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Speaker 1: It is time for x'es and o's with Minnesota Vikings

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Speaker 1: head coach Kevin O'Connell on the Minnesota Vikings Radio Network

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Speaker 1: now from the TCO studios at Egan. Here is the

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Speaker 1: voice of the Vikings, Paul Allen.

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Speaker 2: Welcome into x's and o's with Kevin O'Connell, presented by

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Speaker 2: Ken Moore. Minnesota needed a go to source for everything

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Speaker 2: high school sports. That's why the Minnesota Starts Tribune created

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Speaker 2: Strib Varsity. You can sign up now at starchbune dot

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Speaker 2: com slash strib Varsity. X's and o's with Kevin O'Connell starts.

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Speaker 3: Now, Hey, what's going on?

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Speaker 4: Welcome to x's and o's from the Minnesota Vikings team

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Speaker 4: manor outside of London Proper and Don Paul Allen joined

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Speaker 4: weekly at this time by Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell,

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Speaker 4: and we welcome Kevin to the equation. With a schedule.

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Speaker 4: A scheduling question for you. What are you going to

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Speaker 4: be doing tomorrow night, Wednesday at eight ten London time,

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Speaker 4: ten London time Wednesday?

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Speaker 5: This would be I imagine I'll be with the fellas

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Speaker 5: doing some third downs.

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Speaker 3: Okay, that is what I would imagine, so last third

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Speaker 3: down planning.

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Speaker 4: Yes, okay, well your Padres are at the Cobs in

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Speaker 4: the playoffs at eight ten London time tomorrow night.

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Speaker 3: Does that excite you?

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Speaker 6: It does a little bit.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you're a lifetime Padres family.

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Speaker 5: I just like the fact that you know, the Padres

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Speaker 5: made the playoffs and Brian Angelico's Mets did not.

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Speaker 6: It's what I love the most.

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Speaker 3: With an epic collapse.

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Speaker 5: Nonetheless, yes, especially after you know Juan Soto's career journey

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Speaker 5: took him from the beautiful beaches of San Diego to

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Speaker 5: New York on his way to the Mets.

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Speaker 6: I have enjoyed that in a very small capacity.

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Speaker 4: You lastly here on the baseball vibe from the team

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Speaker 4: manor outside of London proper.

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Speaker 3: Its beautiful here, quite tranquil.

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Speaker 4: You You need the Podres to beat the Cubs because

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Speaker 4: you guys have the next week, which means if they

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Speaker 4: beat the Cups, I think you can go to a game.

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Speaker 6: I talked to.

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Speaker 5: I have become fairly close with Mike Schildt, the manager

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Speaker 5: of the Padres, and I got a chance to spend

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Speaker 5: some time with him when they came out to the

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Speaker 5: Twin Cities.

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Speaker 6: A couple of weeks ago, a few weeks back.

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Speaker 5: Wait, and yes, we've that would be something that in

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Speaker 5: the midst of trying to work through the bye and

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Speaker 5: kind of get our guys ready to go for the

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Speaker 5: following week coming out of the buy, which will be

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Speaker 5: very important to us when we when we get to that,

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Speaker 5: get to that time. I have thought about that a

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Speaker 5: little bit.

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Speaker 4: Okay, good, yeah, excellent, So you think about more than football.

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Speaker 5: It's it's very much so just football right now and

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Speaker 5: at this beautiful place, but that time will come.

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Speaker 4: Okay to football now, I'm gonna guess that. In fact,

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Speaker 4: I'm gonna say I know, I know these penalties are

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Speaker 4: working on your last nerve.

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Speaker 3: Okay.

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Speaker 4: And the crazy thing is is the first three years

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Speaker 4: under the O'Connell coaching staff leadership, you guys always were

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Speaker 4: top seven, top five, yep, with like fewest penalties. So,

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Speaker 4: I mean, it's just crazy for four games. How do

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Speaker 4: you preach that out of them?

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Speaker 6: Well?

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Speaker 5: I think you know, you can't allow any of the

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Speaker 5: factors that might be contributing to those things be an excuse.

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Speaker 5: I don't really if somebody were to tell me, hey,

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Speaker 5: I don't you know you've had a couple centers in there,

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Speaker 5: a couple quarterbacks, different cadences.

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Speaker 6: I don't buy into any of that.

