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Speaker 1: This is Tony Pike's Friday Football Frenzy show, brought to

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Speaker 1: you in part five fellow Windows and door making life

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Speaker 1: writer Pelen Now day later, Skyline Shilly Stealing Good. It's

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Speaker 1: Skyline time. Encore Technologies. Visit OnCore dot Tech haves an

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Speaker 1: oil stealing champions on and off the field, am Day,

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Speaker 1: Men's health, Start your best life today and by the

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Speaker 1: Creation Museum It's more than a museum. Visit Creation Museum

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Speaker 1: dot org today on ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home

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Speaker 1: of the Cincinnati Bengals.

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Speaker 2: Welcome back our two Friday Football Frenzy. Thanks to Sinci Sharts.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for listening. If you are a listener, you

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Speaker 2: know what time it is. It's Friday. It's one o'clock.

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Speaker 2: Our good friend Charlie goldsmiths Danny boy to join us

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Speaker 2: right now. Your talkbacks follow that immediately. Charlie, what's going on.

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Speaker 3: Doing Tony?

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Speaker 2: Charlie, I'm great man.

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Speaker 3: How are you? I'm doing great?

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Speaker 2: Let's start with the game on Sunday, Charlie. Coming out

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Speaker 2: of a bye and the defense we know has not

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Speaker 2: been good. How much better can the defense get coming

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Speaker 2: out of a bye with looking at tendencies with doin

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Speaker 2: some self scouting. Are there things available for this defense

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Speaker 2: to improve with starting on Sunday?

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Speaker 3: Not as much as say you'd have with the twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty one or the twenty twenty two Bengals. Those are

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Speaker 3: teams that I remember talking to Loui an Arrumo about this.

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Speaker 3: Harry heavily studied their scheme during the bye, came out

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Speaker 3: with brand new wrinkles, new coverage looks, new blitz packages,

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Speaker 3: and had things that I remember. Some of the best

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Speaker 3: football they played was out of the buy in twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty two with these unbelievable wrinkles that lou Ana Rumo

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Speaker 3: dove into. Well, they're not elevating this scheme, they're simplifying

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Speaker 3: this scheme. The only thing, you know, they could be

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Speaker 3: running the best scheme of the world. But what you're

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Speaker 3: seeing right now is in one on one siga situations,

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Speaker 3: fundamental technical mistakes, guys not executing their assignments, and that's

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Speaker 3: stuff that you can't sit down in a meeting room

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Speaker 3: in fix. Because of the level that they're at. These

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Speaker 3: young guys just need to play, They need to develop,

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Speaker 3: they need to grow.

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Speaker 2: You went into the weeds a little bit over the

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Speaker 2: bye week, and you came out of the weeds with

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Speaker 2: some interesting stuff on the Bengals defense and how they

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Speaker 2: approach third down defense, in particular how they're guarding opposing

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Speaker 2: team's tight ends. We know tight ends have been an issue.

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Speaker 2: Pat Fryermuth did make some plays obviously in that first

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Speaker 2: go round, but talk a little bit about some variations

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Speaker 2: that maybe we can look for when it comes to

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Speaker 2: third down against the Steelers.

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Speaker 3: Tight ends have been a huge issue this year on

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Speaker 3: early downs, on first and second downs. Third downs not

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Speaker 3: as much, but still more than they have been in

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Speaker 3: the past. But I believe last year, outside of the

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Speaker 3: Kansas City game, they didn't allow a catch to a

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Speaker 3: tight end on third down all season. Lou Anarumo very

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Speaker 3: comfortably had the Tray Flowers role, the tight end stopper,

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Speaker 3: Dejohn Anthony had it, dj Ivy had it well. This year,

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Speaker 3: they just keep their traditional dime defense on the field.

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Speaker 3: That's our golden plan for third downs. They just bring

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Speaker 3: in Josh Newton, they spread out assignments, the safeties get

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Speaker 3: more involved, and there's not a general tight end guy.

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Speaker 3: It's one of the biggest just pure schematic differences from

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Speaker 3: last year to this year. And it's been fine but

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Speaker 3: not good enough, but still okay from a tight end perspective.

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Speaker 3: The one exception though, is when they played the Steelers,

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Speaker 3: they brought back out dj Ivy to be their tight

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Speaker 3: end stopper because Pittsford's receiver's depth receiver depth is that bad,

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Speaker 3: and because they have some nice tight ends Friar Johnny Smith.

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Speaker 3: You know Washington lefto is a pass catcher, but still him.

