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Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome back to the Broncos Podcast Network in

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Speaker 1: YouTube for the latest episode of Broncos Now. As always

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Speaker 1: from your host Sidney Jones, and coming up on today's episode,

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Speaker 1: we'll take a look back at a Sunday's loss in Houston.

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Speaker 1: We'll hear from head coach Sean Payan and several players,

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Speaker 1: plus Broncos lead writer Eric Dalalagrun's a show for a

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Speaker 1: game recap.

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Speaker 2: All that more coming up.

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Speaker 1: With Sunday's twenty two to seventeen a loss in Houston,

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Speaker 1: the Denver Broncos now sit at six and six, but still.

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Speaker 2: Remain in the playoff hunt.

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Speaker 1: We heard from head coach Sean Payn today as he

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Speaker 1: detailed his message to the team this morning.

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Speaker 3: I think they all stink the losses. Do they feel

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Speaker 3: that way? They're just disappointing. I think what I said

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Speaker 3: to the team a little bit earlier was you're going

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Speaker 3: to play seventeen games, and man, are you going to

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Speaker 3: be gunpowder ready for each one of those? I'm not

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Speaker 3: so sure that you are. And yet yesterday's a game,

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Speaker 3: despite how poorly we started. You're going to be frustrated

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Speaker 3: when you watch the tape and you see the multiple

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Speaker 3: opportunities we have, but we let a guy run free,

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Speaker 3: you know, early in the game on a punt rush. Defensively,

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Speaker 3: we're off the field in a golden you know, in

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Speaker 3: a red zone situation. We let a rookie paid us

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Speaker 3: into a personal file that's four points. Instead of finishing

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Speaker 3: that game needing a touchdown, we're kicking a field goal

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Speaker 3: to win. Offensively, we talked about it. The communication. The

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Speaker 3: communication needs it has to improve, especially on the road.

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Speaker 3: Too many snaps where guys aren't ready, or we didn't

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Speaker 3: get to shift, or we didn't get the call, and

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Speaker 3: that's that's troubling, especially this time of the year.

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Speaker 1: Both center Lloyd Kushienberry and a safety PJ. Locke also

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Speaker 1: spoke to the media today and they added to that

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Speaker 1: by detailing the team's resiliency as they look ahead at

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Speaker 1: to the remainder of the season.

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Speaker 4: Oh you're lone. We said, you know, we're a tough group,

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Speaker 4: resilient group, and we've shown that, like you just said,

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Speaker 4: and the next for our games, we gotta you know,

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Speaker 4: let's put up a shut up. We gotta come out

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Speaker 4: with all of these wins to get in the playoffs.

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Speaker 4: And once you get in you know, you know, zero zero,

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Speaker 4: anything happens, So look forward to that chalance, you know,

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Speaker 4: getting it done. You know, just going through that type

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Speaker 4: of diversity at the beginning of the season. You've been

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Speaker 4: through it, you know how I feel. You know, the

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Speaker 4: type of type of mentality you got to have to to.

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Speaker 5: Get out of that situation, get out of the whole.

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Speaker 5: And you know, we showed fight in the game. And honestly, man,

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Speaker 5: I'm I'm really not I'm not I'm really not worried. Obviously,

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Speaker 5: I'm disappointed that we lost. You know, we into the

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Speaker 5: streak that we had, but I'm not I'm not worried

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Speaker 5: by any means, just because I said we as bad

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Speaker 5: as we played and it still came down to the

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Speaker 5: game and the drive Man. That's that's amazing, you know,

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Speaker 5: and those type of games when you you know, minus

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Speaker 5: threat and takeaways and you know, those type of things,

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Speaker 5: is you know, most of time you're getting you're getting

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Speaker 5: beat down, and just for it to come down to

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Speaker 5: the game win the drive Man and you know we were,

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Speaker 5: you know, eight yards away from winning a game. That's

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Speaker 5: that's huge. And you know all the things that we

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Speaker 5: see on them, Man, it's it's correctable. So I'm, like

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Speaker 5: I said, I'm not worried.

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Speaker 3: Man.

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Speaker 4: I feel like.

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Speaker 5: We were heading the right direction, and you know, we

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Speaker 5: get those things sticked up, we will be just on.

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Speaker 2: And looking at the offensive performance.

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Speaker 1: Versus Texans both had coach Sean Payan and Lloyd Kushionberry

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Speaker 1: talk today about the team's inability to convert on a

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Speaker 1: third down in Houston.

