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Speaker 1: individual savings may varry. All right, guys, Welcome to the

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Speaker 1: Final Drive presented by Mercury Insurance with Haley l. Wood

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Speaker 1: and ESPN's Eric Williams. And guys, last three weeks have

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Speaker 1: not been kind of the Chargers in the division, and

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Speaker 1: it seems like every loss, it doesn't seem like it

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Speaker 1: is every loss decided by a possession or fewer yeah,

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Speaker 1: which has basically been a theme of the seven All

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Speaker 1: eight losses have been seven points or less. They've been

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Speaker 1: in close games, they've been right there ready to win

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Speaker 1: in them, but they haven't made the plays that they

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Speaker 1: need to make at the end of games. And that's

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Speaker 1: been pretty consistent throughout the year and specifically these last

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Speaker 1: three weeks. And so four and eight not what we

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Speaker 1: expected from this team going in. You know, people nationally

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Speaker 1: thought this was a team that could contend for a

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Speaker 1: Super Bowl. Obviously that hasn't happened, and now you're just

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Speaker 1: kind of playing out the string with four games left.

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Speaker 1: I think for me, the kind of rough part I

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Speaker 1: guess you would say about these last three weeks was

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Speaker 1: they won against Green Bay and then it was, hey,

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Speaker 1: they have all these divisional games left and in front

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Speaker 1: of them. Yeah. Yeah, they dropped the game to the

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Speaker 1: Broncos previously, but you hadn't played Oakland yet, you hadn't

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Speaker 1: played Kansas City yet. You get another shot against Denver,

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Speaker 1: and you really kind of were in that position to

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Speaker 1: sort of take control. But to drop the three in

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Speaker 1: division really did not bode well obviously for this team.

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Speaker 1: But I don't think any of us really anticipated that

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Speaker 1: they would would have come out of that stretch. Oh

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Speaker 1: in three and to bo in four in the division

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Speaker 1: right now is just a real big bummer, especially the

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Speaker 1: way they beat the Packers. Yeah, it was such a

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Speaker 1: sound Twenty six eleven, I think was the final, So

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Speaker 1: you thought you had some momentum going into Oakland and

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Speaker 1: then Kansas City and then Denver. The Oakland game, you

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Speaker 1: spot them ten points and then I think turnovers too. Yesterday,

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Speaker 1: you know, the interception, then the fumble Troy Maine Pope

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Speaker 1: that leads to ten points. Turnovers were something that didn't

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Speaker 1: happen as frequent last year as it's happened this year,

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Speaker 1: and just you know, penalties things at the inopportune times. Eric, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think they're they're minus eleven and turnover differential right now,

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Speaker 1: which is like, I think, fifth worst in the league.

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Speaker 1: They were plus one in turnover differential last year, which

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Speaker 1: was tied for fifteen, so it wasn't over the top,

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Speaker 1: but obviously being in the middle is much better than

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Speaker 1: being at the bottom of the pack. And it's when

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Speaker 1: those turnovers happened. It seems like they're always playing from

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Speaker 1: behind when you look at these games, or they're spending

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Speaker 1: so much energy getting back in to the game that

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Speaker 1: when it comes to the final corner. Maybe they're just

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Speaker 1: they don't have enough gas because they've worked so hard

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Speaker 1: to get back into it. And that was one of

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Speaker 1: the things I noticed last year and going back and

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Speaker 1: look looking to this year. This year, they've been outscored

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Speaker 1: one thirty one twenty in the first half. Last year

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Speaker 1: they outscored teams two twenty nine to one sixty four,

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Speaker 1: I believe. So they were playing from ahead and really

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Speaker 1: had control of the game more times than not last year,

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Speaker 1: and I think that was one of the reasons why

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Speaker 1: they're able to go twelve and four because when those

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Speaker 1: weird things happened at the end of the game, they

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Speaker 1: were still ahead, or or you know, they weren't having

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Speaker 1: to rally to get back into it, or this year

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Speaker 1: they're they're expending so much energy getting back into the game,

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Speaker 1: so when that weird stuff happens late, they don't have

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Speaker 1: any any margin for air. You know, case in point uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, Casey Hayward being called for that PI. You

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Speaker 1: get the field goal to tie, it looks like it's

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Speaker 1: going overtime, but weird stuff happens the Chargers and then

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Speaker 1: you get a PI call that was you know, debatable

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Speaker 1: at best, but he called it, and so you have