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Speaker 3: They wanted more size to face tight end, so they

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Speaker 3: brought in dj Ivy more on on their dime defense,

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Speaker 3: kind of in the Luenna Remo style. And I bet

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Speaker 3: we'd see them do something similar again on.

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Speaker 2: Sunday, Charlie coming out of a buy. Just from a

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Speaker 2: personnel standpoint or a scheme standpoint, we know now they're

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Speaker 2: going to be without Stewart and Trey Hendrickson. Anything they

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Speaker 2: can do to give themselves a competitive advantage by just

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Speaker 2: the personnel they're going to try to use on the field.

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Speaker 3: I did while I was in the weeds, I did

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Speaker 3: a deep dive on Barrett Carter and I did find

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Speaker 3: the one thing that he's doing better than what Logan

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Speaker 3: Wilson did, and that's what he can do in pass

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Speaker 3: rush games on third downs, you know, you can have

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Speaker 3: them kind of be a guy who chases around a pick,

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Speaker 3: who kind of just kind of shoots out of a

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Speaker 3: cannon to try to get to the quarterback. Now, sometimes

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Speaker 3: they'll just miss the tackle, sometimes it'll come up empty,

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Speaker 3: but opportunities like that to take advantage of Carter's speed,

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Speaker 3: and now they did have some more time to work

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Speaker 3: on that during the bye week heading into this week. Remember,

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Speaker 3: Carter made his first start against the Packers and only

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Speaker 3: had a short week to get ready for the Steelers.

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Speaker 3: So one difference could be is what they do from

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Speaker 3: a Barrett Carter Blitz perspective, something they've actually had time

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Speaker 3: to work on and see how it looks now. But

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Speaker 3: even with that, the results are far from guaranteed.

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Speaker 4: What about Cedric Johnson, I know he's expected to play

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Speaker 4: a little bit more of a role with Trey and

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Speaker 4: Schamar out. What have the coaches kind of been saying

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Speaker 4: about him, and obviously had a good offseason and now

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Speaker 4: that he's back in the fray.

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Speaker 3: Well, first, he's the type of guy you want to reward.

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Speaker 3: He's like on offense, we've talked about like Joseavash and

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Speaker 3: to an even bigger extent, Chase Brown being one of

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Speaker 3: the best kind of do everything culture behind the scenes

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Speaker 3: about all of the right stuff like and Seid Johnson

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Speaker 3: really is one of those guys. He does one thing

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Speaker 3: very well, which is when he gets into a full sprint,

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Speaker 3: he can chase down the quarterback and he can kind

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Speaker 3: of find pressure opportunities with his speed. Now said not

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Speaker 3: as much by a cup of tea, because the pass

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Speaker 3: rush plan the games, the opportunity and ability on a

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Speaker 3: down to down basis being consistent at the line of

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Speaker 3: scrimmage against different types of tackles, winning with power impacting

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Speaker 3: the game again to run all those on his strength.

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Speaker 3: But he's got the ability to chase down a guy

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Speaker 3: and he plays pretty discipline, so you know, ideally that

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Speaker 3: gives him a bit of a spark compared to a

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Speaker 3: guy like you know, Shamar Stewart who hadn't really been

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Speaker 3: doing much of anything well as a pass rusher, Cam Sample,

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Speaker 3: who's been pretty stiff as a pass rusher. So Seed

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Speaker 3: Johnson does help because he does a couple of things

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Speaker 3: at a pretty decent.

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Speaker 2: Level offensively, Charlie, what's the challenge now that presents this offense?

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Speaker 2: Because they've been so good and they've been so dynamic.

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Speaker 2: Go back to the second half against Green Bay and

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Speaker 2: how they were against Pittsburgh and the Jets and the Bears.

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Speaker 2: Now you go into a buy what's the biggest challenge

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Speaker 2: this offense will face in trying to find that consistency

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Speaker 2: in that scoring on offense again on Sunday.

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Speaker 3: I think the biggest thing is continuing to have that

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Speaker 3: baseline level up front in a way that lets Flaco

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Speaker 3: operate quickly and with confidence. Being confident that when he

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Speaker 3: throws the ball in the game, then he'll be able

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Speaker 3: to do so clean. That very important because when he

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Speaker 3: doesn't have that, that's where you see Flacco's well documented

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Speaker 3: historical you know, turnover issues both fumbled in interceptions become

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Speaker 3: a bigger part of the equation. So letting Flaco continue

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Speaker 3: to operate consistently with that, that's going to be the

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Speaker 3: name of the game for this Bengals offense for as

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Speaker 3: long as flackos their quarterback. Because there's really only one

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Speaker 3: style they can play. And we'll just some of what

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Speaker 3: they do against Pittsburgh based off some of their personnel.