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Speaker 3: No, it's not good enough. Obviously, it's frustrating. You know,

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Speaker 3: it's a combination of a handful of things. Protection guys,

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Speaker 3: open us not making them play. But but I felt

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Speaker 3: like the the yard is the distances. We were what

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Speaker 3: we wanted and yet you know we've got to be

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Speaker 3: better in that area. Our third down plan obviously is

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Speaker 3: got to be cleaner. But it wasn't a game where

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Speaker 3: so many of them were third and long.

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Speaker 4: I think we gotta up from give them a little

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Speaker 4: bit more time these things down the field. If we

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Speaker 4: didn't do yesterday, I see, I try to look inward

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Speaker 4: at myself in our group, So that's what I think

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Speaker 4: we can do.

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Speaker 1: They also spoken with the keys will be to being

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Speaker 1: more productive in the passing game.

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Speaker 3: Look, I think there's probably a combination of two or

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Speaker 3: three things. I think it starts with protection. I think

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Speaker 3: the communication has got to be on point. We finished

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Speaker 3: the game yesterday. The last play of the game, we

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Speaker 3: leave a shift off and so at the snap of

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Speaker 3: the ball, you have three receivers that are trying to

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Speaker 3: run a route, but they haven't shifted into their final formation.

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Speaker 3: So my experience has always been it's the details, it's

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Speaker 3: the little things, and those things have to be better.

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Speaker 4: I think it all starts with us up front. We

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Speaker 4: got to give arrest and our claymakers more time. UH

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Speaker 4: got to give him, have him more comfortable in the pocket.

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Speaker 4: There's times where pocket wasn't good enough. So it also

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Speaker 4: with us up front and making sure he's able to

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Speaker 4: see things on the field, and we got to be

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Speaker 4: working for him.

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Speaker 2: Plus PJ.

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Speaker 1: Lock spoke on at Denver's the Friends of struggles in

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Speaker 1: the first half.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean we had some few communication issues. I

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Speaker 5: don't know, we just I feel like we just kind

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Speaker 5: of played sloppy in the first half.

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Speaker 4: You know, and that those lads of big plays.

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Speaker 5: I mean, even though we did pretty good on third down,

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Speaker 5: the ones they had on third down where you know,

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Speaker 5: for the most part, big plays and you know you can't.

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Speaker 5: I want eye you know, team goals, what defensive goals?

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Speaker 5: Where's to eliminate to the passing game? You know the

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Speaker 5: big plays in the passing game. And you know we

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Speaker 5: didn't do that. We gave up like five explosives. So

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Speaker 5: anytime you do that, it's gonna be hard to hard

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Speaker 5: to win.

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Speaker 4: Uh.

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Speaker 5: You know, Nico Collins is a great receiver, and I

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Speaker 5: want to say, you went nine catches for one ninety

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Speaker 5: one stuffing like that, and you know three of those

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Speaker 5: catches is like for one fifty one, So you know

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Speaker 5: you can you can never win like that. You know,

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Speaker 5: we're gonna put ourselves in a big hole.

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Speaker 4: And that's what we did.

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Speaker 5: I mean we kind of dug out of it a

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Speaker 5: little bit, but you know we didn't do it just

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Speaker 5: enough to win the game. So yeah, we just can't

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Speaker 5: do that now.

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Speaker 1: Joining me here inside the Broncos podcast studio for a

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Speaker 1: game recap is Broncos lead writer Eric Dalala.

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Speaker 2: Eric, thanks for joining me today.

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Speaker 6: Got it said.

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Speaker 2: How we doing, How are we feeling good? Nice to

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Speaker 2: be back in Denver back yep, exactly.

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Speaker 7: The road trip continues this week, but got to get

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Speaker 7: back to work. Kind of clean some things up and

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Speaker 7: got to find a way to bounce back after a

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Speaker 7: tough loss yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Certainly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Eric, you know, we've talked a lot this season

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Speaker 1: about the turnover margin, how important it is to win

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Speaker 1: that in these games, and you know, we saw this

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Speaker 1: team do that throughout that five game win streak. But

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Speaker 1: you know, the Broncos they finished minus three in that

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Speaker 1: category on US Sunday. I feel like that was a

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Speaker 1: big reason why they weren't able to get the win

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Speaker 1: in Houston.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, definitely, Certainly, the Broncos turnovers themselves were a big reason.

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Speaker 7: You know, the tipped interception, they essentially gives Houston a

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Speaker 7: free touchdown.