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Speaker 1: to live with it. Well in case, he even said

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Speaker 1: in the locker room yesterday, it shouldn't have even come

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Speaker 1: down to that, right that if you take care of

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Speaker 1: business earlier in the game, to your point, things like

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Speaker 1: that shouldn't even matter current the end. Yeah, And I

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Speaker 1: talked to Janleen Watkins about that too. It's like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: if you do take care of business early in the game,

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Speaker 1: if that happened, now you're you're still just defending your

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Speaker 1: your your goal line instead of worrying about a field

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Speaker 1: goal winning the game. You know, essentially saying we should

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Speaker 1: have been up by a touchdown instead of tied. I

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Speaker 1: don't think the Broncos had any turnovers yesterday. And Ricky

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Speaker 1: quarterback making us first start and Drew Lock, well, no,

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Speaker 1: they But also the Denzel Pyramid pick. Denzel had the pick,

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Speaker 1: but he was cleaned the entire game. Yeah, the Chargers

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Speaker 1: had no sacks and no quarterback hits on him. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of it was quick stuff. They were

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Speaker 1: getting the ball out of his hand quick or they

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Speaker 1: were moving him. But a couple of times he was

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Speaker 1: back there and they didn't they didn't get to him.

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Speaker 1: The theme again, it's turnovers, but also the defense. They

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Speaker 1: haven't forced a lot of turnovers est year too, and

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Speaker 1: that was something that they did a little bit more

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Speaker 1: frequent last year. And when you see Derwin James back,

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Speaker 1: it's a good sign. I think that first series he

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Speaker 1: was blitzed on that third down next to Bosa, you

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Speaker 1: kind of see flashes of what Derwin could be. I

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Speaker 1: was listening to Tom to let's go talk to DJ

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Speaker 1: and Money before the game yesterday, and he said, Hey,

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Speaker 1: don't expect Derwin to be all pro Derwin right off

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Speaker 1: the bat. He hasn't played in the preseason or all

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Speaker 1: this season. But to get him back, obviously, when you're

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Speaker 1: four and eight, you know the playoffs aren't really a

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Speaker 1: possibility right now. But the last four weeks you see

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Speaker 1: number thirty three out there with this defense, perhaps kind

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Speaker 1: of a snapshot of what's to come in twenty twenty. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and those are kind of the things you're going to

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Speaker 1: be looking for in the last four games. You know, Derwin,

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Speaker 1: you said it hadn't played at all, so we're not

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Speaker 1: gonna see, you know, the guy that's making plays all

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Speaker 1: over the field because he's just kind of getting his

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Speaker 1: footing I did talk to him briefly after the game,

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Speaker 1: and he said he felt good, got to the game, okay,

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Speaker 1: feels healthy, but feels like he needs to get some

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Speaker 1: more practices under his belt so he can get back

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Speaker 1: to playing like he was last year. So certainly these

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Speaker 1: last four games are important for Derwin to build towards

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Speaker 1: next year and to try to get things going and

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Speaker 1: kind of get back to that level play that we

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Speaker 1: expect from him. Well, I think it was encouraging because

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Speaker 1: didn't he also play like fifty six of fifty seven

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Speaker 1: defensive all but one snap. So to get that guy

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Speaker 1: back in that large of a capacity as huge and

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Speaker 1: also just shows you he's healthy, he's fine, he's healed,

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Speaker 1: and I think again he'll only go up from here.

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Speaker 1: I think along with that, I think you want to

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Speaker 1: start looking at some of the younger guys. You know,

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Speaker 1: Trey Pipkins, you want to see him get some more

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Speaker 1: snaps and see what kind of player he can become.

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Speaker 1: Drew Tranquill, you know, he's played pretty well, get him

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Speaker 1: out there a little bit more. Really start to see

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Speaker 1: some of these younger players and how they develop and

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Speaker 1: maybe how they can fit on this roster for for

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Speaker 1: next year, because you have a lot of tough questions

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Speaker 1: that you're going to have to deal with in the

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Speaker 1: off season. I think it's just been it's been tough

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Speaker 1: for this team to finish games. And we go back

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Speaker 1: to that turn of that Denzel Perramant interception. It's funny

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Speaker 1: that I forgot about it because we were just talking

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Speaker 1: about the result of missing that fifty five yard field

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Speaker 1: goal as opposed to punching it in for a touchdown

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Speaker 1: and finishing the game. And I think when you lose

