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Speaker 1: Good afternoon, sir. How are you good? Guys? How you doing?

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Speaker 1: We're doing good? Are are? Are you disappointed? You're not

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Speaker 1: going to be able to put your absolute best foot

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Speaker 1: forward as far as finishing with a win. Well, we're

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Speaker 1: gonna put our best foot forward. It's just we're gonna

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Speaker 1: be missing a few guys and unfortunately that's you know,

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Speaker 1: that comes with this situation we're in this time of

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Speaker 1: year with a combination of the pandemic as well as

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Speaker 1: be in the flu season. It's a tough situation, but

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Speaker 1: you know, that's what all teams have to deal with.

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Speaker 1: All thirty two have to do it. And again, you know,

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Speaker 1: go back to stressing. That's what I like so much

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Speaker 1: about this team as we do have you know, some

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Speaker 1: really good players that give us great depth that are

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Speaker 1: going to get some opportunities here and expect them to

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Speaker 1: step up. Stephen, We're looking to go best of both

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Speaker 1: worlds here where you have a lot of guys who

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Speaker 1: are able to rest and you're able to get a

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Speaker 1: win just in case you can move up. How much

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Speaker 1: did that factor in, like any of these guys who

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Speaker 1: are not sick but are banged up, If it was

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Speaker 1: when and you're the two seed. Would these guys be going? No?

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Speaker 1: I think basically the guys who aren't going are the

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Speaker 1: guys who can't play. I mean they just are unable

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Speaker 1: to because of the rules, and so, uh no, we're

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Speaker 1: gonna be out there trying to win this football game

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Speaker 1: in every way possible. And no, we've got an obstacle

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Speaker 1: or two because of because of COVID and because of

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Speaker 1: some sicknesses that we've got to deal with. You feeling

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Speaker 1: all right yourself, Stephen? I feel great? I feel great,

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Speaker 1: right brother? Right on, Hope, I sound good. Yeah, you

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Speaker 1: sound pretty good. I thought there might be a little

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Speaker 1: something there, but you sound pretty good about don't be

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Speaker 1: putting that thought going on in our buildings. So that's

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Speaker 1: my back. Is there any talk in the league about

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Speaker 1: changing policies with the playoffs coming up to give players

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Speaker 1: as as good of a chance of playing if if

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Speaker 1: they're not symptomatic, Well, I think we are. I think

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Speaker 1: we've adjusted as we've gone with the CDC and the

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Speaker 1: things that they enable us to do. I mean, obviously

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Speaker 1: the five days is a you know, as a big

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Speaker 1: deal because these guys, a lot of our players are

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Speaker 1: young and recover quickly and are able to get right

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Speaker 1: back in the mix. And at the same time, you

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Speaker 1: know there's players. I'm sure there's people around the country

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Speaker 1: who may have something but show no symptoms. And you

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Speaker 1: know we were not testing unless players are symptomatic. So

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Speaker 1: we think all those things are good things, are positive things.

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Speaker 1: At the same time, if a player does feel ill

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Speaker 1: and he does have symptoms, and we certainly want to

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Speaker 1: take care of our players as well. So without Treyvon

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Speaker 1: and without Anthony Brown, Kelvin Joseph, I think for a

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Speaker 1: lot of Cowboy fans will take center stage here at

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Speaker 1: corner And to my eye, he's played pretty well when

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Speaker 1: he's been out there. What have you guys thought of

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Speaker 1: him and being this shorthanded? Do you think we'll be

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Speaker 1: seeing Nashan eight? What is the cornerback group going to

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Speaker 1: look like on the field. Well, I'm sure everybody will

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Speaker 1: get their opportunities, including nay Sean h. Obviously it's great

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Speaker 1: that we've got Marcus Kennedy back. He'll be in the mix.

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Speaker 1: But I'm with you, I mean, I do think Kelvin

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Speaker 1: Joseph really stepped up and played well a couple of

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Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago and when uh Lewis couldn't

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Speaker 1: go and so uh uh you know, we moved ab

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Speaker 1: inside and Okay, I think Kelvin really stepped up and

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Speaker 1: did an outstanding job at that corner position. Certainly, uh

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Speaker 1: we thought a lot of him, thought he had big

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Speaker 1: time skills and picked him there in the second round.