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Speaker 6: There was a big one.

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Speaker 7: The Broncos were able to battle back from the second interception.

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Speaker 7: The defense comes up with another stop and then obviously

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Speaker 7: the interception the end zone at the end of the

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Speaker 7: game ends things. And there was that big swing where

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Speaker 7: Jakwon McMillan forces a fumble from CJ. Stroud as stripsack

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Speaker 7: and Jonathan Cooper's kind of got the ball in his

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Speaker 7: hands and somehow it's got a weird spin on it

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Speaker 7: at squirts free they're not able to get it and

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Speaker 7: again right after that is when Russell Wilson throws his

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Speaker 7: first interception that leads to points. So instead of worst

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Speaker 7: case scenario, it's sixteen thirteen. Even if the Broncos just

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Speaker 7: kick a field goal there, you know, maybe they score

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Speaker 7: a touchdown and go up seventeen sixteen taken over around

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Speaker 7: the thirty yard line. Instead of that, they pun it away.

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Speaker 7: Russ throws the pick, and a few plays later, I

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Speaker 7: believe it's twenty three to ten, So you're right back

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Speaker 7: in that thirteen point hole. So yeah, the turnovers had

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Speaker 7: an impact certainly on the game. What I will say

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Speaker 7: is that there's been talk about, hey, this defense cannot

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Speaker 7: win games without takeaways, And what I saw from the

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Speaker 7: team is that after a first half and really a

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Speaker 7: first quarter where there are some coverage breakdowns, the Texans

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Speaker 7: hit some big plays, I think a pair of fifty

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Speaker 7: plus yard passes in the first quarter.

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Speaker 6: After that, they really settled.

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Speaker 7: Down, and you know, in the second half, forced four punts,

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Speaker 7: got pressure on CJ. Stroud, brought some creative blitzes, got

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Speaker 7: after him a little bit, and they didn't need takeaways

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Speaker 7: to have a good solid performance. Now, certainly a short

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Speaker 7: field I think would have helped given the struggles the

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Speaker 7: Broncos offense had at times, but they did their job

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Speaker 7: even without the takeaways, and so in some ways, I

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Speaker 7: was really encouraged by the defensive performance in the second half,

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Speaker 7: because that's a good offense, especially throwing the ball. They've

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Speaker 7: had a lot of success, and the Broncos showed that

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Speaker 7: even without takeaways, they were able of slowing them down

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Speaker 7: and limiting them to a few points there, you know,

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Speaker 7: in the late stages of the game. So I was

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Speaker 7: impressed from that aspect of the defensive performance even without

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Speaker 7: the takeaways. But offensively, certainly. Russell Wilson said it out

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Speaker 7: of the game after the game, I've got to be cleaner.

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Speaker 7: I've got to play cleaner football, and if you turn

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Speaker 7: the ball over three times, it's gonna be hard to

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Speaker 7: make that up.

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Speaker 2: Definitely.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, defense certainly kept them in the game. Eric focusing

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Speaker 1: on an offense here. I know there was a lot

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Speaker 1: of talk today just about the team's really their inability

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Speaker 1: to convert on third down in Houston. So what did

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Speaker 1: you see kind of in terms of that and what

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Speaker 1: do you think will be key to kind of turning

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Speaker 1: that around.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, it was interesting that, you know, it wasn't like

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Speaker 7: they were in third and long a lot. It actually

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Speaker 7: was a lot of manageable third down situations and yet

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Speaker 7: they go oh of eleven. I mean, I think Sean

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Speaker 7: Payne said it well on Sunday that there's several different

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Speaker 7: reasons why it happened. There's some times where maybe there's

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Speaker 7: communication breakdown, there's pressure, the ball doesn't go where it

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Speaker 7: needs to go. You know, a couple of timesncas ran

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Speaker 7: the ball on kind of these thirds and shorts and

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Speaker 7: weren't able to convert there. And then other times, you know,

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Speaker 7: later in the game, especially the Broncos knew they had

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Speaker 7: two plays so kind of use a third down to

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Speaker 7: get just a little bit closer. But the Broncos execution

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Speaker 7: just has to be better there, Champagne said, the third

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Speaker 7: down plan needs to be better. They need to spend

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Speaker 7: more time on that and make sure it's up to

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Speaker 7: the standard they need it to be at. They've got

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Speaker 7: to be certainly o eleven. It would have been remarkable

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Speaker 7: if the Broncos could have won the football game despite

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Speaker 7: being over eleven on third down. So that's got to

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Speaker 7: be better, and you've got to find a way to

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Speaker 7: sustain drives. Even when the Broncos scored yesterday, it was

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Speaker 7: chunk plays, right, It was the long win to Courtland Sutton.

