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Speaker 1: We talk with Cowboys c oo Stephen Jones, who joins

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Speaker 1: us now for the Stephen Jones Show. You're on the

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Speaker 1: fan in a good afternoon. To you, sir, how the

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Speaker 1: heck are you doing? Doing good? Ready to get back

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Speaker 1: on the field and get to work, see if we

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Speaker 1: can get a lot of this behind us and play

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Speaker 1: some good football, Yes, sir. And do you feel like

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Speaker 1: you guys got the story of the players being critical

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Speaker 1: of the coaches resolved and everybody's ready to move on

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Speaker 1: to the same page now heading into the weekend. Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: I think you know it's you look at things and

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Speaker 1: you get your hands around it and you see kind

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Speaker 1: of uh what you think it is, and we feel

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Speaker 1: good about it. So uh, you know that is you know,

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Speaker 1: some of that is, uh not necessarily what it is.

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Speaker 1: So we're we're comfortable with where we're headed. We're comfortable

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Speaker 1: with us you know, our week that we had at practice.

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Speaker 1: We think we've gotten better this week and ready to go,

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Speaker 1: uh you know, go to Washington and play good football

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Speaker 1: and hopefully win a football game. Did you feel like

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Speaker 1: you had did you have any role you had to

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Speaker 1: play in that? I know it's a story nobody wants

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Speaker 1: to deal with when it's anonymous sources and this and that.

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Speaker 1: But is there something that you can personally do to

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Speaker 1: trying to put your hands around it and help your

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Speaker 1: team move forward through it. Well, first of all, I

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Speaker 1: don't have a lot of respect for anybody who wouldn't

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Speaker 1: put the name by something. So that is what it is,

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Speaker 1: and especially when they're gonna fire something like that. But no,

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Speaker 1: I didn't am. I handled it with the team, and

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Speaker 1: the players handled it with the within the team itself,

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Speaker 1: and they're really good about where we're headed as a

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Speaker 1: football team. Stephen, First off, I want to say thank

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Speaker 1: you very much you and the family were playing it.

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Speaker 1: We're going to play at Jones Family Stadium to night

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Speaker 1: at ESD for a high school football game, so appreciate

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Speaker 1: what you guys do for high school football. And I

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Speaker 1: wanted to ask you about the about the Zeke and

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Speaker 1: the fumbling stuff, when the when the when you meet

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Speaker 1: with the staff, what have they told you about that?

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Speaker 1: Is there are ways that they can correct it? Can

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Speaker 1: they teach things? Where are they going in regards to

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Speaker 1: him and have explained it to you that they can

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Speaker 1: fix it? Well, I don't think you know Zeke's not

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Speaker 1: been a fumbler in his career. And uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: sometimes you hit rough patches, quarterbacks at rough patches on interceptions.

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Speaker 1: Uh you know NBA players at cold, cold patches when

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Speaker 1: they're shooting. Golfers hit cold patches with their patton. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's just one of those things that he's pushing. He's

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Speaker 1: trying to make big plays for this football team. He's

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Speaker 1: a fierce competitor, and uh, I'm not concerned about it.

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Speaker 1: I think he's gonna do what he needs to do

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Speaker 1: to to fix that. He understands, Uh, you know how

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Speaker 1: critical it is to protect the football and understand you

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Speaker 1: know that's a big reason probably Uh you know our turnovers,

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Speaker 1: and it's not just him. It's a lot of our

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Speaker 1: best football players have contributed in the turnover categories. So uh,

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Speaker 1: he's not the only one doing it. And uh, we've

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Speaker 1: got to rectify it or we're not gonna win many

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Speaker 1: games this year. But we think we can. We think

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Speaker 1: once we do fex it, uh, we're gonna have some success.

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Speaker 1: The trade deadlines turned into a really big topic with

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Speaker 1: it creeping up on us, a lot of people writing

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Speaker 1: about it. I wonder with so many of your guys's

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Speaker 1: injuries and a lot of your really important players that

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Speaker 1: won't be back this year. How do you balance the

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Speaker 1: idea of it kind of is what it is, and

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Speaker 1: our players we got are either going to be able

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Speaker 1: to do it or not or going to get them help. Well,

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Speaker 1: we always look for a way to improve our football

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Speaker 1: team if we think it's if there's value there. You know,

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Speaker 1: we always uh, you know, we're looking player acquisition. You

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Speaker 1: know the phrase, it's it's all the time. It's three

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five days a year, so we just

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Speaker 1: are always looking for the right value. If it's there,

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Speaker 1: we'd certainly consider it going either way. And we're just

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Speaker 1: always looking to get better as a team and feel

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Speaker 1: good about where we are. It's Stephen Jones here with

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Speaker 1: us on the Home of the Cowboys one. I'll five

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Speaker 1: three the fan. How are we doing with Zach Martin

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Speaker 1: and the concussion protocol? He have a headache this afternoon.