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Speaker 1: He's a linkedy corner, He's got long arms and uses

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Speaker 1: those to his benefit. And I think he's competitive as hell,

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Speaker 1: and I think he's ready to get out there and

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Speaker 1: show people he deserves to be a starter. Stephen, have

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Speaker 1: you you know, as you're you're you're having to deal

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Speaker 1: with the COVID stuff, like you've talked about though, and

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Speaker 1: you've had players that have been on the list and

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Speaker 1: come back from the COVID. Is there any studies or

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Speaker 1: anything about guys and how they've played coming back. Have

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Speaker 1: you found it's it's a little bit more difficult than

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Speaker 1: maybe you thought. I mean, I've kind of watching these

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Speaker 1: teams and these guys coming back from it, and it

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Speaker 1: appears that it's taken them like a game or two

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Speaker 1: to kind of get back to full strength there. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't know necessarily, Brian, that I've seen that on

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Speaker 1: a consistent basis. I mean, you'll have a few that

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Speaker 1: you know who come back real quick that maybe have

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Speaker 1: a little uh fatigue and catching their breath, you know,

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Speaker 1: when they stress themselves. But no, overall there's uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't say that that's a really common I think

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Speaker 1: these guys come back and they play well, and they

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Speaker 1: perform well, and certainly believe that our guys do a

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Speaker 1: great job of getting them ready, getting them prepared, and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, feel like they can get out there and

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Speaker 1: do their job. How realistic is it that if you

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Speaker 1: had an outbreak, the NFL could could alter the schedule

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Speaker 1: to keep you know, star players in these games. Are

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Speaker 1: are we going to be locked in or and if

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Speaker 1: you're super sick, you you're just gonna have to put

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Speaker 1: you know, your best team out there. Or will there

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Speaker 1: be flexibility from the league on this? I mean, my

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Speaker 1: understanding is it's full speed ahead, and uh hadn't heard

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Speaker 1: any uh plans making alternative plans if something more to happen.

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Speaker 1: I know the league does a great job of certainly

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Speaker 1: working through this, and uh, I'm sure they do have plans,

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Speaker 1: but I'm not aware of them. And I think, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think we can expect what we've been seeing,

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Speaker 1: which is you have to uh, certainly step up and

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Speaker 1: deal with any situations that you have. And uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: we put a lot of rules in place last year

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Speaker 1: with a you know, a big practice squad and the

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Speaker 1: ability to move players up, which is, uh, you know

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Speaker 1: a big deal when you can move players off your

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Speaker 1: practice squad. We have veteran players on our practice squad

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Speaker 1: that can step up. So you know, my thought is

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Speaker 1: that we're gonna be playing playing playoff games regardless. What

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Speaker 1: is your perspective on Like we've seen over the last

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Speaker 1: few days, three Cowboy Star players in the front road

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Speaker 1: to Dallas Mavericks game as you're getting close to the playoffs,

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Speaker 1: do you guys talk to them? Does it bother you

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Speaker 1: or is it kind of Look, everybody knows what they

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Speaker 1: need to do, and everybody's an adult. I think everybody

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Speaker 1: has to be aware and certainly you want your players

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Speaker 1: to make good decisions. And I think, you know, that

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Speaker 1: probably was an eye opener probably for players for everybody

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Speaker 1: that they do need to be awares, especially as we

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Speaker 1: head down the home stretch here with the playoffs coming up,

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Speaker 1: that you are going to have to make some sacrifices

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Speaker 1: and not do some things that you might not normally

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Speaker 1: do until you know, hopefully we finish our season, which

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Speaker 1: is hopefully four or five weeks from now, Steven, last

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Speaker 1: week you had really your offensive line together, the five

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Speaker 1: guys that you were projecting to be starters all year

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Speaker 1: long got they're really their first work together with the

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Speaker 1: inability to run the football. When you sat down and

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Speaker 1: watch the tape of that, can you give us a

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Speaker 1: little bit of an idea of maybe what you saw

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Speaker 1: or when you're visiting with the coaches, why you guys

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Speaker 1: weren't a successful running the ball last week with those

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Speaker 1: five starters. You know, as you know, Brian, you know

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Speaker 1: when you got five guys up there, it only takes

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Speaker 1: one guy to you know, to make a mistake that

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Speaker 1: you know, that can shut the whole thing down, whether

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Speaker 1: it's a penalty, whether it's a mistassignment, and the one

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Speaker 1: guy can get it right for ninety percent of the

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Speaker 1: plays and the other guy not get it right for

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Speaker 1: a different ten percent of the plays. And I think

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Speaker 1: it's just the continuity and playing together, and we've got

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Speaker 1: to get rid of some of these mistakes that we're

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Speaker 1: making starting with the penalties. But you know that's a

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Speaker 1: big part of this because they certainly holding penalties. We

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Speaker 1: all know what that does to a drive. It's hard

