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Speaker 1: He Welcome to the Monday, December thirty, first edition of

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Speaker 1: Between the Horns. Everybody. Miles Simmons here to take you

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Speaker 1: through the LA Rams week seventeen, forty eight to thirty

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Speaker 1: two victory over the San Francisco forty nine ers. And

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Speaker 1: with that, when the Rams finished the regular season thirteen

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Speaker 1: and three and clenched a first round by So let's

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Speaker 1: talk about how the Rams got that done. And we'll

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Speaker 1: begin in the first quarter where our LA and it's

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Speaker 1: San Francisco's first three drives with takeaways. That first takeaway

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Speaker 1: game courtesy of linebacker Mark barn and cornerback keep to

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Speaker 1: Leab Nick Mullins under center, he turns, he gives to

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Speaker 1: the fullback. He's stuffed trying to bounce it right side.

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Speaker 1: He finds hard key to lead school mfield with the

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Speaker 1: caravan of blockers down the left side line to lead

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Speaker 1: to the ten spun down at the seven. That's JB

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Speaker 1: Long on the call for ESPN LA. That to Leab

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Speaker 1: recovery set up a two yard touchdown from quarterback Jared

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Speaker 1: Goff to wide receiver Brandon Cooks, which gave LA an

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Speaker 1: early seven to zero lead. Then Corey Littleton got his

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Speaker 1: first of two picks on the afternoon to halt the

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Speaker 1: niners second drive. Mullins, but the pocket crumbling hatches arn't hit.

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Speaker 1: HiT's intercepted right side thirty five. Corey Littleton, weaving back

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Speaker 1: to the outside inside the fifteen, still on his feet

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Speaker 1: at the ten, shoved out for the second driving a row.

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Speaker 1: The Rams will begin from inside the ten yard line.

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Speaker 1: Running Back C. J. Anderson helped the Rams capitalize on

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Speaker 1: that turnover, running it in from just a yard out.

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Speaker 1: A couple plays after the pick, and then the third

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Speaker 1: takeaway happened, though this time it actually happened when the

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Speaker 1: Niners were able to get into the red zone. Mullins

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Speaker 1: has a shotgun snap, retreats it for a pressure in

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Speaker 1: his face, Hit cool line toss tiptop intercepted Blake Countess

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Speaker 1: in the end zone tackle for a touchback. Aaron Donald

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Speaker 1: puncturing the pocket to force the throw early from Nick Mullins.

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Speaker 1: A wobbly ball to the goal line tipped in, intercepted

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Speaker 1: by count San Francisco got a field goal late in

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Speaker 1: the first quarter, but early in the second quarter, punter

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Speaker 1: Johnny Hecker was able to pin the Niners deep in

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Speaker 1: their own territory with a punt that bounced and then

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Speaker 1: really died at the six yard line that set up

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Speaker 1: Corey Littleton to do this. On third and four from

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Speaker 1: the San Francisco twelve, Nick bolds Is set up empty

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Speaker 1: four man rush from the Rams. He froze it packs

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Speaker 1: middle of the field. Corey Littleton plus ur ten five

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Speaker 1: touchdown LA. Corey Littleton with his second interception of the game,

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Speaker 1: this one he takes back for six. The Rams would

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Speaker 1: get another touchdown on an eighteen yard screen pass from

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Speaker 1: Golf to Cooks, which gave Brandon Cooks five touchdown receptions

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Speaker 1: on the season. Cooks would actually also finish with a

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Speaker 1: career high one thousand, two hundred and four yards receiving.

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Speaker 1: So Los Angeles added a field goal as time expired

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Speaker 1: in the first half to take a thirty one to

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Speaker 1: ten lead and a half time and then LA got

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Speaker 1: the ball back in the second half on the first

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Speaker 1: drive and did not waste much time getting down the

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Speaker 1: field with this as just the fifth play of that possession,

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Speaker 1: first drive of the half. Another play fake straight backdrop

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Speaker 1: Golf launches end zone right side touchdown, LA going to

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Speaker 1: the ground right side to bring it in Josh Reynolds

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Speaker 1: has who's four of two eighteen. San Francisco got back

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Speaker 1: on the board with an Alfred Morris touchdown, but LA

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Speaker 1: essentially removed all doubt with another seventy five yard drive

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Speaker 1: that ended once again with a golf strike to Josh

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Speaker 1: Reynolds thirty goal three minute mark. God takes a snap,

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Speaker 1: he play fakes, he boots out to his left, couple

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Speaker 1: of targets, he chooses the back left pylon. It's cut

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Speaker 1: for a touchdown by Chas Reynolds touchdown LA that put

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Speaker 1: the Rams up forty five to seventeen, and at that

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Speaker 1: point head coach Sean McVay began removing starters and inserting reserves.

