper aggressive defense, with the weapons at our disposal, can turn a short pass into a long gainer at any time. They just have to time it right, make one guy miss and paydirt, baby."
"How does the run-game enter into the picture, though?"
"We gotta commit to it. Pound them with the run all day long. It may take a half, or three quarters, but with the 8-man rotation our line uses, and the depth we have at running back, by the fourth quarter, the I-backasaurus Rex will be eating up yards, time and Spartan souls."
"Score prediction?"
"Huskers 35, Spartans 31."
I looked over at Cassandra, who seemed to be having a really good time. She was sitting all the way back, smiling and holding her drink as if to cover up her smile. "What's with you?" I asked. "Do you think Lloyd's off base, or something?"
"No, nothing like that," she said, laughing. "I don't get into your Husker break-downs. I just don't know enough about them to make anything I say relevant. I'm amused by watching how guys act in places like this."
"Yeah, it is kind of depressing," I conceded.
"Not at all, it's hilarious. Just watch how these guys will pony up cash, and drinks, I know this place does the 'Saigon Tea' trick for the girls, and do things that resemble the antics of naughty school kids who think the teacher isn't looking."
"Be careful, Preach might get offended."
"Who do you think I'm watching?"
Preacherman made his way back to the table, looking like the cat that ate the canary. Cassandra and I both laughed when he sat down. Lloyd had gone back to his apps.
"What?" Preacherman asked, looking slightly dazed.
"Nothing, man. Inside joke," I said as Cassandra tried to hide her ever widening smile. "Tell me how the defense does against the Spartans."
"Get this," Preach leaned forward enthusiastically. "We gonna break out the base nickle defense, and run peso on passing situations."
"Hmmm, interesting. Explain," I said.
"MSU's got no real ground game to speak of. We can drop five guys back into coverage, and let the best two linebackers roam. David and Compton can fill gaps all day long. MSU does not have a Monte Ball or a Chris Polk that can gouge way at you all day. With five guys covering, or six or seven as the call shakes out, it makes Cousins, their quarterback take that much more time to read a defense that he probably hasn't seen on film. All week long they've been breaking down the defense from this year, and we haven't run the base nickle. They won't know what to do, they'll have to adjust on the fly, and I'm not so sure they'll be able to do that well enough to come back and have success through the air, like they did against Notre Dame and Wisconsin."
"So your saying play to stop the passing attack, and dare them to beat us on the ground?"
"Exactly, in a nutshell. Where's my new girlfriend. I'm getting me some private time."
I though Cassandra's drink was going to come out of her nose, which would have burned, as Preach got up. "What's your score prediction?" I asked before he could go get an up-close look at some pasties.
"Huskers 17, Spartans 13, and not even that close, really."
"So what's your take on the game, oh gumshoe guru of the gridiron?" Cassandra asked, half-mockingly. Ok, it was more like three-quarters mockingly, but I'll take a quarter of sincerity when I can get it.
"Standard Huskerfan and football fan logic would state it as: A. Wisconsin pounded Nebraska. B. Michigan State beat Wisconsin in a close game. C. Michigan State will pound Nebraska."
"Yeah, I can see that," Cassandra nodded.
"Hegelian dialectic," Lloyd added.
"Right. Here is another way of looking at Michigan State, at home, they are 5-0 and have knocked off some good teams, like Wisconsin, and Michigan, and some others, but they have really good stats against them and Youngstown State, Florida Atlantic and Central Michigan."
Lloyd cleared his throat. Cassandra leaned back in her chair, smiled and said, "Go on."
"On the road they are completely different. They lost, badly, to a weak Notre Dame team, and only managed 10 points against an Ohio State defense that was on the field all day long, and that the Huskers dropped 34 on, 28 in the second half."
"Where are you going with this?"
"Throw in the emotional ups and downs of a football season, and I don't think they can get juiced up for a fourth game. They hate Ohio State. Really hate Michigan, and get their kicks taking it to Wisconsin. Ask anybody who has played the game, and they will tell you that you just can't get emotionally 'up', for 12 weeks in a row. Here they are, huge emotional win against Wisconsin, that they have been hearing about all week. They have an early kickoff against a team that they think they should be able to roll pretty easily, since they beat Wisconsin. They don't have a history with Nebraska. None of these guys were there when Bo earned his first win in the Alamo Bowl. I think they will be flat, Nebraska will be better motivated and the time is ripe for Bo to dispel some of those 'Top 10 demons' and get a big win, and keep moving forward."
Cassandra clapped slowly. "Bravo, what is your score prediction?"
"Huskers 27, Thpartans 23. The real Spartans always did a much better job of defending their home turf. Plus, they are best known for a heroic, epic defeat. They get to add to that legend, today."
"One more prediction," I said. "The Blackshirts get their colors, today, before the game."
Husk-husk and on the qb.
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