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Speaker 3: They you know, Joey Porter Junior is the corner. They

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Speaker 3: have a lot of respect for obviously a lot of

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Speaker 3: fear for TJ. Watt and for Cam Hayward. But there's

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Speaker 3: still one clean vision of how looks that we saw

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Speaker 3: them execute pretty perfectly the first time against Pittsburgh. They're

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Speaker 3: going to have to pretty much recreate that on Sunday.

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Speaker 2: Defensively, for Pittsburgh, they played so much man the first

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Speaker 2: go around, and it's well documented the targets and the

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Speaker 2: catches that Jamar Chase was able to have. They just

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Speaker 2: didn't want to play zone defense. And I remember watching

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Speaker 2: Thursday Night Football and watching along and watching halftime, and

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Speaker 2: everyone's just shocked that Pittsburgh is not changing from man demand.

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Speaker 2: Now that they've had a chance to, I think regroup,

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Speaker 2: Jalen Ramsey's playing some more safety. Do you envision them

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Speaker 2: still trying to go man demand or do we see

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Speaker 2: more zone on Sunday against the Steelers.

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Speaker 3: The biggest thing I'm expecting, whether it's man or zone,

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Speaker 3: is just for them to show a lot of fear

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Speaker 3: in both Jamar and t I just think as a whole,

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Speaker 3: when you look at the way they're going to try

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Speaker 3: to deploy their resources, it's a unit that's going to

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Speaker 3: try to take them away above all else. That's kind

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Speaker 3: of how all of the defenses have been played, not

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Speaker 3: a pretty much the majority of these defenses have been

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Speaker 3: playing the Bengals this year. They haven't seen so much

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Speaker 3: double double this year. There have been so many cases

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Speaker 3: where teams change everything of what they do and what

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Speaker 3: they're built on and their philosophy and their foundation to

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Speaker 3: play more double double against Tomar and t because they're,

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Speaker 3: you know, such a unique receiving duo in the league.

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Speaker 3: So I would look at Pittsburgh continuing to kind of

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Speaker 3: fall into that bucket as opposed to maybe going down

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Speaker 3: the general en some process that they'd use if they

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Speaker 3: were just facing the normal, typically built offense this week.

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Speaker 2: The rebuttal to that for the Bengals would be andre Yosi,

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Speaker 2: Vash Tanner Hudson, Noah Fan, Mitchell Tinsley. Those four receivers

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Speaker 2: combined for ten catches in this team's last game against

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Speaker 2: the Chicago Bears. How important is the emergence And you

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Speaker 2: could throw Chase Brown into that as well, who had

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Speaker 2: eight catches. How important is the emergence of those receivers

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Speaker 2: if a team is going to come out and double

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Speaker 2: double Tea and Jamar.

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Speaker 3: So first, I mean, there are examples we can point

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Speaker 3: to this year, Like Jamar had a double move go

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Speaker 3: against the Lions. He had a bench rout against the Bears.

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Speaker 3: I can't think of as many off the top of

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Speaker 3: my head with Tea, but but I guarantee you they

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Speaker 3: I feel like the slant for a touchdown against the Steelers,

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Speaker 3: Like the Bengals have routes and concepts that they feel

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Speaker 3: pretty confident in to still get them the ball when

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Speaker 3: those guys are doubled. And we've seen that on tape.

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Speaker 3: We've seen that, you know, that was the whole Bengals

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Speaker 3: offense in the second half of the twenty twenty two

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Speaker 3: AFC Championship Game, trying to find ways to get them

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Speaker 3: the ball, and they've shown that they can still do

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Speaker 3: that and get big plays when teams try to take

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Speaker 3: them away. But yes, I've held on to and andre

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Speaker 3: Yosivos stock along and what's been a turbulent season for him.

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Speaker 3: I trust him to win in one on one opportunities.

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Speaker 3: And Sam has just had a nice, solid, healthy season

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Speaker 3: and it's been exactly what the Bengals were hoping for

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Speaker 3: when they signed him. And you know he's throwing a

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Speaker 3: dash here and there from Kinsley and Hudson overall, you

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Speaker 3: wish still were a little more speed they were getting

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Speaker 3: from their still guys behind the top two they still

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Speaker 3: desperately missed Jermaine Burton. I've been thinking about that a lot.