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Speaker 5: I think we've got to find a way to execute

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Speaker 5: at a higher level from a standpoint of the pre snap.

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Speaker 5: And we've had some of the critical offensive penalties that

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Speaker 5: we've seen have been in the pre snap variety where

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Speaker 5: they come on a third and six, then all of

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Speaker 5: a sudden, you're third and eleven. They come on a

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Speaker 5: third and seven, then all of a sudden, you're third

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Speaker 5: and twelve. It's a you know, a screen to justin

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Speaker 5: in the red zone and you could be third and

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Speaker 5: inside of one and instead your you know, alignment not

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Speaker 5: involved in the play downfield getting flagged for a penalty.

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Speaker 6: So it's it's, it's it's.

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Speaker 5: Some things that we clearly have to coach better, and

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Speaker 5: we've got to get back to our standard of pre

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Speaker 5: and post snap execution. And then some of the you know,

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Speaker 5: some of the things post snap wise, extracurricular wise on

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Speaker 5: Sunday defensively where you know, we knew, we knew it

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Speaker 5: was going to be that kind of game, specifically with

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Speaker 5: some of the some of the players, uh you know,

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Speaker 5: on the grass for them offensively and that's that's what

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Speaker 5: it's on tape. You see it. And that's part of

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Speaker 5: you know, playing teams that are going to try to,

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Speaker 5: you know, bait you into some things when it's that

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Speaker 5: every yard kind of matters kind of game like and

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Speaker 5: and and we saw and we saw some of that,

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Speaker 5: and I did not like the way we handled some

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Speaker 5: of that. The officials are always going to catch the

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Speaker 5: second guy before they catch the first guy, or vice versa.

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Speaker 5: And we've got to just understand that that's what the

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Speaker 5: three and a half hour, three and a half hours

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Speaker 5: are going to be every Sunday in this league. That's

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Speaker 5: the competition, that's the the highest level of it. And

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Speaker 5: sometimes some of those between the ears kind of warfare

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Speaker 5: that goes on to try to elicit stealing some yards

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Speaker 5: here and there.

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Speaker 6: We can't let it happen.

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Speaker 4: Minus Aaron Jones, you have your full arsenal to strike

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Speaker 4: in the passing game. And and and at least from

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Speaker 4: from you know, my outsider's knowledge of what I see,

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Speaker 4: they're mostly getting open a fair amount of the time.

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Speaker 4: So fair to say with better protection, the the the

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Speaker 4: deeper hits will come.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think you know we've been we've been trying

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Speaker 5: to make it concerned effort to see how how efficient

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Speaker 5: we can be getting the ball out to our playmakers,

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Speaker 5: and and you know, when we've you know, we've kind

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Speaker 5: of took some we've we've we've took some lumps here

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Speaker 5: when we've tried to push the ball down the field

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Speaker 5: via some of the ways we've traditionally done that the

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Speaker 5: play pass right, different different ways of of trying to

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Speaker 5: manipulate coverage downfield. And we've got to find the balance

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Speaker 5: to still do those things when when the time calls

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Speaker 5: for it, and when we do those things, can we

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Speaker 5: be schematically sound to protect with the best you know,

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Speaker 5: the best schematics of protection we can to help where

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Speaker 5: we can. What's been difficult is trying to you know,

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Speaker 5: we haven't necessarily gone into the Atlanta or the Pittsburgh

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Speaker 5: game thinking we're going to play our seventh or eighth lineman.

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Speaker 5: So we've gone in with a plan to try to

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Speaker 5: either help in a certain spot where maybe we've got

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Speaker 5: somebody stepping in going into the game, either you know,

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Speaker 5: thinking about justin school or thinking about you know, knowing

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Speaker 5: we wouldn't have certain parts of our our offensive line

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Speaker 5: available to us, but then you're then you're.

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Speaker 6: Reacting on the fly.

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Speaker 5: Yes, still having to block the same folks, still having to,

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Speaker 5: you know, make sure you're accounting for some of the

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Speaker 5: problems along the defensive front and some of the pressures

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Speaker 5: they may bring. But you're also adding a layer of

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Speaker 5: how do we help kind of a new category of

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Speaker 5: player once they're stepping in and trying to play at

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Speaker 5: their best and do everything they can to help us.