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Speaker 1: all of your games by a touchdown or less, something

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Speaker 1: happens at the end of games that prevents you from

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Speaker 1: actually finishing it, or something at the beginning of games,

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Speaker 1: like in the case of the Kansas City game in

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Speaker 1: Mexico City, where you're getting threes and not sevens in

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Speaker 1: the first half. That's just I think been kind of

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Speaker 1: the buggaboo this year. Yeah, they just haven't played complementary

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Speaker 1: football where the offense and defense special teams are all

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Speaker 1: kind of working in concert and playing well together as

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Speaker 1: a group. You know, you'll get one group playing well

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Speaker 1: for a spurt and then they'll kind of fall off,

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Speaker 1: and then the other group will play well for a

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Speaker 1: couple series, but they're they're not all playing together. Well,

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Speaker 1: they've had a bowl games where they've done that, green

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Speaker 1: Bay and Miami, but other than that, it's really been

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Speaker 1: kind of up and down and uneven. And that's why

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Speaker 1: you have a four and eight season. And I think

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Speaker 1: the Green Bay game was the complete game that we

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Speaker 1: saw that we was going to be the catalyst for

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Speaker 1: the rest of the year. And I think talking to

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Speaker 1: guys in the locker room they felt that way too.

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Speaker 1: They felt like, Okay, we you know, we got this,

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Speaker 1: we can do this, and maybe you turn that page

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Speaker 1: for the second half of the season. But I don't know,

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Speaker 1: you know, I don't know what it's really been. That's

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Speaker 1: kind of doomed them in similar ways that happened at

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Speaker 1: the beginning of the year. But winning breeds confidence, seeing touchdowns,

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Speaker 1: seeing a late game stop. And I can go back

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Speaker 1: to last year, there was a lot of close games

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Speaker 1: at this team won, whether it was in Seattle, on

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Speaker 1: the road, in London against the Titans and San fran game, Yes,

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Speaker 1: the San Francisco game earlier in the year, the Chiefs,

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Speaker 1: the Steelers on the road late. It's not like this

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Speaker 1: team obviously there were some games where they blew some

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Speaker 1: teams out, but when they did have close games, they

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Speaker 1: finished those games. And I think sometimes you have to

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Speaker 1: you have to have one and then two and then

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Speaker 1: you start to say, hey, we we can do this.

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Speaker 1: It just hasn't happened this year. Specifically, it hasn't happened

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Speaker 1: this year. And that November schedule we talked about, it

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Speaker 1: was just so weird in general. It was hard to

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Speaker 1: even I can't imagine trying to get on a role

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Speaker 1: because the schedule was so out of whack from one

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Speaker 1: Sunday game. You know, they hadn't played on Sunday since

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Speaker 1: the Green Bay game, so to go Thursday to Monday

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Speaker 1: to buy to Sunday, it was just kind of an

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Speaker 1: awkward And then all the travel and all the travel too,

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Speaker 1: It was an awkward time in there. But you know, weird,

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Speaker 1: and I wasn't playing, but I think, you know, I

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Speaker 1: think maybe the hope was you get started back with

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Speaker 1: Denver on that role again. But to drop it against

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Speaker 1: the Broncos, you know, it doesn't it doesn't bode well

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Speaker 1: for these last four weeks here, Eric, what do you

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Speaker 1: want to see out of this team the last four

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Speaker 1: weeks in terms of just maybe individual players and just

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Speaker 1: the development of certain guys that you know, we're going

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Speaker 1: to be in on this roster in twenty twenty that

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Speaker 1: perhaps are going to have a big say in what

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Speaker 1: that season looks like. I think you just want to

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Speaker 1: see consistency. I think that's the one thing we haven't

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Speaker 1: seen all year is you want to see what you

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Speaker 1: saw in the Green Bay game. Yeah, you want to

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Speaker 1: see productive, mistake free football from your quarterback, which gives

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Speaker 1: you a chance to stay in games. And you want

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Speaker 1: to see everybody else making plays. You know, whether it's

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Speaker 1: the skill guys defensively, the skill guys up front. You know,

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Speaker 1: you need to see a better O line and D

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Speaker 1: line play because if you have quality O line D

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Speaker 1: line play, it makes it easier for everybody else. And

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Speaker 1: then you want to see mistake free football and special teams.

