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Speaker 1: When you got hired here, Nick Gates had never played center,

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Speaker 1: you know, in a game at any level. What what

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Speaker 1: did you see to suggest that he could play a position?

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Speaker 1: And how do you feel like he's developing there? You

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Speaker 1: know what was interesting about Nick is there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of enthusiasm about him as a player, and uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: the people who had been around him here in this organization,

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Speaker 1: you know, felt like, hey, he could play one of

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Speaker 1: five positions. He could be a tackle, he could be

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Speaker 1: a guard. Hell, he could be a center, all of that,

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Speaker 1: and so we were excited about him. We're excited about

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Speaker 1: what he looked like in the limited snaps that he

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Speaker 1: had played, and you just try to look at someone's

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Speaker 1: skill set, and to be honest with there was a

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Speaker 1: little bit of a need we needed to find a center,

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Speaker 1: and uh, we felt like if we gave him a

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Speaker 1: shot to compete in there, you know, I thought that

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Speaker 1: was a good idea and he could always fall back

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Speaker 1: on playing guard or tackle, and uh, we put him

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Speaker 1: in there. He seemed to handle it well. He's got

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Speaker 1: a natural leadership quality about him. He's got a guy

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Speaker 1: kind of a guy who loves to play football, has

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Speaker 1: got a contagious spirit about him. So I think the

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Speaker 1: guys have rallied around that. And the where he's played,

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Speaker 1: the more command he's how did that position? You know,

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Speaker 1: making communication, making calls that are necessary, and then technically

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Speaker 1: playing the game at a higher level week after week.

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Speaker 1: So he's done a nice job in there. Thanks a Jason.

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Speaker 1: You've been a player in this league, You've been a

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Speaker 1: head coach in this league. I'm curious when one team

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Speaker 1: seems to have the other team's number, did that ever

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Speaker 1: become psychological year after year? Like you just got here,

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Speaker 1: but the Eagles have beating the Giants twelve out of thirteen.

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Speaker 1: If you've ever been in a situation on either side

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Speaker 1: of that where you're the team winning a lot or

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Speaker 1: losing a lot, does that ever become psychological in the

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Speaker 1: locker room? And do you have to address that as

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Speaker 1: a coach? You know, I think the thing you always

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Speaker 1: think about as a coach, and certainly you're trying to

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Speaker 1: think about as a player. Uh. You know, we talked

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Speaker 1: about it all the time, the mental toughness to be

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Speaker 1: your best regardless of circumstances, and and that sets up

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Speaker 1: well in our game because you're gonna have success on

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Speaker 1: one play, but you have to be able to put

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Speaker 1: that play behind you and go play of the next play.

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Speaker 1: You can have adversity on one play. Okay, put that

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Speaker 1: behind you, go play the next play. And that applies

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Speaker 1: play to play series, the series, game, the game, and

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Speaker 1: then anything like this that comes up. Or we've had

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Speaker 1: a streak where we've beaten a team six games in

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Speaker 1: a row, we've lost six games in a row. The

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Speaker 1: first part of that equation is many of the players

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Speaker 1: and coaches weren't involved in that, the success or the adversity.

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Speaker 1: So so that's one way to look at it. But

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Speaker 1: the other way to look at it is, hey, it's

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Speaker 1: like a new down, it's like a new play. Whatever

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Speaker 1: we did before, good, better, and different is really irrelevant

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Speaker 1: to what's gonna happen right now. So you try to

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Speaker 1: lock in and prepare that way for every situation you're in.

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Speaker 1: And and this week will be no different. And if

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Speaker 1: I could change gears for a sect year, uh Tate

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Speaker 1: Golden Tate obviously will play this week. Do you take

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Speaker 1: into account like, hey, let's just get him involved early,

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Speaker 1: or do you, you know, move on from that whole

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Speaker 1: mass by get him getting him a target early or

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Speaker 1: do you not change anything from your regular game plan. Oh,

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Speaker 1: you know, Goal has been a good player for us,

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Speaker 1: and we'll get giving him opportunities and he had the

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Speaker 1: ball come his way. He's done a good job, you know,

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Speaker 1: making plays for us. So that's always an objective with him,

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Speaker 1: and you know with Chep and with slay and and

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Speaker 1: Evan Ingram and wearing to get our backs involved. So

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Speaker 1: all those guys, you know, when they play, we like

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Speaker 1: to we like to feature them at some point to