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Speaker 5: But yeah, I think you know the facts. You know,

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Speaker 5: even in those circumstances. The other day, it was a

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Speaker 5: game where we had to we had to try to

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Speaker 5: go get the game, and in the process of doing so,

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Speaker 5: you're going to expose yourself to some risk.

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Speaker 6: But in the end, we still had the.

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Speaker 5: Ball first and ten at the minus forty, with a

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Speaker 5: chance to go at least get three to tie the game,

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Speaker 5: regardless of what it had gone like. And I think

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Speaker 5: that's Look, I have a lot of respect and admiration

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Speaker 5: for the folks that anticipate games going a certain way

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Speaker 5: or going to you know, playing to a certain script.

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Speaker 5: That's just not how our season has gone here early on.

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Speaker 5: But my sole focus, and you know this about me,

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Speaker 5: is I believe we're going to win the game until

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Speaker 5: the last opportunity has been has come and gone. And

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Speaker 5: for us, although folks may have thought at certain times

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Speaker 5: in the second half there that football game was headed

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Speaker 5: to be over sooner rather than later, that's just not

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Speaker 5: the case. And we eventually threw for a bunch of

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Speaker 5: yards and statistically all this stuff that doesn't mean a

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Speaker 5: whole lot to me. It's you know, what's the flow

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Speaker 5: of the game, and how do we find the best

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Speaker 5: path to winning a football game. We're playing against one

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Speaker 5: of the best defenses in the league this week, We're

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Speaker 5: playing against a physical team.

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Speaker 6: We've got to try to match that, but we also have.

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Speaker 5: To play the game in a way where it's a

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Speaker 5: little bit more on our intended terms, not so much

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Speaker 5: on our opponents. And that's what I thought took place

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Speaker 5: in Dublin. I thought we played the game that the

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Speaker 5: Steelers wanted us to play, and we still had a

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Speaker 5: chance to win said game despite losing the turnover battle

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Speaker 5: two to nothing and having a lot more negative plays

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Speaker 5: on our ledger than they did end penalties. So you've

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Speaker 5: you've got to find some positives in the fact that

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Speaker 5: when we can eliminate some of those things it maybe

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Speaker 5: looks a little bit more like Cincinnati than it does

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Speaker 5: some of these these other the couple losses we've had

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Speaker 5: where we've kind of of dug into the roster a

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Speaker 5: little bit to try to manufacture four quarters where where we're.

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Speaker 6: Dealing with some things.

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Speaker 5: But as I said postgame, and you know this about me,

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Speaker 5: I don't view that as any sort of uh, you know,

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Speaker 5: excuse or any sort of thing that can be a

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Speaker 5: detriment to winning. I view it as an opportunity for

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Speaker 5: that next man to step up and for us to

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Speaker 5: coach at a high level and uh, you know, put

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Speaker 5: a put a put an exclamation point on it.

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Speaker 2: If you love for Vikings in London this Sunday with

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Speaker 2: a McDonald's three dollars breakfast sandwich before the battle begins.

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Speaker 2: must opt in to rewards more X and O's with

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Speaker 2: Kevin O'Connell around the corner. This is X's and O's

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Speaker 2: on the Minnesota Vikings Audio Network. Football Fans Meet Pays,

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Speaker 2: dot Com back to x's and o's with Kevin, O'Connell,

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Speaker 2: Xavier or Scott.

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Speaker 4: It is his best current asset in the passing game

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Speaker 4: matched up against certain line I mean, because I mean

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Speaker 4: he just worked number six last game.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's where we were trying to you know,

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Speaker 5: you know, he drew a penalty there late in the game.

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Speaker 5: But if he gets a clean release and doesn't get

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Speaker 5: doesn't get hooked right there by Patrick Queen, I mean,

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Speaker 5: he's gonna have a chance early in that possession to

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Speaker 5: probably cross the fifty with the ball and then and

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Speaker 5: then you're not only thinking about three points there, you're

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Speaker 5: thinking about can we just go in this thing right now?

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Speaker 5: And that's we were a play We were that one

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Speaker 5: play away from doing that. We had another opportunity that

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Speaker 5: I was talking about a little bit earlier, a couple

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Speaker 5: of plays later, where we took the intentional grounding penalty.

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Speaker 3: Yep.