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Speaker 3: You beat double double with a guy with great downfield

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Speaker 3: speed who can turn in an explosive play down the

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Speaker 3: down the field out of the slot, like they're missing

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Speaker 3: that still. But on the whole, you like where you're at.

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Speaker 4: How shocked were you when you saw the news that

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Speaker 4: Joe Burrow was going to be returning to practice and

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Speaker 4: that his window was open, And what has kind of

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Speaker 4: been the reaction internally from what you've heard.

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Speaker 3: It's something that if he continues on the track he's on,

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Speaker 3: becomes the second biggest story of his career, the biggest being,

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Speaker 3: of course, leading the Bengals to the Super Bowl in

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Speaker 3: year two and rewriting the narrative at the time about

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Speaker 3: how the Bengals were and how they felt and what

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Speaker 3: they represented around the league. Again, They've got to get

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Speaker 3: back there now, But it would be the craziest story

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Speaker 3: of Joe's career. You know, I'm just imagining what if

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Speaker 3: he did come back against Baltimore and play at a

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Speaker 3: high level and lead the Bengals to the win, to

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Speaker 3: a win. Now, I'm kind of saving that that admiration,

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Speaker 3: that adoration, all that reflection until Burrow actually does it.

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Speaker 3: I'm kind of keeping the the I'm keeping a little

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Speaker 3: bit of a distance right now because this is the

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Speaker 3: part where things get muddy, where you know, how does

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Speaker 3: Burrow react when he does this. Here's where he's really

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Speaker 3: testing himself, seeing what he can risk, seeing what he

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Speaker 3: can't risk. So I can't be like two over the

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Speaker 3: moon impressed until I really see how it what's on

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Speaker 3: the field. But then once he's there, I mean, we've

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Speaker 3: got all the time in the world to say how

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Speaker 3: unbelievable this comeback process has been.

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Speaker 4: Do you think the Bengals would tell him no, if

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Speaker 4: they win the next two or if they lose the

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Speaker 4: next two weeks, maybe you give it.

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Speaker 3: Another week in that scenario. But I also think Burrow

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Speaker 3: needs to play for the good of the twenty twenty

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Speaker 3: six Bengals like to basically go two full years without

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Speaker 3: playing football. To me, that's too much, that's too long.

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Speaker 3: You know, we've forgot We've gone so far past the

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Speaker 3: slow start storyline. If only that were the Bengals' biggest

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Speaker 3: problems still. But if you want to avoid a slow

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Speaker 3: start in twenty twenty six, you have to play Burrow

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Speaker 3: down the stretch in twenty twenty five, or else there's

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Speaker 3: just too much Russ Charlie.

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Speaker 2: We would be were missed not to ask you because

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Speaker 2: you were at the Major League Baseball GM meetings, any

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Speaker 2: interesting Reds nuggets that you have to share from what

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Speaker 2: you learned.

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Speaker 3: The Hunter Green trade rumors have been a non story

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Speaker 3: all along, Elie de la Cruz staying at shortstop. The

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Speaker 3: Reds biggest focus is, you know, kind of rebuilding, strengthening

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Speaker 3: their bullpen with a guy who probably has high leverage

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Speaker 3: experience as well as the left handers. Now, what I

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Speaker 3: expect our approach to be there is, let's see where

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Speaker 3: the price points and values go so you can get

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Speaker 3: a deal that would that would be a win for

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Speaker 3: the Reds from a value perspective, because they're not going

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Speaker 3: to be able to go out and splurge and get

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Speaker 3: like the top guy on their board and beed out

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Speaker 3: another team in a bidding wharf. There's one guy who

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Speaker 3: in a dream scenario, they'd have circled with to fifteen

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Speaker 3: to twenty million dollars to spend. That's just not the

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Speaker 3: market they're going to be playing in six to spend

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Speaker 3: for the whole roster, you know, adding to the roster.

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Speaker 3: So from that perspective, look at the bullpen. Can they

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Speaker 3: add in some depths or tube on the position players side,

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Speaker 3: a platoon piece who can hit lefties, that overall would

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Speaker 3: be their main course for the offseason.

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Speaker 4: How long do you think there was a conversation about

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Speaker 4: Ellie potentially switching positions and do you know if there

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Speaker 4: is a particular plan with him to shore up his

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Speaker 4: defense at shortstop, if he's going to stay there.