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Speaker 1: give them opportunities. And at the same time, everybody just

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Speaker 1: played within the system and typical quarterbacks play their best

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Speaker 1: when they read things out, throw the ball to the

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Speaker 1: right guy based on coverage, and we have a lot

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Speaker 1: of confidence in any of our guys to make plays.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Jason Jordan. Hey Jason, why do you think it's

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Speaker 1: been a quite a few weeks for Darius Slayton. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, hard to explain. Uh, you know why anybody, um,

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Speaker 1: you know has a lot of opportunities, are not a

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Speaker 1: lot of opportunities. You know, Like I said before, you know,

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Speaker 1: we play our best and we attack different ways with

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Speaker 1: different guys, and the quarterback just reads things out and Uh,

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Speaker 1: he's done a real good job for us when he's

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Speaker 1: gotten opportunities really over the course of the year, and

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Speaker 1: even these last couple of weeks, obviously we're trying to

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Speaker 1: run the ball a little bit more. That's been good

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Speaker 1: for us against some of these real good defensive lines

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Speaker 1: to quiet them down a little bit. And you know,

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Speaker 1: we feel great about Slay anytime you know, he gets

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Speaker 1: an opportunity, he's done a good job getting open and

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Speaker 1: typically converted onto play. So we like him a lot. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I was just kind of wondering if they he was

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Speaker 1: just receiving a lot more attention than you see that

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Speaker 1: he's got the number one piling around now, and yeah,

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Speaker 1: I would certainly the kind of deal. Yeah, I would

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Speaker 1: certainly say. He's a guy that that people have seen

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Speaker 1: made a lot of plays over the course of the year,

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Speaker 1: and oftentimes they'll they'll put who they regard as their

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Speaker 1: best defender on him for portions of the game, or

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Speaker 1: they'll roll coverage to him, and that's really just a

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Speaker 1: tribute to him the success he's had, and also just

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Speaker 1: curiosity what have you What did you think when you

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Speaker 1: first heard of, you know, rotating offensive lineman like you

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Speaker 1: guys are gonna do now and if it's something you've

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Speaker 1: ever done in the past. Oh, I think with our

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Speaker 1: offensive line situation, we don't really have any establishment players.

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Speaker 1: We don't have guys who who have played a long

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Speaker 1: long time and are kind of locked in. You know,

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Speaker 1: we just talked about Nick Gates just playing center for

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Speaker 1: the first time. You know, Cam Fleming's whole career has

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Speaker 1: been play right, play left, all of that, being ready

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Speaker 1: for any situations. And then when you're talking about you know,

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Speaker 1: three different rookies play and you know, we're looking to

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Speaker 1: give those guys opportunities to play. Each of those guys

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Speaker 1: has handled those opportunities well, and they're deserving of more

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Speaker 1: opportunities to play. And uh. You know, offensive lines, you

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Speaker 1: know through the years, you know, when they've been established,

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Speaker 1: five guys are in there and and and that can

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Speaker 1: be really good for your team. But when you're trying

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Speaker 1: to build a team and uh, and build a line,

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Speaker 1: you know, you have to give guys opportunities to do

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Speaker 1: different things and UH. And one of the things we

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Speaker 1: always emphasize with our offensive line is the ability to

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Speaker 1: play different spots. If you're a one whole player on

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Speaker 1: the offensive line, and that's not really good for you,

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Speaker 1: and that's not real good for our team. So you're

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Speaker 1: trying to use that to your advantage to give guys opportunities,

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Speaker 1: and if they do well, they earn more opportunities. Let's

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Speaker 1: say two more Lombardo and dug in Lombardo. Hey, Jason,

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Speaker 1: how's it going good? How you doing good? Good? I'm

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Speaker 1: just curious how difficult does it as a play caller

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Speaker 1: to kind of walk the tight rope with your quarterback,

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Speaker 1: wanting him to be aggressive and push the ball downfield,

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Speaker 1: but maybe also raining him in a little bit to

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Speaker 1: protect himself from turning the ball over and focusing on

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Speaker 1: that ball security. Yeah, I don't know that. We haven't

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Speaker 1: really talked about that. You know, something we talked about

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Speaker 1: a lot as an offense, and certainly at the quarterback position,

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Speaker 1: is to aggressively take with the defense gives you. And

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Speaker 1: you know, there are situations where you know, we have

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Speaker 1: to run it and they're playing run defense, and we

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Speaker 1: gotta run it anyway. So there are situations where you know,

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Speaker 1: we're we have to pass it, they're playing past defense.