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Speaker 5: What Zay brings is he's got a natural feel of

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Speaker 5: route running and catching the football, and then he's an

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Speaker 5: explosive athlete. He's got some receiver background in his football journey.

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Speaker 5: So we're gonna try to, you know, use him in

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Speaker 5: the traditional sense he's electric with the ball in his

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Speaker 5: hands and kind of has helped us absorb the loss

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Speaker 5: of Aaron Jones with his skill set and then no,

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Speaker 5: and we want JP to be that kind of bell cow,

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Speaker 5: you know, all down kind of physical presence, downhill runner

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Speaker 5: that he is. So he's Zay's brought something. He's brought

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Speaker 5: something to the table. It's why he's here, it's why

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Speaker 5: he made our team. And we saw that potentially being

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Speaker 5: a real opportunity for him throughout the course of seventeen

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Speaker 5: games this year, knowing that you're inevitably going to have

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Speaker 5: to deal with injuries, and you know, we feel very

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Speaker 5: strong about what Zay can bring to our offense.

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Speaker 4: Kevin, how high end is Isaiah Rogers playing for you guys?

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Speaker 4: I mean from the words I've used, standpoint, calling the game,

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Speaker 4: watching some.

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Speaker 3: Stuff, I mean, he's fantastic. He just seems fantastic.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, he's you know, it's it's not a surprise to me.

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Speaker 5: It's not a surprise to flow. It's kind of what

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Speaker 5: we imagined him being. So file that into the category

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Speaker 5: of I know a lot of folks need to see

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Speaker 5: it to believe it a lot of times, but that

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Speaker 5: was one of the positions that I know I was

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Speaker 5: asked about a lot throughout the off season and even

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Speaker 5: after signing Zay. It's you know, what else are you

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Speaker 5: going to do?

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Speaker 6: What else you can to do that can't be that

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Speaker 6: can't be it?

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Speaker 5: And you're, you know, in the back of your mind,

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Speaker 5: you know what's coming if you truly believe in in

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Speaker 5: in kind.

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Speaker 6: Of which I do.

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Speaker 5: You know, Brian Flores and his vision for players, and

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Speaker 5: then ultimately what we saw from a scouting standpoint of

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Speaker 5: where he was at in his career.

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Speaker 6: I'm not surprised about anything he's doing.

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Speaker 5: What I am surprised about is just the momentum he

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Speaker 5: seems to be getting snap in and snap out of.

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Speaker 5: Now we're kind of coming off the playmaking of the

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Speaker 5: Bengals game. Now you're kind of seeing, you know, examples

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Speaker 5: of him being really close to doing that a heck

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Speaker 5: of a lot more than just in that sequence of tights. Yeah,

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Speaker 5: and just the consistency a factor of it, regardless of

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Speaker 5: the matchup, regardless of who he's lining up across from.

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Speaker 5: And there's gonna be some other challenges this week with

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Speaker 5: the Cleveland Browns and Judy and the rest of their

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Speaker 5: skill guys, and I know you know Zay's going to

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Speaker 5: be one of the driving forces behind slowing that offense down.

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Speaker 4: Jalen Redman, with all due respect everybody involved, he might

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Speaker 4: be your best defensive lineman through four games. What what

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Speaker 4: is it from the other defensive lineman you want to

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Speaker 4: see and require to start right now?

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Speaker 5: Well, I think you know there's a level of you know,

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Speaker 5: things going waves, right Pazo, you're you you you want

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Speaker 5: to try to add disruption and an interior pass rush. Well,

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Speaker 5: you know, we still have to be that that defense

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Speaker 5: that we need to be on the early downs from

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Speaker 5: a standpoint of defending the run and getting people into

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Speaker 5: these longer yard situations where the best parts of our

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Speaker 5: our defense can come out, whether that's the pressure looks

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Speaker 5: that we bring, the sticky coverage that we have making

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Speaker 5: them have to get down the field a little bit

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Speaker 5: more to convert third downs, or the the you know,

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Speaker 5: the hard graves or the Allen and the interior rush.

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Speaker 5: But you mentioned Jalen Redman, and I just want to

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Speaker 5: really highlight the fact that this this is a player

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Speaker 5: that is still ascending and just growing on a daily basis.