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Speaker 3: It was a realistic conversation out how long the conversation

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Speaker 3: went on behind closed doors? That can't keep you those specifics,

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Speaker 3: But you know I heard public Land privately. You know

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Speaker 3: it's Cross said at the end of the year, like

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Speaker 3: Ellie's their shortstop right now, and didn't give an definitive

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Speaker 3: answer on that. That backs up what I heard behind

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Speaker 3: the scene that obviously you have the definitive answer for now.

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Speaker 3: So sure there was some gray area that probably meant

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Speaker 3: there was a conversation, but ultimately what they what they

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Speaker 3: you know, came to the conclusion was Ellie they felt

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Speaker 3: that I think you both agree with this. His defense

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Speaker 3: was was pretty solid in the first half of the year,

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Speaker 3: especially for a twenty three year old, and then in

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Speaker 3: the second half it really fell off. Now the story

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Speaker 3: of his second half, we all know if he was hurt,

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Speaker 3: he was playing too much. So there I there I.

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Speaker 3: Their their vision is if he gets some more strategic

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Speaker 3: off days, maybe at DH day here and then, and

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Speaker 3: you keep them fresh in twenty twenty six because you

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Speaker 3: don't make the same mistake of playing him every day

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Speaker 3: like you did in twenty twenty five, and you have

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Speaker 3: Freddie Benavidez work on him specifically with some stuff on

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Speaker 3: the throws and the arm angles and the footwork to

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Speaker 3: make all that think up on a play to play

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Speaker 3: basis better. They feel more than good enough about Elliot Short.

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Speaker 4: At what point for this group does youth and inexperience

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Speaker 4: stop being a crutch for maybe some of their struggles.

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Speaker 3: Well, the the plan is to be young and stay young,

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Speaker 3: and that that's just who they are, that's where they're

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Speaker 3: at now, and you can win that way. The Brewers

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Speaker 3: were unbelievably. They just played a cleaner, smarter, more efficient

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Speaker 3: brand of baseball. So for me, my focus is on

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Speaker 3: looking the Red do behind the scenes to solidify streamline

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Speaker 3: perfect their style of play and how they teach it

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Speaker 3: and how they execute it. That's where my focus is,

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Speaker 3: because you know, they're not going to be in a

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Speaker 3: spot like I don't know, even like the Cubs, where

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Speaker 3: they've got veterans at most of those key spots on

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Speaker 3: the field. So this is just who the Reds are

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Speaker 3: and where they're at, and they just gotta be better

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Speaker 3: or else they're going to be a big disappointment. They're

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Speaker 3: fighting against that and they believe they're gonna figure it out.

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Speaker 2: Charlie, I would be remiss not to ask you about

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Speaker 2: the showdown at Nippert Stadium tomorrow. Everyone's talking about BYU

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Speaker 2: and what that game could mean. This is a massive

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Speaker 2: one tomorrow for the Bearcats, coming off the buy and

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Speaker 2: the bad loss to Utah. How confident are you and

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Speaker 2: what the Bearcats can do to get back on track?

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Speaker 3: Two big focuses. First, you know, we all know the

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Speaker 3: story of Brendan Swergby's season last year and how there

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Speaker 3: was positive momentum and then negative momentum. This is, you know,

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Speaker 3: coming off the game work sort of, you know, had

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Speaker 3: a bad day. This is a chance for him to

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Speaker 3: re establish some of that upward trajectory. And if you

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Speaker 3: can take that then into such a massive game the

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Speaker 3: following week against b YU, Now you're cooking or else.

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Speaker 3: If you can't re establish that momentum in the passing game,

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Speaker 3: you're on that, you know, soul searching. Kind of got

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Speaker 3: to figure things out mindset heading into the biggest game

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Speaker 3: of every year. So that's important to we would Storey also

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Speaker 3: interested to see Dote corleone. How is he looking, what's

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Speaker 3: his snap count like? What's the confidence like right now

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Speaker 3: in the run defense? Can he be more of a

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Speaker 3: playmaker in it? Those are the two big things for

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Speaker 3: me tomorrow.

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Speaker 2: Awesome, Charlie. We can't thank you enough each and every

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Speaker 2: Friday for joining us. The best to follow along with

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Speaker 2: everything that you have covered right now is what.

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Speaker 3: Just Charlie shockboard on substack got a story up on

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Speaker 3: DJ Turner and his season up right now. So thanks for.

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Speaker 2: Having me, Charlie. Thanks so much. A good weekend.

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Speaker 3: See you guys have a good weekend, all right.

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Speaker 2: That's Charlie Goldsmith. That means your talkbacks Chucky Vegas are

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Speaker 2: now next after this break the Friday Football Frenzy on

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Speaker 2: ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

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