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Speaker 1: GREG'SRLN would kick a fifty one yard field goal to

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Speaker 1: give the Rams a forty eight to seventeen leads. So

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Speaker 1: while San Francisco scored a couple more touchdowns to make

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Speaker 1: that final score forty eight to thirty two, it really

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Speaker 1: was never that close. Here's what head coach Sean McVay

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Speaker 1: had to say to open his press conference after the game.

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Speaker 1: You can see I thought we came out great from

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Speaker 1: the start defensively. Can't say enough about just them getting

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Speaker 1: a bunch of turnover, especially early on in the game,

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Speaker 1: allowing us to get control of it. Thought Jared had

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Speaker 1: a great command and poison C J. Anderson you know,

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Speaker 1: did another outstanding job, efficient runs, leveling things off, you know, defensively,

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Speaker 1: Corey Littleton with a couple picks, you know, he felt

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Speaker 1: Aaron's presence again, so keep the lead, gets his hand

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Speaker 1: in it. It gets us, you know, really helps us

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Speaker 1: get on the board for that first start, for that

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Speaker 1: first touchdown of the day. But it was a good

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Speaker 1: team went great to be able to get that buy

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Speaker 1: and get ourselves as healthy as possible. Now when it

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Speaker 1: comes to injuries, there was kind of a scary moment

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Speaker 1: in the second quarter when left tackle Andrew Whitworth had

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Speaker 1: to come out of the game. He went down in

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Speaker 1: a heap after blocking on the left side for Robert

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Speaker 1: Wood's screen that actually went for a first down. Whitworth

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Speaker 1: was able to walk off the field under his own power,

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Speaker 1: but he was clearly laboring. After being examined for a

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Speaker 1: little bit on the sideline, he went back up into

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Speaker 1: the tunnel into the locker room for more tests, and

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Speaker 1: while he didn't returned to the game, head coach Sean

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Speaker 1: McVay seemed fairly optimistic about the outlook for Whitworth going

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Speaker 1: forward from an injury standpoint. Whitworth had a little bag banging,

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Speaker 1: I mean knock knees with somebody else. So we're hoping

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Speaker 1: that that's really that's all that that's going to be,

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Speaker 1: and we'll get him back and ready to go, and

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Speaker 1: then Blake Countesses in the concussion protocol and we'll have

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Speaker 1: some more updates tomorrow. As Sean McVay said there, it

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Speaker 1: is worth noting that safety Blake Countess left the game

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Speaker 1: and is now in concussion protocol. Countess was actually filling

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Speaker 1: in for the injured LaMarcus Joiner, who was inactive on Sunday.

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Speaker 1: And speaking of inactive players, running back Todd Gurley missed

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Speaker 1: his second game in a row to a minor knee injury,

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Speaker 1: but C J. Anderson was terrific again in Gurley's stead

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Speaker 1: this week, taking twenty three carries for one hundred and

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Speaker 1: thirty two yards with a touchdown. This again is from

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Speaker 1: someone who was just signed off the street really last Tuesday.

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Speaker 1: It's been a remarkable run for Anderson, who now has

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Speaker 1: two hundred ninety nine yards rushing in the last two games.

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Speaker 1: Here is what he and Sean McVay had to say

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Speaker 1: about what's lee to that success. Take credit in a

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Speaker 1: lot of things that that I do. A lot of

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Speaker 1: good teammates, you know, Jared Todd, Sully with one, I

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Speaker 1: mean just everybody, really, everybody has been on even coach

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Speaker 1: with very coach, Skip, everybody has been doing really good job,

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Speaker 1: hands on, you know, coming in early in the morning.

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Speaker 1: Those things help, and then just trying to be approach,

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Speaker 1: trying to be ultimate problem. Well, I think it's a

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Speaker 1: credit to him his preparation. Obviously, there's ten other guys

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Speaker 1: that are doing a great job enabling him to be

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Speaker 1: able to have that success. But Skip Peat's done a

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Speaker 1: phenomenal job with him, and I just think he's got

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Speaker 1: a great feel for the game. You know, he's one

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Speaker 1: of the players that when you meet him, so cerebral,

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Speaker 1: so smart, and he's got a great feel for the game.