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Speaker 7: It was a forty one yard passag Jerry Judy and

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Speaker 7: then a quick sneak by Russell Wilson. There wasn't the

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Speaker 7: sustained drives that we're used to seeing with this team.

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Speaker 6: But then there's going to be.

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Speaker 7: Games where you struggle, but you've got to find a

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Speaker 7: way to grind out some drives. And I'm sure third

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Speaker 7: down will be a big point of emphasis this week.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Eric was also you know, pass protection was a

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Speaker 1: big topic of conversation today too, and you know we've

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Speaker 1: seen kind of some inconsistencies from the offensive line in

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Speaker 1: that regard.

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Speaker 2: Throughout the season. But what did you see from them

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Speaker 2: on Sunday?

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Speaker 7: Yeah, Well, one, Will Anderson just played a really good game.

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Speaker 7: He's a talented kid and top three pick for a reason.

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Speaker 7: He kind of set the tone early with that deflected

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Speaker 7: punt and then you know, obviously has a couple of sacks,

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Speaker 7: a lot of quarterback hits, hurries. He was all over

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Speaker 7: the place. I think if you look at how Russ

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Speaker 7: played and how the passing game in general went when

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Speaker 7: the Broncos used play action, it.

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Speaker 6: Actually was very efficient.

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Speaker 7: I think Russ's passer rating was like one forty something

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Speaker 7: and had a bunch of yards had the touchdown. That

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Speaker 7: kind of makes sense, right when you think about what

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Speaker 7: the Broncos do well, which is run the football, and

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Speaker 7: then if you can simulate that, and you know, maybe

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Speaker 7: it's Javante helping out as an extra guy to double

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Speaker 7: team one of the better edge rushers and make a

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Speaker 7: clean pocket that Russ can step up in and throw.

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Speaker 6: That's where there has had success. So we'll see.

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Speaker 7: I would think the Broncos try to improve on what

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Speaker 7: we saw yesterday. It would involve getting back to the

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Speaker 7: ground game some of that play action passing, and you

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Speaker 7: know there are times where Trump Payton talked about and

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Speaker 7: the pocket breaks down too quickly. There's other times where

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Speaker 7: it's okay, but maybe Russ gets outside a little bit

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Speaker 7: too early. So it's not just one thing to point to.

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Speaker 7: I think Mike mclinch said it well when you mentioned

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Speaker 7: that all eleven guys on offense have to be better

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Speaker 7: in order to succeed, and certainly yesterday wasn't up to

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Speaker 7: the standard that they want to be at.

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Speaker 1: Eric I know head coach On Payton, he described the

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Speaker 1: game yesterday as sloppy in his terms, and you know,

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Speaker 1: I think he contribute a lot of that just to

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Speaker 1: lack of communication. So, you know, with three road games

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Speaker 1: still remaining on the schedule here, how important is that

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Speaker 1: to just get that all ironed out.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, they've got to figure it out. And I don't

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Speaker 7: know exactly what the process is there, you know, spending

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Speaker 7: time on it in practice, simulating the crowd noise, making sure,

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Speaker 7: you know, just buttoned up in terms of making the calls,

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Speaker 7: those sorts of things. But yeah, Sean Payton did say

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Speaker 7: it's a little troubling at this point in the year

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Speaker 7: that you're still having those issues. But got to find

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Speaker 7: a way to fix it in fast, right, because I've

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Speaker 7: got a road game this week that in terms of

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Speaker 7: the AFC playoff standings, it's pretty much must win. The

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Speaker 7: Broncos have not won an AFC West road game in

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Speaker 7: several years, so they've got to find a way to

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Speaker 7: buck that trend. Communicate well or a protection standpoint, if

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Speaker 7: it's with the receivers, making sure that sure they know,

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Speaker 7: you know, what's the shift, what's the motion on this play?

