Business Trip

     The metaphoric weather, around town, was interesting, this week. In the days leading up to the Oregon game, it had been grey, drizzly, rainy, the kind of weather you have to deal with in Eugene, every, damn, day. It was like the football Gods were giving Nebraska a taste of what the Ducks deal with.
     Saturday broke clear and bright and a little on the warm side. Since the win, there hasn't been a cloud in the sky and its been, 'a little warm' for the start of fall. Clear and warm, and with Huskerfan getting a little spring in their collective step, the weather has reflected a brighter mood, lately.
     I was inside. I had work to do, plus I hate smoking when it's hot out. Maybe I'm a wienie, but puffing on a cigar while sweat beads up on my eyebrows and my skin becomes one with the fabric of my clothes while I peel myself off the plastic chair, never holds much appeal for me. So, I sat in a dark room, listening to the AC hum, the glow from the TV's reflecting of the framed art, smoking a Gurkha Assassin, contemplating the ebb ans swirl of the smoke as it drifted toward the ceiling.
     And I was getting paid to do it.
     I had the laptop in front of me, and I had opened a file marked 'Business Trip'. There were a bunch of folders that mostly had dates, or number sequences on them. Those were just boring contracts, and presentation and customer engagement documents that would bore even the most hardcore Human Resources mandarin. There were two that caught my eye, though.
     One had promise, and was labeled 'Groping in the Dark'. I opened it up and it was a video. Intrigued I clicked play, expecting the worst. Five young kids, all right, adults, about high school or maybe college age, were on a stage. They were pretty good. They covered mainly classic rock stuff, that allowed their lead singer, one of two girls in the band, to show off her range.
     They opened with Heart's 'Crazy on You' and it was obvious that the young lady was a big Ann Wilson fan. She emulated the delivery to a tee, and were it not for the poor quality of the 'recorded on a cell-phone' aspect of the video, she would have sounded even better. At one point, she was moving across the stage and I got a look at the drum kit, which had 'Groping in the Dark' printed on the bass drum skin.
     I ticked off a couple of mental notes. Willy didn't seem like a rocker, so why was this on his computer? Need to do a search, to see if Groping was signed, a garage band, or what?
     There was one more file that I was about to click on a file marked 'киска', the Cyrillic lettering intrigued me, when Lloyd bopped in.
     "What's up. Lloyd. Care to join me in a little carbon exchange?"
     Lloyd sat down across from me, he asked for a water and a torch, as he unwrapped a cigar. "You know," he said. "I feel pretty good about a road game for the first time since...
     "Illinois. Last year," I interrupted.
     "Yeah, that's about right," he said, shaking his head. "That didn't turn out too well, did it?"
I imagined the memory of the game swirling  in his head like an unpleasant snow globe.
     "Why are you so confident, now?"
     "Execution, mainly," he said as he let loose with a cloud of smoke. "There have only been a few plays where the players look lost, like they didn't know what they were supposed to do."
     "Including Tommy?"
     "Even Tommy. He still has some mechanical issues, like throwing off his back foot on the deep ball, sometimes, but his decision making is much better. He's learning that its ok to throw it away, or eat it if he has too, rather than just throwing it up and hoping."
     "He did that several times against Oregon," I said. "He made the right call in running out of bounds at the three, instead of trying to throw it into triple coverage in the end zone. What about the defense?"
     "They are better, as a unit, than last year. Statistically, they don't look good against the run, mainly because of four plays by Oregon. Northwestern is not Oregon. They have been really good against the pass, less than 200 yards per game, less than 6 yards per attempt, they have forced seven interceptions and only given up two TD passes. Last year, it was like two TD passes, per game, minimum."
     "Funny how a year of working with the same systems seems to make things, much better, doesn't it?"
     Lloyd waved his smoke away with a dismissive gesture. "He's not there, yet. Riley's got a long way to go before I'll be convinced that he's a great coach."
     "Fine," I said. "I'll just remind you, that he now has 18 games to coach and I win our bet from last year. Since we made that bet, he and his Huskers have gone 6-1."
     "If he makes it to that game, and the Huskers are at least B1G contenders, then I will gladly pay up."
     "Lets move on to the upcoming task," I said. "Northwestern. Worried?"
     "Not really," Lloyd said. I know you can't apply the transitive property to football, but Nebraska should be able to beat a team that lost to both Illinois State and Western Michigan. They played better against Duke, but unless it's basketball or lacrosse, that doesn't mean much."
     "They won, here, last year," I pointed out.
     "Oh, I know, that was a classic example of the whole year, in a nutshell. Make good plays, get the lead late, piss it away at the end. The defense can not let Clayton Thorson do what he did last year. I don't think they will, they seem much better, fundamentally, this year."
     "So, what's it going to come down to?"
     Lloyd puffed away for a moment. "Look at it this way," he said. "Level of competition. Their toughest opponent was Western Michigan, and they lost. Nebraska's was Oregon, and Nebraska won. Who do you think would win in an Oregon-Western Michigan match-up?"
     "Oregon, easily," I said.
     "Exactly. The most points Northwestern has scored all year is 24, and I'm betting that Nebraska's defense is better than Duke's. Even if the Wildcats play well, I don't see them scoring more than 20.
On the flip side. Nebraska has scored 43, 52 and 35 points. Lowest is 35. Maybe Northwestern's defense is as good as Oregon's, maybe better. I'm thinking with all the weapon's Nebraska has, they will score a minimum of 28."
     "Then your score prediction is?"
     "If I low-ball it," Lloyd said, "I'm still picking Nebraska for a 28-20 win. If I go with my gut, and throw confidence level into the calculations, I start thinking more like 42-13, Nebraska."
     "Cowboy Steve has Nebraska by 10," I said.
     "I'd cover that," Lloyd said. "I'm feeling confident, right now."
     I turned my attention back to the computer. I had to find out what was in the 'киска' file.
     Husk-husk and on the qb.