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Speaker 5: We're just now seeing it happen right and game action,

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Speaker 5: and he's showing up making a bunch of plays. I mean,

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Speaker 5: I feel like every week I could be showing clips

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Speaker 5: to the team of Red making a play, and last

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Speaker 5: week it was the sacks. The previous week, you know,

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Speaker 5: he made some plays in the backfield, affecting the quarterback,

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Speaker 5: affecting the run game. He's showing up every week. And

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Speaker 5: when you when you talk about him Grave j A

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Speaker 5: and then you get into Levi and ty Ingram Dawkins

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Speaker 5: and you see the depth and an Elijah Williams even

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Speaker 5: getting in there for some snaps.

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Speaker 6: You know, we feel good about that depth.

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Speaker 5: We just need to see a little bit more consistency

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Speaker 5: of guys being able to set edges, you know, stop.

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Speaker 6: The run, allow our allow the rest of the guys.

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Speaker 5: On the defense to go run and make plays to

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Speaker 5: try to get the offense into some of those down

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Speaker 5: and distances where they've really got to be concerned about

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Speaker 5: negative plays.

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Speaker 4: A few more for the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings,

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Speaker 4: Kevin O'Connell via X's and o's from this beautiful manor

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Speaker 4: outside of London proper, uh, because Carson got banged around

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Speaker 4: pretty good in the Dublin game. Do you find it?

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Speaker 4: And you played quarterbacks, so maybe it was you too.

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Speaker 4: Do quarterbacks become a little or do they become gunshy

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Speaker 4: to pull the trigger sometimes when they keep taking hits.

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Speaker 5: No, I think it's I think it's a little bit

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Speaker 5: more not necessarily pulling the trigger, but it could speed

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Speaker 5: you up a little bit. The you know, the Steelers

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Speaker 5: I mentioned earlier playing the game on their terms. Ye,

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Speaker 5: that's what happens when you find yourself with the kind

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Speaker 5: of deficit that that we did early on in the game.

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Speaker 5: We were kind of able to kind of play it

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Speaker 5: to our terms a little bit. They made some adjustments,

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Speaker 5: and then once you know, the injuries kind of happened,

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Speaker 5: we had to, you know, try to find different in

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Speaker 5: different ways to either run the football or protect in

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Speaker 5: the in either the play action game or the you know,

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Speaker 5: the drop back quick passing game, whatever you want to

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Speaker 5: call it. And they just you know, they made a

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Speaker 5: few more plays than we did, and then we were

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Speaker 5: able to kind of, you know, re tip the scales

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Speaker 5: a little bit later on in our favor, have some

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Speaker 5: explosives in the past game, move the ball at a

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Speaker 5: at a good clip finder way, in the end zone.

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Speaker 5: Make it a football game. But it was too much

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Speaker 5: of you know, at times, you know, things getting away

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Speaker 5: from where we wanted it to be from a game

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Speaker 5: plan standpoint, due to some factors out of our control.

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Speaker 5: But at the same time, what was in our control.

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Speaker 5: That's what we've got to focus on.

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Speaker 3: A couple on Cleveland here to close. Now.

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Speaker 4: Now it's almost a week here at the manner, okay,

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Speaker 4: after a weekend in Dublin where you left last Thursday,

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Speaker 4: got there Friday, Dublin, time, settled in, played the Steelers.

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Speaker 3: Now we're in London. After that you get the buye.

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Speaker 4: So it's no time for anybody to be homesick or

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Speaker 4: looking ahead to the potential of a sandy beach with

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Speaker 4: some off time. That's well deserved for a lot of people.

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Speaker 4: But human nature also wins sometimes too. So is that

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Speaker 4: on your mind at all or an absolute non player

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Speaker 4: with this group?

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Speaker 5: No, it's my job to make sure I'm communicating that

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Speaker 5: that cannot be an option for us. And luckily we've

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Speaker 5: got the type of group that these guys are motivated,

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Speaker 5: they're locked in, you know, it's it's they genuinely feel

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Speaker 5: week in and week out like they commit to trying

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Speaker 5: to have the best week of preparation we can because

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Speaker 5: the three and a half hours on Sunday are really

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Speaker 5: important to these guys.

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Speaker 6: So I think we're gonna have a good week of prep.

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Speaker 5: We're kind of in a different world now than we

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Speaker 5: were last week from a standpoint of we have adjusted

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Speaker 5: to the.

