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Speaker 1: M hm. Can I get you a call back? I

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Speaker 1: really quarterback here? H m hmmykays you guys good? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: is that your lacrosse stick? What do you say? Is

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Speaker 1: that your lacrosse stick was walking? Now that was Chris Mattiss,

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Speaker 1: but uh, it's a good like fiddler fiddler stick that

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Speaker 1: we all use. Mack. How did you feel out there today? Good? Oh? Good?

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Speaker 1: How's your back feeling? Feels good? Everything feels good? Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, just keeping it warm and throwing the football

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Speaker 1: could be warm. Is that describe the treatment you've had

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Speaker 1: the last twenty four or forty eight hours. Just a

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Speaker 1: normal treatment plan. Um. Always like to work work with

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Speaker 1: my guy Brian, and he does a good job, and

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Speaker 1: so we always do. We whatever hurts during the game,

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Speaker 1: just fix it and then play the next week. You

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Speaker 1: expect to play on Sunday. Yeah, good, it's Brian. He's

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Speaker 1: one of the athletic trainers. Yeah. You're facing a defense

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Speaker 1: that at four interceptions in week one. What have you

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Speaker 1: seen and how do they go about getting that done? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I think super talented defense, play a lot of different coverages.

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Speaker 1: Definitely fly to the ball. Obviously, Minko does a great job.

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Speaker 1: Had some experience. He was my former teammate at Alabama

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Speaker 1: and I have a lot of respect for him and

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Speaker 1: all the guys on their defense. So he makes a

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Speaker 1: lot of plays out there. They got playmakers all over

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Speaker 1: the field and it's a really good defense to kind

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Speaker 1: of go against. We don't get to play against them,

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Speaker 1: you know a lot, but um, just gotta be ready

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Speaker 1: to go and you know, correct the things we want

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Speaker 1: to correct and focus on ourselves. When you look back

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Speaker 1: at the game film from week one, do you feel

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Speaker 1: like the mistakes that you guys made are fixable? Yes,

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Speaker 1: easily fixable. Yeah, I think, Um, you know we've moved on,

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Speaker 1: but I think everything you can do in any game

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Speaker 1: to fix the bad plays and keep the good ones

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Speaker 1: is what you want to do. How optimistic are you optimistic? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I mean, like I said, it's it's week one and

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Speaker 1: we did a lot of good things out there, and

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Speaker 1: we're moving in the right direction and practice and a

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Speaker 1: lot of the communications improving. And that's what happens as

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Speaker 1: the season goes along. You know, you fix the things

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Speaker 1: you want to work on and keep the things that

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Speaker 1: you're doing well. So we feel confident about it. And um,

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Speaker 1: we just got to go out there and do it. Really,

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Speaker 1: there's no talking to be done. Is you're from the

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Speaker 1: press punk so obviously we're not in the huddle, you're

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Speaker 1: not in your head. But it just seems like the

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Speaker 1: summer there's been a lack of it's been hard to

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Speaker 1: get confidence going right. You want to see results. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: you have to see the results to feel good about it.

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Speaker 1: Do you feel that a little bit just with the

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Speaker 1: group in general, like, can we just we can find

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Speaker 1: some results here, we'll feel better about ourselves in the offense.

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Speaker 1: I think we all feel pretty good about it, honestly,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think they're early on, we were trying

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Speaker 1: to iron some things out. But at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, when we watch the tape and when everyone

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Speaker 1: does what they're supposed to do, it's a good play.

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Speaker 1: And when we don't, it's just not a good play.

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Speaker 1: So that's football. And once you get the good plays

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Speaker 1: over here and the bad plays over there, and there's

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Speaker 1: not very many bad plays, and we'll score more points

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Speaker 1: and like you're saying, the results will come. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's more about can we stack Can everybody do their

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Speaker 1: job to stack up good plays? Can you know I

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Speaker 1: get it to the right guy who makes his yards

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Speaker 1: after catch. Can we block up front, the blitzes, the stunts,

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Speaker 1: all that stuff. So that's what we're just working through

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Speaker 1: and once we can do that will be good. That's

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Speaker 1: my working with DeVante partners seems pretty quiet as hossible.

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Speaker 1: And what have you learned about him? Um? DeVante is

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Speaker 1: a great player, been around for a long time in

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Speaker 1: the NFL, and obviously we're really happy to have him.