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Speaker 7: And just being in a good spot there. Now, what

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Speaker 7: I will say is that the Broncos got better as

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Speaker 7: a game went along, and they fought back, and you know,

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Speaker 7: had that game gone another ten to fifteen minutes, it

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Speaker 7: would not surprise me to see the Broncos come out

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Speaker 7: on top. I think, you know, the Texans went up

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Speaker 7: ten nothing at the end by the end of the

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Speaker 7: first quarter, and Broncos just put themselves in too big

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Speaker 7: of a hole to come back from. But I think

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Speaker 7: as the game went along, the Broncos out or the

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Speaker 7: Texans there in the second half, you know, and they

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Speaker 7: were just able to find more success both defensively and offensively,

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Speaker 7: even if it still wasn't perfect. And so part of

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Speaker 7: me just wonders, was it something about the early kick

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Speaker 7: that it just you know, had an impact. But certainly,

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Speaker 7: you know, got another kick this coming week. That's one

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Speaker 7: pm local time. It'll feel like two o'clock back here.

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Speaker 7: But you've got to find a way to be ready

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Speaker 7: to go. And you know, just kind of as we

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Speaker 7: talked about the offense here, the second half starts obviously

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Speaker 7: a big thing too, right where the Broncos have scored

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Speaker 7: just once on their opening drive of the second half.

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Speaker 7: John Payton's considering putting in a script that he builds

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Speaker 7: at halftime just to try to help with the efficiency there.

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Speaker 7: But yeah, they got to find a way to get

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Speaker 7: go in and points are at a premium here in

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Speaker 7: the month of December, and roncis have to find a

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Speaker 7: way to get a few more of them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, as head coach Sean Payton said, you know, the

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Speaker 1: margin of errors pretty slim now, which just five weeks remaining.

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Speaker 2: So Eric, what do you think.

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Speaker 1: I guess, mindset are just meant to for the rest

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Speaker 1: of the season, not that many games left.

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Speaker 6: Not that many games left, five games left. I think

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Speaker 6: it's good.

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Speaker 7: And I think the schedule, you know, it's all about

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Speaker 7: you know, I think overall it's it's favorable enough. And

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Speaker 7: you look at the schedule and you think, Okay, the

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Speaker 7: Broncos probably need to go four and one here to

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Speaker 7: make the playoffs, and they probably, you know, can't afford

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Speaker 7: for one of those losses to be to an AFC team,

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Speaker 7: And so basically, you know, it's either go five and

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Speaker 7: O or lose in Detroit. Maybe, you know, obviously hope

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Speaker 7: that doesn't happen and the Broncos go five and oh,

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Speaker 7: and put it out of the hands of the tie break.

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Speaker 7: But none of that can happen unless you go out

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Speaker 7: and you win this one. And it's again a divisional

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Speaker 7: road game, which the Broncos haven't won since twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 7: It's a talented team still, and you know, we'll talk

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Speaker 7: much more about them later in the week, but the

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Speaker 7: Broncos just have to be at their best. And if

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Speaker 7: you get this one, and then maybe you go and

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Speaker 7: you find a way to upset Detroit because I'm sure

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Speaker 7: that'll be a crazy environment a Saturday night games. You know,

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Speaker 7: can you then come back for this last three game

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Speaker 7: stretch and you get the Patriots at home, get the

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Speaker 7: Chargers at home? You know, can you find a way

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Speaker 7: to get to nine and seven through that stretch even

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Speaker 7: and then just have kind of that that last week

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Speaker 7: against the Raiders and hopefully get a win and put

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Speaker 7: yourself in contention. But a lot of this is again

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Speaker 7: looking ahead, right, You've got to make sure that guys

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Speaker 7: I think still have the confidence they need, which is good.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, we've talked about this. We talked about

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Speaker 6: it yesterday.

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Speaker 7: Despite playing about as poorly as they possibly could on

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Speaker 7: offense at times, despite the first half struggles on defense,

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Speaker 7: they still had a chance from the eight yard line,

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Speaker 7: three chances from the eight yard line to win this

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Speaker 7: football game. And so I think that can help a

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Speaker 7: team's confidence almost that Yeah, we didn't play anywhere near

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Speaker 7: our ability and yet we were still in it. And

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Speaker 7: so if we do play, you know, it doesn't have

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Speaker 7: to be perfect, but just better up to our standard.

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Speaker 7: You're going to be in position to win these football games.

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Speaker 7: But despite that confidence, they now have to go do it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see what happens lovin full week of practice

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Speaker 1: here before they head out to La Eric, appreciate you

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Speaker 1: joining the show. You got it said, Well, that's going

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Speaker 1: to do it for today's episode of Broncos Now Broncos Country.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for tuning in.

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Speaker 1: Let me right back here on the Broncos Podcast Network

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Speaker 1: in YouTube tomorrow for another episode. I will see you

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Speaker 1: all then,