Post Illinois

            I had to dispense with most of the usual pleasantries before heading down to Jake's. I had heard some things, and the things I heard were not good.

Nebraska lost 14-13. They led, most of the game, but couldn't hold their water in the last minute. I found Lloyd in the bar. No computer. He was just staring at his cigar, which is a waste, and a sure sign that he was in a bad, bad, mood.

            "So, buddy, what happened?" I asked as gently, as I could.

            "I am so close to being done", he said, "If you get beat, you get beat. You tip your hat to the winner, say, 'good game' and move on. If you get blown out, it's because the other team has superior talent and or circumstances to demonstrate that superiority. To lose to a team that you should beat, through a combination of ineptitude and stupidity just pisses me off."

            "Whoa," I said as I motioned to Jess. "Break it down for me. Explain it to me like I don't know as much about football as I should".

            "You mean like Mike Riley?"

            Ouch. Lloyd is pissed. Riley basically got Lloyd's endorsement when we went on our little trip, earlier this year. To see him turn on him, halfway through the season is a bit surprising. "Lay it on me. What would you have done differently?"

            Lloyd picked up his cigar, puffed it to a satisfactory level of smokiness and exhaled a long plume. He looked like a vengeful demon rising from the fiery pit to dispense justice..in an oversize coat. "First thing first, we simply must stop wearing the all white surrender gear. We look like shit, we play like shit and always have when we wore it. On the road, white jersey over RED pants, dammit."

            Jess interrupted as I ordered a Slaughterhouse and asked her ever so nicely to run to the back and get a Rocky Patel A-10, for me. "We don't do that," she said, flatly.

            "I looked up at her and smiled, "Not even for me? I don't want to leave Lloyd alone, right now. He might do something rash like throw himself into the window, and I'd hate for you to have to windex the whole thing."

            "Ha fuckin' ha," Lloyd said as he gave me the finger.

            Jess sighed, "All right, just this once. Next time, plan ahead". She left to get my stuff for me.

            "It has to be more than the uniforms," I said. "You don't get that pissed off over uniforms".

            "Let me break it down. Between the two teams, the first quarter had 7 possessions. 4 punts, 2 missed field goals and a turnover on downs. All three of Nebraska's possessions were three and outs. It was the little things. Dropped passes, runners not being aware or putting the effort in to get the first down. Tommy could have had a first down on the opening drive if he would have put his head in and fought for the extra yard. Even then, that's fine, it's still 0-0 at the end of the first quarter and both teams looked sloppy."

            "So the whole game wasn't  like that," I said as Jess brought my stuff and gave a half-hearted harumph as I thanked her.

            "No. The second quarter was actually OK. Nebraska got a touchdown and a field goal, and Illinois was stuck in second gear. Devine Ozigbo scored the touchdown. I'm not even sure who he is. We have Terrell Newby, Imani Cross, even Mikael Wilbon ahead of Ozigbo and he's getting the bulk of the carries? Newby, the starter, only carried 5 times for 15 yards. This is a guy who is capable of a 200-yard day, and he's watching?"

            "Let's cut to the chase," I said. What has Husker Nation in such a panty-bunching tizzy, today?"

            "Mike Riley is the absolute worst clock manager to ever wear a whistle."

            "Ooh, worst ever, eh? What did he do or not do? Because there is no try."

            Lloyd sighed, declining to run with my Yoda reference. "It's 3rd and 7 at the opponent's 27. There are 55 seconds left, and the opponent has no time outs left. What do you do?"

            I shrugged. "A 35-dive or something up the middle. It's reasonably safe, and if I don't make the first down, I have a long-ish field goal attempt, that even if I miss it, leaves about 10 seconds on the clock and 73 yards to defend."

            "And Riley calls a pass play. Some sort of fucked up run-pass option that Tommy threw low and behind the fullback, so had he just caught it, the clock would have kept running."

            "No, he didn't," I said.

            "What are you talking about."

            "The play called was a quarterback sweep. Tommy was even told specifically not to pass. There's no receiver package in the play. It was in the fish-wrap, today."

            "Then Riley sucks for throwing his player under the bus like that. Tom would never have done that."

            I was shaking my head at Lloyd. "Really?" I asked incredulously. "First of all, you are right, Tom would never specifically refer to a player. His political shuck-and-jive was to say, 'I don't know what happened on that play', or 'we still haven't had a chance to look at the film' or 'there was a communication problem of some kind' with all sorts of throat clearing."

            Lloyd opened his mouth to respond, but I overran him.

            "So he's now the worst coach ever, for calling the same kind of play that all of us armchair quarterbacks would have, and for being honest and telling the truth, from his point of view, about what went wrong"

            Lloyd sat for a moment giving me one of his harsh, really pissed off looks. I was about as worried about Lloyd doing something as I was worried about being savaged by a sheep. "That Alex Lewis kid needs to lose his captaincy," he said. "He was blowing kisses at the crowd and saying 'I'm sorry we suck' at the end of the game. It was tweeted by several people, including one of the sports guys at the paper."

            I nodded. "You're right. It's exactly like when a parent keeps telling a kid that they're stupid, over and over, and when the kid says 'I'm stupid' the parent gets all mad and says 'Don't ever say that about yourself'".

            "But he's a captain, he needs to be one of the leaders of the team."

            "Why? He's got no reason to be loyal to this team, or this staff, or this school even. Bo Pelini gave him a second chance. Bo Pelini is the reason he's here. Bo Pelini was shown the door by the administration, and a good chunk of the fan base was happy to see him go. He's 3-1 at YSU, by the way. Why is it OK for fans to blast message boards and call in shows with wave after wave of  'the team sucks, Riley sucks, the offense sucks, the defense sucks', but the second a player, who has put more into the game than any fan says it, it's like he waggled his wienie at your grandma?"

            Lloyd got really sullen. "They just are," He said. "We expect them to go out and give 100%"

            "They did that, as far as I could see."

            "They are supposed to keep their heads up, even when they lose, and show good sportsmanship."

            "But the fans aren't? The fans can verbally attack them, question their manhood, abilities and loyalties and they are supposed to just shrug it off? Let me ask you something with a premise to set up first. Operation Iraqi Freedom did not go off as Bush the Younger planned or hoped. Iraq is on the edge of teetering into utter chaos. Would you go up to a Veteran, who had served there, and say, 'You suck. You tried, I'll give you that, but your leaders let you down. They tried one strategy, then another, but ultimately, it's your fault. You made all of America look bad because you didn't win."

            "No. But that's different."

            "Yes, you're right. It's less important. I bet that if you went on any of the local TV web pages, there are more comments about the Illinois game, than there are about the supposed action against ISIS."

            Lloyd stewed for a bit.

            "I want them to win, you want them to win, we all want them to win, but the reasons are so selfish. We don't want them to win so that they feel good, or that they learn that through teamwork and trust, you can achieve more than as an individual. We want them to win to make us feel better. So that we can thump our chests and attach ourselves however so tentatively to their success. We take it so personally when THEY lose that I've got to be on my best behavior to not lay a motherfucker out at Hy-Vee because he's got aggro over the result of a game. A game, man, that we had nothing to do with."

            "They may not win another game, this year," Lloyd said.

            "Maybe not. They might go 2-12, there will be calls to fire the coaches, fire the AD, Perlman's retiring, so it's useless to call for his head. It will be a true test if that happens. If it does, that's when you ask yourself why you are even paying attention."