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Speaker 1: How Zach doing? Yeah, don't get into the details of

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Speaker 1: the protocol, but he's making good progress. And you know

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Speaker 1: it's short week, difficult when you play on a Monday

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Speaker 1: and you're trying to get ready to go on a Sunday,

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Speaker 1: you're already battling uphill. But you know it's gonna, you know,

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Speaker 1: probably be a struggle for him to play, and we

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Speaker 1: understand that. And we've had a good week of practice

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Speaker 1: with the guys that could practice and we feel like

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Speaker 1: we're gonna play well Sunday, Okay. And then just generally

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Speaker 1: about his position and his status. Is such a good

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Speaker 1: football player, Stephen. We were wondering and talking here at

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Speaker 1: what point would you consider moving guards out there? Or

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Speaker 1: is that something you're really going to avoid at all

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Speaker 1: costs as long as you have an opportunity to bring

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Speaker 1: in new tackles. No, we've looked at Zach plan out

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Speaker 1: at tackle, and we'll continue to see what the best

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Speaker 1: situation is for this football team. When when Zach gets back,

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Speaker 1: you know, we've got a Connor McGovern which we've been

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Speaker 1: looking forward to seeing as starting to really get some

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Speaker 1: playing time. And I thought he'd you know, did a

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Speaker 1: nice job, and you know, I think he's only going

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Speaker 1: to get better and better as we go there. I mean,

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Speaker 1: he's a second round pick that we've you know, really

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Speaker 1: felt good about when we picked him, and he throw

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Speaker 1: him in there with Connor Williams and of course you

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Speaker 1: know what we thought abide as when we picked him.

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Speaker 1: So you know, we just got to shore up, you know,

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Speaker 1: that tackle spot. We're getting Cam Irving back this week,

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Speaker 1: and Steele probably played his best game since he's been

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Speaker 1: a cowboy out of his spot there. So you know,

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Speaker 1: we're feeling good about what we're doing and optimistic that

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Speaker 1: we can go out here and do the things we

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Speaker 1: need to do to move the ball and the same

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Speaker 1: time continue to improve as a defense. Randy Gregory's eligible

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Speaker 1: to return this week, but I heard coach McCarthy this

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Speaker 1: morning and he mentioned something about maybe special teams will

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Speaker 1: have something to say on if he's active, or we

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Speaker 1: anticipating Gregory being active and playing this week. You know,

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Speaker 1: those are all things that will consider and look at

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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, it's all part of, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: figuring out what we want to do to uh play

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Speaker 1: the Redskins. I think Mike said it best. We'll just

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Speaker 1: make that decision at game time. Kind of what we

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Speaker 1: want to do with Randy is that kind of with

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Speaker 1: all your young players as well, Stephen, like you know

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Speaker 1: with uh, you know, with with the some of the

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Speaker 1: rookie guys, and stuff. Is it kind of just will

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Speaker 1: try and work them in the best we can, or

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Speaker 1: is it you know you're just going with the guys

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Speaker 1: you have. Well, I think if if I'm gonna get

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Speaker 1: on here and tell tell everybody everything, might as well

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Speaker 1: let Washington sitting our team meeting and uh see what

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Speaker 1: we're done. So I think, well, well, we'll just kind

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Speaker 1: of move forward with what coach said and we'll see

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Speaker 1: kind of how how it falls. Stephen Jones here with

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Speaker 1: us on one oh five three the fan. Are you

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Speaker 1: guys looking at signing somebody here in the next going

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Speaker 1: into the game and twenty four hours or so workouts

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Speaker 1: this week? Any potential signings coming up? I don't think

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Speaker 1: that we're not gonna sign anybody new that'll be a

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Speaker 1: fighttor in this game. Okay, Uh, you know we're always

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Speaker 1: uh as you know, the protocols are getting stiffer and stiffer,

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Speaker 1: which they should. We're obviously trying to play, you know,

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Speaker 1: get these games and get them played, and certainly we're

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Speaker 1: in a situation where things are a challenge. But obviously

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Speaker 1: as we move forward, we're always looking to sign guys too.

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Speaker 1: But it does take. Now, you know, you're up to

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Speaker 1: six seven days in terms of how long you've got

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Speaker 1: to test guys before they can actually join you, whether

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Speaker 1: it's practice, squad or roster, so it does take time.

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Speaker 1: With back to back division games, Jalen Smith says, these

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Speaker 1: are must win. Are you there yet? I just think

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Speaker 1: it's so important. We all know. Uh, you know, it

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Speaker 1: goes without saying no one needs to talk about the

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Speaker 1: East and you know where where it is competitively, but

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Speaker 1: these NFCAST games are huge, and especially when you start

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Speaker 1: the way we've started at two and four. We've got

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Speaker 1: to improve as a team if we want to give

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Speaker 1: us give give ourselves a chance to be competitive in

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Speaker 1: the East. And we're getting ready to play two big

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Speaker 1: ones right here. So you know, you don't ever say,

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Speaker 1: you know this have to win this early in a season,

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Speaker 1: but obviously they're very important. All right, We'll get them

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Speaker 1: hell out there. We'll be pulling for you. Appreciate it, guys,

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Speaker 1: Thank you got it. Thank you have a great weekend.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us. Steven Jones Cowboys COOO with a

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Speaker 1: look at what's going on with the team as they

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Speaker 1: get set to visit the football team. Sunday afternoon,