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Speaker 1: to overcome a holding penalty. But uh, we've just got

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Speaker 1: to continue to get better and be more consistent as

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Speaker 1: a group in terms of, uh, you know, how we're

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Speaker 1: executing out there, and I think our guys are working

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Speaker 1: on that, and certainly, uh, they know they have to

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Speaker 1: be better. If we're gonna run the ball better, if

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Speaker 1: we're gonna have a better offense, they've got to they've

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Speaker 1: got to step up and improve as we move forward,

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Speaker 1: and I think they will. What are your thoughts on

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Speaker 1: how how often you're you're trying to overcome miss kicks

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Speaker 1: to get a win or tie it up late as

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Speaker 1: it was last week. Well that's a tough one too.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we've got to be more consistent, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: making these kicks, whether it's an extra point, a field goal,

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Speaker 1: a short field goal, those are all things that you know,

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Speaker 1: no different than an offensive linemen making a holding, uh penalty.

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Speaker 1: It's it's something, it's one more thing that you gotta

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Speaker 1: that you got to overcome, and certainly we have to

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Speaker 1: be better at that. I have a lot of confidence

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Speaker 1: in Zerline that he'll he'll get his job done. But

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Speaker 1: uh uh, certainly, you know when you miss those opportunities,

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Speaker 1: they can come back and haunch. And obviously a lot

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Speaker 1: of these games come down to the wire, whether it's

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Speaker 1: a field goal and extra point, and so a miss

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Speaker 1: kicks certainly hurts. But no one knows that better than Zerline,

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Speaker 1: and have a lot of confidence he'll step up and

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Speaker 1: do his best work here coming up against the Eagles

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Speaker 1: and then on into the playoffs. Are you still as

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Speaker 1: confident in Kellen Moore figuring out how to attack a defense? Absolutely?

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Speaker 1: I mean, I've got all the confidence in Kellen's just execution.

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Speaker 1: I think he's got great a great mind for this

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Speaker 1: game and how to move the ball. We've just as

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Speaker 1: an offense have to go out and execute. And I'm

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Speaker 1: sure he'll sharpen sharpen his pencil even more so down

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Speaker 1: the stretch here as we get ready to play the

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Speaker 1: Eagles and move into the playoffs in terms of what

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Speaker 1: he's got up up his sleeve in terms of moving

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Speaker 1: the football as we move forward. Last night we were

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Speaker 1: talking about this article that the great Rick Goslin wrote,

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Speaker 1: saying maybe the NFL could let coaches vote on the

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Speaker 1: refs that officiate the playoffs instead of the league doing

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Speaker 1: their own grading. I always love asking you questions like

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Speaker 1: this because your status with the Competition Committee and all

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Speaker 1: that your perspective from the league. Do you think the

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Speaker 1: NFL would consider that, you know, let's something you know.

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Speaker 1: I think we should always consider any idea, And obviously

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Speaker 1: Goose has has done a great job over the years

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Speaker 1: of knowing the NFL, knowing our game, and I'm sure

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Speaker 1: you know, if someone throws something like that out there,

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Speaker 1: then we certainly need to consider it, and uh, we'll

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Speaker 1: look at it, I'm sure, and give it a good

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Speaker 1: going over and then decide if it's something we should pursue. Stephen,

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Speaker 1: my final question for you is who is your favorite

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Speaker 1: and least favorite Cowboys beat writer. I think I'll pass

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Speaker 1: on all the above. I do have a ton of

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Speaker 1: respect for our writers in this area. What about archers

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Speaker 1: us there are beat writers, whether it's you guys who

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Speaker 1: cover us buying through the radio. I just I do

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Speaker 1: have a tremendous amount of respect and I do think

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Speaker 1: as overall we get treated fairly in this market. It's

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Speaker 1: obviously a very intense market when it comes to the Cowboys.

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Speaker 1: But I have nothing but respect for you guys and

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Speaker 1: the great job y'all do covering our football team. I was,

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Speaker 1: I gotta believe you got to mfs every once in

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Speaker 1: a while when you're driving around listening to us. Right, Well,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure you've mf me too, So give him him

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Speaker 1: several halfs a good deal, turn turn about fair playing

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Speaker 1: this stuff. And uh, I know I've been Uh I

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Speaker 1: know I hadn't always been at the top of everybody's list.

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Speaker 1: And as far as I know, nobody is, Yes, sir,

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Speaker 1: great stuff. We appreciate you is always give him hell

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Speaker 1: up there, we've been pulling for you. Hey, I appreciate

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Speaker 1: it you guys. Thanks