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Speaker 1: And he does a great job competing every day in practice,

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Speaker 1: and he's a big, physical receiver. And we have, like

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Speaker 1: I said, a lot of different guys who can make plays,

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Speaker 1: and the goal is to get the ball to everyone

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Speaker 1: I can that's open and let them do their thing

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Speaker 1: and get yards and make plays. You mentioned overlapping with

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Speaker 1: make of Fitzpatrick. What kind of memories do you have

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Speaker 1: of years time together at Alabama? Yeah, I think Minca

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Speaker 1: he was like the epitome of just a great football

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Speaker 1: player in person, and I looked up to him a

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Speaker 1: lot at Alabama and he was a great team captain

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Speaker 1: and leader on our team. And obviously he's done great

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Speaker 1: things with the Steelers and you just gotta know where

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Speaker 1: he's at. And he's a great player. He makes really

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Speaker 1: good plays, and obviously off the field, he's an even

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Speaker 1: better person, so that was something that I learned from him.

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Speaker 1: Is just super easy going, just really easier to talk to,

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Speaker 1: friendly with everybody. So I have a lot of respect

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Speaker 1: for him hopping up a loss his time with gum

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Speaker 1: Marie for your offense, but then also how much more

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Speaker 1: important is it for everyone else's stuff up in his absence? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think um tied to the great job coming in

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Speaker 1: here and learning to syste him. And he's also played

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Speaker 1: a lot of football in the NFL, so tough to

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Speaker 1: lose a guy like that, smart player, does everything right,

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Speaker 1: you know, and seeing a lot of football. So we

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Speaker 1: have great players that will step in and fill fill

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Speaker 1: his role, and he's very versatile. But we just hope

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Speaker 1: for a speedy recovery. And I'm not sure what the

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Speaker 1: exact extent of the injury is and stuff, but I

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Speaker 1: hope he's doing good. And I talked to him a

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Speaker 1: little bit, so I know he's just trying to get

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Speaker 1: it all fixed up. Man, when you watch tape. But

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Speaker 1: the Steelers just obviously, what are your biggest thoughts about

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Speaker 1: their defense? Who had a monster Week one performance? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think, um, like Steelers defense has just always had

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Speaker 1: that like hard nose turnover type football team, and um

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Speaker 1: they've kept that m O I guess you could call it.

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Speaker 1: And um they've done that throughout their whole history, and

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Speaker 1: um this year they have a good turnover making defense

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Speaker 1: as we saw in Week one, and um, you know

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Speaker 1: that's that's what good defenses do. They take away, um,

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Speaker 1: the ball from the offense and then score points from it.

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Speaker 1: So we just gotta do what we do and um

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Speaker 1: see where they're out on the field, and then just

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Speaker 1: play our game and try and focus on ourselves. We

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Speaker 1: know that they're a great defense. That's obvious. It's on tape.

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Speaker 1: So the preseason focuses handling handling the blitz. You know,

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Speaker 1: preseason obviously very different from regular season. Seems like teams

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Speaker 1: aren't necessarily going to their entire playbook defensively. Yeah, I'm

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Speaker 1: sure it's that way both sides. But now that regular

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Speaker 1: season has started, how much of the blitz is your

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Speaker 1: focus and more on that? Yeah, I think every defense

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Speaker 1: has some form of the blitz in their package. And

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Speaker 1: where that's one, two, three, four, guys, it depends on

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Speaker 1: the defense. I guess but luckily we have really good

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Speaker 1: coaches and rules and things that I can stick to

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Speaker 1: that I know based on what I'm supposed to do,

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Speaker 1: and it should take care of the things that are

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Speaker 1: coming our way. And that's every offense has protection rules

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Speaker 1: and you stick with them and hope it picks up.

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Speaker 1: You know, the pressures to come. Is it something that

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Speaker 1: you guys worked a lot on though through training camp,

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Speaker 1: even though you might not see it in those preseason

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Speaker 1: means yeah, I think, like I always say, our defense

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Speaker 1: brings a lot of different, cool, different pressures I guess

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Speaker 1: you would call it, and we get a lot of

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Speaker 1: different reps that not knowing what's coming for a training

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Speaker 1: camp day, and that definitely helps to have those booked

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Speaker 1: reps of all, right, here comes of safety, this time

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Speaker 1: linebacker or more than that. You know, they bring everything.

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Speaker 1: So we've seen a lot and you know, a defense

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Speaker 1: can do whatever blitz they want. You know, that's part

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Speaker 1: of a good defense is coming up with blitzes and

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Speaker 1: we have to be able to protect whatever they bring.

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Speaker 1: You said at the end of the preseason that you

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Speaker 1: want to do a better job stepping up in the pocket,

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Speaker 1: making froze under pressure. That sort of thing. So I'm

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Speaker 1: just curious, now you have a real game under your belt,

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Speaker 1: how you feel you're progressing in that area. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: was better. Just continue to do it and um, just

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Speaker 1: complete more balls and get it to the receivers and

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Speaker 1: let them run. So that's my job and I'll try

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Speaker 1: and do better at it, but it's all practice and

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Speaker 1: work on getting the ball out on time and just

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Speaker 1: running the offense. Cool. Thanks,