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Speaker 1: You know, uh, you know, Drew tran Quills played well,

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Speaker 1: but he had a penalty that led to a continuation

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Speaker 1: of a drive for Denver. They're ultimately able to get

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Speaker 1: out the field, but that sticks out. Tremaine had the

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Speaker 1: muff punt that sticks out. You just you have to

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Speaker 1: be consistent and mistake three mistake free in all three

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Speaker 1: phases of the game to give yourself a chance to

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Speaker 1: win week in and week out. So I'd like to

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Speaker 1: see consistency weekend and week out and kind of keep

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Speaker 1: stacking those games. So maybe that kind of you know,

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Speaker 1: leads to better play in twenty twenty, I would agree

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Speaker 1: with that same thing. And I think, you know, this

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Speaker 1: week against the Jags is kind of a good start

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Speaker 1: for that. I mean, they announced they're playing Gardner Minshue,

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Speaker 1: so he's back there in stas playing the Stash Dash's

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Speaker 1: back baby Benshu Mania. But you know they're four and eight,

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Speaker 1: they're essentially out of it, so it's kind of one

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Speaker 1: of those all right, well, let's go in there and

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Speaker 1: see what we got. And I think that's a good

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Speaker 1: start because then it's not like the schedule gets much

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Speaker 1: easier the rest of the season. Though. You play the Vikings,

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Speaker 1: you play the Raiders, and then you play the Chiefs,

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Speaker 1: so you know, who knows what will happen. I think

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Speaker 1: the Raiders is probably maybe the game that we're not

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Speaker 1: sure what their record will be at that point, but still,

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Speaker 1: you know, they beat this team once this season, so

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Speaker 1: I think that's a great point because three out of

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Speaker 1: four of these teams really has something to play for. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: on the stretch. So we're gonna see if the Chargers

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Speaker 1: can match that intensity, because those teams are going to

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Speaker 1: come out because they they need to give Minnesota's best shot.

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Speaker 1: You're going to get their best shots, and so are

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Speaker 1: you gonna be able to come out and match that

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Speaker 1: intensity even though you don't maybe have as much to

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Speaker 1: play for as those other teams And Philip Rivers has

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Speaker 1: talked about in the past where they've known at some point,

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Speaker 1: maybe like Week sixteen, that they've been out of it,

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Speaker 1: so it's like, all right, let's go play spoiler like,

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Speaker 1: let's go, let's go monk some stuff up here. That's

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Speaker 1: the thing with Philip. You know he's gonna play, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and guys like Joey, Yeah, guys are gonna play. It's

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Speaker 1: just you know, are they going to play to the

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Speaker 1: level that they need to play in order to get

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Speaker 1: wins against these teams because the sense of urgency is

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Speaker 1: just going to be stronger with these other teams because

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Speaker 1: of the playoff the implications then you have when a

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Speaker 1: team that's that's out of it, so you kind of

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Speaker 1: have to manufacture that intensity to get to where you

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Speaker 1: need to be, and it'll be interesting to see as

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Speaker 1: as a collective as a group if Anthon Link can

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Speaker 1: get that out of his team. The balance on all

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Speaker 1: offense is something that I want to see because Hunter, Henry,

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Speaker 1: Mike Williams, and Keenan Allen, there should be some common

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Speaker 1: ground in terms of the target distribution in the plays

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Speaker 1: that these guys make. And Eric, you and I were

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Speaker 1: just talking about Mike Williams. His month of November has

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Speaker 1: been incredible in terms of the big plays that he's

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Speaker 1: made fifty six, forty six, twenty six, fifty fifty two

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Speaker 1: and thirty eight all in four games. But it seems

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Speaker 1: like the targets. He had seven targets in a career

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Speaker 1: high one hundred and seventeen yards on Sunday, but it

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Speaker 1: doesn't seem like the targets are there every single week.

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Speaker 1: So it'd be good to see Mike get a little

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Speaker 1: bit more evolved throughout the course of a game as

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Speaker 1: opposed to a a fourth and eleven forty yard catch

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Speaker 1: well and just interrupt. The touchdowns aren't there either this year,

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Speaker 1: and that's what's weird. Eleven total touchdowns fourth among receivers

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Speaker 1: and zero this year. It's crazy, And of course I

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Speaker 1: did some research because we were talking about it. I

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Speaker 1: think he's got sixteen targets in the red zone this year.