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Speaker 6: Time we are.

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Speaker 5: You know, we are not going to be on buses

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Speaker 5: all over you know, all over London. We're gonna be here.

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Speaker 5: We're gonna be practicing here, we're gonna be meeting here,

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Speaker 5: we're gonna be eating here. Everything's taking place right here

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Speaker 5: as if we've just moved TCO right here to Hanbury,

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Speaker 5: and that's where the resources that put together these trips

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Speaker 5: and how we have it set up. It's really designed

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Speaker 5: to be the best possible setting for the player. And

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Speaker 5: there's some things obviously we're in a different country, so

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Speaker 5: there's some things that are going to be outside of

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Speaker 5: the norm for these players. But what's not is they're

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Speaker 5: gonna hear from me on Wednesday what I think it's

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Speaker 5: going to take to win the game and the team

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Speaker 5: meeting setting. They're gonna hear from Flow and Wes and

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Speaker 5: Matt Daniels from a coordinator standpoint of how we're gonna

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Speaker 5: do it in all three phases with great detail and

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Speaker 5: installation of those plays and concepts, and then they're gonna

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Speaker 5: get it in the position room setting with their position

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Speaker 5: room coaching. We're gonna go practice it right down by

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Speaker 5: the golf course there on a beautiful field down there,

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Speaker 5: and then we're gonna come back and we're gonna meet

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Speaker 5: and we're gonna do the same process that we always do,

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Speaker 5: regardless of the previous week's result. Yes, sir, but there

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Speaker 5: is an urgency and there is an attention to detail

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Speaker 5: required when you know that there are some factors you know,

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Speaker 5: either previously with the result and the process of travel

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Speaker 5: and all that stuff, or out in front of us

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Speaker 5: with those sandy beaches you speak of that we just

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Speaker 5: can't allow that to have any sort of a factor

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Speaker 5: in whether the Minnesota Vikings play well or not on Sunday.

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Speaker 3: I know you and Brown's coach Kevin Stavanski.

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Speaker 4: Have just a high level of respect for each other,

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Speaker 4: and you both, you guys are both really really good

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Speaker 4: at taking what you have and trying to win the game.

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Speaker 3: Yep. The way with what you have is best to

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Speaker 3: try to win.

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Speaker 4: So from a Cleveland standpoint, do you think they want

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Speaker 4: to shrink the game and try to win lower scoring

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Speaker 4: affairs with the current iteration of what they.

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Speaker 5: Have, Well, I don't know if they necessarily go into

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Speaker 5: it saying that, but with the with the defense and

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Speaker 5: the way their defense is playing, I mean, it's one

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Speaker 5: of the best front you know, front groups in football,

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Speaker 5: led by Miles Garrett obviously, but I think you know,

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Speaker 5: Delpit's one of the best safeties in football.

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Speaker 6: They've got two really good corners.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think the linebackers are playing well, but everything starts.

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Speaker 3: At Michigan defensive tackle Mason.

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Speaker 5: Gram Everything starts with them along the front of just

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Speaker 5: absolutely penetration and win the winning the line of scrimmage

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Speaker 5: and trying to do everything in their power disrupt the

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Speaker 5: flow of your offense. So you've got to try to

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Speaker 5: find a way to play in that world, but maximize

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Speaker 5: your opportunities without exposing yourself to a lot of risk.

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Speaker 5: And with that comes complimentary football, Like we need our

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Speaker 5: defense to to you know, get stops, get off the field,

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Speaker 5: give us more opportunities offensively, and then when we get

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Speaker 5: them offensively, we've got to do our job, which is

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Speaker 5: going to be drive the football. We cannot have turnovers,

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Speaker 5: we can't have silly penalties and self inflicted penalties that

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Speaker 5: cause circumstances to be more difficult by our own doing.

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Speaker 5: And that's what I'm really looking to get on the

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Speaker 5: grass and coach through this week to make sure we

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Speaker 5: have a great plan to play the game the way

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Speaker 5: we need to play this week to try to beat

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Speaker 5: the Cleveland Browns, and it's going to be a challenge.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to x'es and O's Kevin O'Connell. X's

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Speaker 2: and O's is presented by Ken Moore in an official

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Speaker 2: production of the Minnesota Vikings Audio Network