Post Jaguars assessment

                I enjoy meeting up with Lloyd when he's in a good mood. A nice 48-9 win will do wonders for his mood, even if it was against a team you expect to get beaten 48-9.

            I ran into Lloyd at Jake's, where he was nursing a bourbon, smoking a Gurkha, and watching whatever NFL game was on, Ravens-Broncos, probably. He might have been secretly watching the Bundesliga soccer game on the other telly, but I wasn't going to out him.

            "So, Lloyd, old buddy, you seem to be in a much better mood than last Sunday," I said as I hoisted myself onto the stool, next to him. "You don't have the laptop out, or anything."

            "No need for it, my good man," he said, quite cheerfully, "No need. I watched the game and saw good things, for the most part, there are some things that still need work, but for the most part, the boys looked pretty good."

                                          I caught the bartenders eye, she came over and I ordered a Four Roses, neat. The bartender had an impressive chest-piece tattoo. It depicted a sailing ship, dismasted and floundering, as kraken's tentacles entwined the ship, fore, aft and amidships. The tentacles led the eye downward until they disappeared beneath the surface of her shirt. I asked her once, after I had my social filter degraded by a few too many bourbons, at just how many fathoms the kraken lived. She just smiled, stepped back and lifted the hem of her shirt to expose her belly. I could see where the tentacles continued upward, pairs of tentacles looped left and right toward her back.  The pair threatening the ship, continued down past the waistband of her jeans.

            I raised my glass and tipped my hat to her. Some dedication to the art went into that piece.

            I turned back to Lloyd, "So what pleased you the most?" I asked.

            "The ground game," he said, immediately. "Newby had 198 yards and two touchdowns. It seemed like he was picking up ten yards every time he touched the ball. He wears number 34, just like Walter Payton, he's no Walter Payton, but I'm going to refer to him as 'Sweet-n-lo' during the games. Maybe it will catch on."

            

                             Sweet-n-lo in action

            "So the o-line must have been pretty good, too," I said.

            "They did well, but the South Alabama d-line was just terrible. As they wore down in the second half, they could barely get out of their stances, never mind generate any push to put pressure on Tommy."

            "Tommy did look pretty sharp, he looked like he made good decisions."

            "Tommy went 21 of 30, for 270 yards, two touchdowns and no picks, a very solid day for Tommy. We only had one turnover, and that was Fife, the backup, throwing a bad one, when the outcome had been decided."

            "Any love for the receivers of special teams?" I asked.

            "Lane Hovey stepped it up with 5 catches. Alonzo Moore is showing that he can be a speed threat. I see a bright future for Stanley Morgan. When DeMornay gets healed up, this receiving corps will be scary good."

            "How's your Drew Brown Bang-your-head-against-the-wall-meter?"

            "He hit both of his attempts, one was a shorty, the other one was pretty decent, so the meter is at 8, not 11, like last week."

            I sipped my bourbon as I processed the information. The offense had done well, but against a defense that wasn't particularly good. They still did what they were supposed to. "Let's talk about the defense," I said.

            Lloyd kind of tilted his head, side-to-side, in an odd sort of weighing the ideas in his head motion. "The front seven were pretty impressive. the D-line got push all night, and stuffed the ground game, South Alabama is a team that wants to run the ball and the Blackshirts shut them down."

            "Tell me about that Rose-Ivey kid, he was all over the place."

            "That was his first action in two years," Lloyd said, matter-of-factly. "He was hurt last year, and was one of the five suspended last week, imagine how much better the run defense would have been against BYU if he had been out there." Lloyd waved away the invisible 'coulda-woulds-shouldas' that started to pester him.

            "What about the back end?", I asked somewhat delicately.

            Lloyd took a deep breath. "The safeties seem to be fine, Nate Gerry especially. The corners are weak points. I have a feeling that there is going to be a shake up on the left side. Daniel Davie had a rough night. He got burned repeatedly, and even when he was getting burned, he could have been flagged for defensive holding. South Alabama's quarterback, Clements, made some nice passes, but Davie was never even in position to contest them, let alone stop them."

            "So, overall, good game?" I asked.

            "Good enough," Lloyd said. "Nebraska did what it was supposed to, and in a week where Auburn got scared, Missouri got pushed, and Arkansas got beat by 'lesser opponents', I'll take it. It was no McNeese State, anyway."

            "One more thing," I said. "I noticed you're drinking the hard stuff, today, instead of liquid hops and barley, and that cigar is a little above your usual price point. What gives?"

            Lloyd smiled. "I won 100 bucks on the game. Nebraska covered the spread so I was good to go."

            "Who did you bet with?"

            "Remember that old bookie, from back in the day, Cowboy Steve? He put me in touch with a young up-and-comer. I almost feel bad about taking his money."

            I opened my mouth to explain to Lloyd how that all works. He's a tech guru and number geek like you wouldn't believe, but I should probably intervene before he starts to parlay. It could wait. Let him enjoy it for today.

            I went back to the office. I opened the desk bottle and just kind of slipped away. It had been a long, tiring week and before I knew it, I fell asleep in the chair.

            I dreamed of a ship of the line, battered by a hurricane, dismasted, adrift, as the tentacles came out of the depths and started dragging her down to dark unfathomable depths.