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Speaker 1: Two catches for sixteen yards red zone. You know, maybe

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Speaker 1: throw it up to him, jump balls, just give him

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Speaker 1: a chance. It kind of reminds me a little bit

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Speaker 1: of Melvin Gordon's rookie year or when he didn't have

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Speaker 1: any touchdowns and he wasn't getting the ball in the

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Speaker 1: red zones. I was like, well, it's hard to score

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Speaker 1: if you're not getting the ball in the red zone.

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Speaker 1: Soil hemas not wearing your jersey, that's right. I remember

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Speaker 1: that we're saying that. It was pretty funny. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: I just just want to see them more involved when

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Speaker 1: they're closer to the goal line, and that's been an

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Speaker 1: area where they struggled. I think they're twenty six in

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Speaker 1: red zone. I think they're twenty seventh in goal to

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Speaker 1: goals situations. So this unit has had trouble scoring and

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Speaker 1: they're average and I think nineteen seven a game, which

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Speaker 1: it's twenty second in the league. Last year, they're average

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Speaker 1: a little over twenty five points a game, which I

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Speaker 1: think was top ten. So that's a touchdown difference from

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Speaker 1: last year to this year. And again that's one of

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Speaker 1: the reasons why you know, you're four and eight a

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Speaker 1: thousand yards from scrimmage and ten total touchdowns for Awsin Nickeler.

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Speaker 1: That's pretty good. It's pretty good friend draft a rookie,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty good, not bad. And for someone who was

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Speaker 1: going back to Colorado to get that thirty yard touchdown

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Speaker 1: before halftime. You look at the positives this year, Austin

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Speaker 1: has become this kind of offensive weapon that you can

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Speaker 1: use out of the backfield that that can carry some

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Speaker 1: of the load from a running back perspective too. But

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Speaker 1: to get Melvin, Austin, Keenan, Mike, and Hunter all on

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Speaker 1: the same page, I think that's just what you need

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Speaker 1: to see from an offense. That is that feels what's

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Speaker 1: been missing. There's so much talent on paper. When you

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Speaker 1: look at these names, you go, holy moly, these are

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Speaker 1: amazing players who can do amazing things, but they just

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Speaker 1: haven't been able to kind of assemble it all together. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know what. I use that first every game as

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Speaker 1: an example because it was Melvin's first game back at

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Speaker 1: twelfth carry started one yards. Austin caught fifteen passes. Yeah right,

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Speaker 1: it was a lot of dump offs to him as

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Speaker 1: opposed to getting Keenan finding ways to get keen In

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Speaker 1: the ball or Mike the ball. And obviously coverage is

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Speaker 1: going to dictate that and everything. But when you have

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Speaker 1: a young tight in who is considered one of the

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Speaker 1: better ones in this league, and two running backs who

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Speaker 1: can catch the ball out of the backfield, a jump

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Speaker 1: ball guy and Mike Williams who had eleven total touchdowns

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Speaker 1: and back to back pro bowler and Keenan Allen, it

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Speaker 1: just hasn't clicked at the same time this year. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and again you mentioned things are going to be looking

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Speaker 1: for in the last four weeks. Certainly that is one

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Speaker 1: of them. To see how you can get all of

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Speaker 1: those guys going in one game. I mean, obviously you're

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Speaker 1: not gonna all of them aren't going to have, you know,

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Speaker 1: eight catches for hundred yards, but you'd like to see

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Speaker 1: all of them involved in some manner, you know, throughout

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Speaker 1: the game. And again the point that's what you want

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Speaker 1: to ultimately see. You want to see this offense score

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Speaker 1: twenty eight thirty points a game, because I think that's

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Speaker 1: what they're capable of. All right, guys, well we got

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Speaker 1: four more games to go and obviously no Chargers fans,

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Speaker 1: not the record that you were expecting. But tell you why,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of talent on this team, and sometimes

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Speaker 1: it's these games at the end of years where it

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Speaker 1: builds character. You have adversity and perhaps you can carry

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Speaker 1: that into the next year. There's gonna be a lot

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Speaker 1: of these guys that are on this team in twenty twenty.

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Speaker 1: And just talking to Austin Eclo in the locker room,

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Speaker 1: he said, hey, we're fighting there. I mean, if you're

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Speaker 1: in this locker room, you're gonna fight. We're all brothers here,

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Speaker 1: So you know, expect to see that from the Chargers

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Speaker 1: as December rolls on. For Eric Williams, Haley Olwood, I'm

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Speaker 1: Chris Hayry. Thanks for listening to The Final Drive presented

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Speaker 1: by Mercury and Sharks,