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Speaker 1: We have to pass enough success anyway, But you know,

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Speaker 1: for the most part, you want to be aggressive, but

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Speaker 1: you want to take what the defense gives you. And

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Speaker 1: I think the best quarterbacks in this league do that.

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Speaker 1: You know, whether they're reading a playout, maybe you have

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Speaker 1: a shot called on a play, but they play out

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Speaker 1: of the air and you have to work your way

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Speaker 1: through the progression and find the right guy and feel

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Speaker 1: good about taking it. And I think if you look

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Speaker 1: at our offense, our guys have done a good job

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Speaker 1: running with the ball after the catch, you know, I

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Speaker 1: think about you know, the running backs catching and going

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Speaker 1: north and south, some examples of of shaft catching and

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Speaker 1: going north and south. So those are good plays for us.

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Speaker 1: And then when you get an opportunity to throw it

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Speaker 1: up the sidelines to a guy like Austin Mac and

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Speaker 1: make a big play down the field and catching on

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Speaker 1: those So I think DJ has done a good job

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Speaker 1: of that. And that's really the language we talk in. Aggressively,

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Speaker 1: take what they give you, and keep trying to be

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Speaker 1: efficient and move the ball down the field and make

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Speaker 1: a lot of little plays, and then when you get

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Speaker 1: a chance to make a big play, go ahead and

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Speaker 1: do that. We think the best quarterbacks do that. S right,

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Speaker 1: I knew that he put the ball on the turf twice,

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Speaker 1: but you guys recovered the both times. But it really

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Speaker 1: seems like his decision making in terms of just protecting

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Speaker 1: the football improved dramatically from Monday night to Sunday. What

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Speaker 1: went into that? And do you think they're starting to

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Speaker 1: be a little bit of growth there in terms of

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Speaker 1: his decision making in the pocket. Yeah, the quarterback has

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Speaker 1: the all in his hand on every play and he

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Speaker 1: has to make decisions in the passing game on every

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Speaker 1: play and in our case, in the running game as well. So, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, you have to be a great decision maker.

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Speaker 1: That's that's what this position is about, maybe more than

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Speaker 1: anything else. And you know, the more you play, the

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Speaker 1: more you're in situations, the more you're playing in a system,

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Speaker 1: the more you see defense is hopefully that decision making

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Speaker 1: process gets better and better and better. You know, DJ

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Speaker 1: has done a lot of really good things for us

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Speaker 1: over the course of the first half of the season.

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Speaker 1: There's no doubt he's a young player who's growing and

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Speaker 1: developing every week. Last one here, Dougan, Hey, Jason, just

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Speaker 1: jumping back in here. Uh, it seems like last couple

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Speaker 1: we should really dialed up some trick plays really a

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Speaker 1: creative and need to get a flea flickering into a

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Speaker 1: screen that you didn't work. I've never really haven't seen

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Speaker 1: that type of play. Just what's your process there, Like,

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Speaker 1: how do you come up with these? I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: sure it's probably kind of fun to sit there and

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Speaker 1: draw him up, but just curious, you know, how you

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Speaker 1: do come up with him? Yeah, you know, I think

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Speaker 1: the biggest thing you're trying to do is is is

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Speaker 1: put your players in a position where we can have

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Speaker 1: some success executing plays. And and part of that is

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Speaker 1: you're deceptive, is and uh, I think our guys are

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Speaker 1: capable of handling those you know, you said it. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: you call that stuff and you don't have success with it.

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Speaker 1: We've run some arounds and reverses that haven't been real good,

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Speaker 1: but other times they are good, and you hope that

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Speaker 1: they'll they'll have a residual effect as well. That you know,

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Speaker 1: teams have to prepare for those kinds of plays and

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Speaker 1: if you get a chance where they hit the right

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Speaker 1: time and get a chance to cash in on them,

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Speaker 1: you have to do that because they can be difference

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Speaker 1: making plays in the game. And we've had a couple

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Speaker 1: of those this year. You'd like to have more, you know,

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Speaker 1: as we go here, a chance to make some explosive plays,

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Speaker 1: and uh, I just think that's part of playing offensive football.

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Speaker 1: You know, you're deceptives along with the base stuff that

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Speaker 1: you run, and you're running in past game each week