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Speaker 1: You know, you can just see, you know, there's a

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Speaker 1: couple of runs where it's real tight and he's just

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Speaker 1: got a feel for maybe the backside over pursuing. He

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Speaker 1: sticks his foot in the ground on a wide zone

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Speaker 1: and he's making some cuts in the backside A and

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Speaker 1: B gaps, and he's just kind of got a natural

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Speaker 1: feel for out of work edges on people two miles.

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Speaker 1: So really efficient, really good football player, and I'm sure

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Speaker 1: glad he's with us, and he's done an outstanding job

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Speaker 1: these last couple weeks, and he's been a big time

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Speaker 1: contributor to these two wins. I think we also have

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Speaker 1: definitely seen quarterback Jared Goff right this ship offensively over

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Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks. Sunday, he finished fifteen of

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Speaker 1: twenty six passing for one hundred and ninety nine yards

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Speaker 1: with four touchdowns and in a passer rating just above

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Speaker 1: one twenty. He says he's feeling good heading into the postseason.

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Speaker 1: Oh sure, yeah, feel good. Yeah, I feel great. You know. Well, Again,

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Speaker 1: for me, it's about wins and coming off two wins

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Speaker 1: and playing well and being happy with how I played

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Speaker 1: is good and I feel good. Then there's defensive tackle

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Speaker 1: Aaron Donald, who extended his franchise sack record by taking

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Speaker 1: down forty nine ers qbing Nick Mullins once on Sunday,

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Speaker 1: and even though Donald wasn't able to set the single

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Speaker 1: season sack record, there really is something to be said

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Speaker 1: about reaching twenty and a half sacks from an interior

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Speaker 1: alignment spot. But was there any disappointment from Donald about

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Speaker 1: not breaking Hall of Famer Michael Strahan's overall league record.

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Speaker 1: I wasn't working to chase it. I was just going

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Speaker 1: out there played like I said, if it happened to happen,

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Speaker 1: and I was just trying to make as many players

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Speaker 1: I can in the fifth game and try to come

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Speaker 1: away with the win. And who did this? Now? The

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Speaker 1: Rams will have a bye week to get themselves right

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Speaker 1: before hosting the highest remaining seed in the NFC on Saturday,

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Speaker 1: January twelfth at five fifteen Pacific at the LA Coliseum.

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Speaker 1: We obviously won't know who the Rams will play until

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Speaker 1: next week, but as of now, there are three possibilities

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Speaker 1: the Bears as the three seed, the Cowboys as the

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Speaker 1: four seed, or the Seahawks as the five seed. But

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Speaker 1: no matter who comes in for that primetime matchup at

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Speaker 1: the Coliseum, the Rams are going to be a team

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Speaker 1: that has the benefit of playoff experience. Here's what Sean

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Speaker 1: McVeagh had to say about that. I think we've had

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Speaker 1: that experience in you you always use that as a

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Speaker 1: chance to learn from it. I think we're better position

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Speaker 1: just based on getting a chance to get some rest

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Speaker 1: now and maybe get ahead with the preparation. But we've

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Speaker 1: got to come out be ready to go whenever our

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Speaker 1: game is going to be in the divisional round, and

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Speaker 1: you know, not sure who it's going to be that

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Speaker 1: we play, but but obviously it's going to give us

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Speaker 1: a chance to get healthy number one, and we always

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Speaker 1: use those experiences, whether it's regular seasons playoff games, you know,

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Speaker 1: to be able to try to get better. And I

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Speaker 1: think with some of our young players, specifically at the

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Speaker 1: key spots, a lot of the games that we played

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Speaker 1: in not only this year but last year and even

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Speaker 1: going back to the playoff atmosphere against Atlanta will serve

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Speaker 1: us well and say, you know, we've been in this

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Speaker 1: type of setting. There's nothing quite like the playoffs. But

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Speaker 1: I think that Atlanta game will serve as well as

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Speaker 1: we move forward as a team, and that will do it.

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Speaker 1: For this Monday, December thirty, first edition of Between the Horns,

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Speaker 1: Miles Simmons here's saying thanks so much for listening. We

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Speaker 1: will have complete coverage of the La Rams as they

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Speaker 1: go through there by week on the rams dot com

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Speaker 1: and on the Rams mobile app. And a very happy

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Speaker 1: New Year everybody,