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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Command Center Podcast. I'm Julie Donaldson. All

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Speaker 1: sites are set on welcoming the Minnesota Vikings to FedEx Field.

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Speaker 1: Logan Paulson and Santana Moss joins me to break down

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Speaker 1: the matchups they will be watching for, plus the return

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Speaker 1: of quarterback Kirk Cousins. So let's go into some of

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Speaker 1: the matchups that I know you're going to be looking

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Speaker 1: forward to this week on the field. And I want

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Speaker 1: to start with Kirk Cousins, mainly because he's been six

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Speaker 1: seasons here. It's his first time coming back. We haven't

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Speaker 1: seen him since twenty seventeen. But both of you Kyle

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Speaker 1: passes from him. Yeah, Santana, what are you seeing from

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Speaker 1: him this season? Very productive. One of the things that

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Speaker 1: stands out to me the most is they have the

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Speaker 1: right kind of players around them and the play calling

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Speaker 1: has been exceptionally well. I think one of the things

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Speaker 1: that stands out more than anything that he don't have

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Speaker 1: to get up there and think too much. So he's

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Speaker 1: going out there, he's seeing what he has to do

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Speaker 1: and whether it's pre stopton read or throughout the course

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Speaker 1: of the play, he's finding the open guy. But Kurt

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Speaker 1: has always been that the passer. He just had to

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Speaker 1: get around the right system and he's back to something

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Speaker 1: that he's familiar with. Yeah. Absolutely, it's gat to see

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Speaker 1: him back comfortable because like we you know, we care

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Speaker 1: about kirkham do well, but obviously not this weekend. I

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Speaker 1: will say the thing that sticks out to me, he's

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Speaker 1: been much better in the fourth quarter. He's been much

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Speaker 1: more consistent in terms of making plays when the team

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Speaker 1: needs to make those high levelge situations. He started slow

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Speaker 1: the past couple of games, but finished very, very strong

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Speaker 1: and let his team to victories. And I think that's

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Speaker 1: shows a nice maturity by him over the last couple years.

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Speaker 1: And for the most part, he's been taking care of

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Speaker 1: the ball. He has eleven touchdowns, five interceptions, three of

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Speaker 1: them though game against the Philadelphia Eagles alone, and so

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Speaker 1: for the most part, he hasn't been giving you major opportunities. People.

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Speaker 1: We know the defensive line is going to be getting

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Speaker 1: all over him in this one, and he's familiar with

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Speaker 1: those guys up there as well. Now, one of his

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Speaker 1: top white receivers is Justin Jefferson. How is he going

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Speaker 1: to do against the secondary logan? I mean, I think

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Speaker 1: Justin Jefferson, to my eye, is one of the most

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Speaker 1: kind of skillful receivers in the NFL. He's very, very

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Speaker 1: talented at the catchpoints as he plays bigger than he's

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Speaker 1: listed out of the he's six one, one one hundred ninety pounds.

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Speaker 1: He plays bigger than that great physicality, can line up inside,

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Speaker 1: line up outside. So it's going to be a team

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Speaker 1: effort in terms of aggregating resources to stop him. And

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Speaker 1: I think in those band demand situations and think you

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Speaker 1: got to put our best cover corner on him. And

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Speaker 1: I think that's Benjamin Saint us. You don't want to

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Speaker 1: do that too too much because that's a tough matchup,

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Speaker 1: but that's what I would I think you have to do. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And you know, one of the things that's down to

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Speaker 1: me is that he's not only just one of those

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Speaker 1: guys that you have to worry about on the outside.

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Speaker 1: He's dominant in the inside. So I'm glad that we

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Speaker 1: have that kind of you know, we have that player

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Speaker 1: that we can probably match up or see him, you know,

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Speaker 1: have that kind of coverage. But you can't let him

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Speaker 1: get get get you know, getting wild on us, because

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Speaker 1: I've seen him take advantage of teams. One of the

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Speaker 1: things I want to say on the last thing you

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Speaker 1: asked me about, we have to take a page out

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Speaker 1: of Philadelphia's But they was they played him better than anybody,

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Speaker 1: and it wasn't because they played great coverage on him.

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Speaker 1: It was because those great rush great rush. Yeah. Well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, look, if the quarterback doesn't have any time

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Speaker 1: to be able to throw the ball, didn't forget it.

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Speaker 1: Jefferson can't do too much on that side. On the

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Speaker 1: other side of Taylor heineke Um, he's gonna be go

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Speaker 1: ingup with for It's a really stout defensive front as well. Logan, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think that. You know, Zarius Smith is one of

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Speaker 1: the best defensive ends in the NFL. I think he's

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Speaker 1: tied for the league lead in sacks right now. And

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Speaker 1: it's not like he's running from from the defense end.

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Speaker 1: He lines up at nose guard. He lights up a

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Speaker 1: three technique. They find ways to put him in advantageous

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Speaker 1: situations to rush the passer, and he has been excellent that.

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Speaker 1: That's where he was most productive in Green Bay. When

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Speaker 1: he was in Baltimore, same thing. They're starting to adopt

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Speaker 1: that package and he has been performing up the top

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Speaker 1: building which has been which is fun to see as

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Speaker 1: a fan of football, but as a Washington fan makes

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Speaker 1: it a little nervous. Yeah, Bike's defense is tied with

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Speaker 1: us in sacks. I believe we have twenty one. They

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Speaker 1: have twenty one, and they have thirteen takeaways, which is

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Speaker 1: ninth in the league. So when you see that coming

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Speaker 1: from a defense, heinik. He has to be very efficient.

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Speaker 1: He has to make sure that he's doing some of

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Speaker 1: the things we've seen in the past a few weeks.

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Speaker 1: He's been efficient with the ball, but he's also been

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Speaker 1: making a right decision. So if it's not there, take

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Speaker 1: what you can with your legs. When it's there, get

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Speaker 1: the guy to the ball in the timely fashion and

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Speaker 1: he should be okay. Yeah, they love that he's not

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Speaker 1: afraid to step in the pocket to make the play,

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Speaker 1: but hopefully smartly as well. That's such a thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: probably not smartly. Washington's wide receivers have consistently delivered throughout

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Speaker 1: the Commander's three game one streak. London Fletcher chat with

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Speaker 1: Curtis Samuel to discuss the Commander's offense and the versatility

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Speaker 1: he brings. Curtis after the one and fourth start We're

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Speaker 1: coming here riding a three game winning streak. How are

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Speaker 1: you guys able to get things turned around this season?

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Speaker 1: We're a tough team. I mean, we understand that we

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Speaker 1: was out there making plays, but it just wasn't enough.

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Speaker 1: You know. I felt like the problem was we just

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Speaker 1: wasn't putting together four quarters of football. Um. I know

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Speaker 1: this past week, you know, I feel like we slacked

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Speaker 1: off a little bit, but we picked it up at

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Speaker 1: the end. And you know, most important is finishing one

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Speaker 1: guy who didn't slacked off and who hasn't been slacking

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Speaker 1: off as you You know, over the three out of

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Speaker 1: last four games, you've had at least five catch at

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Speaker 1: five touches over sixty yards from scrimmage. You lead us

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Speaker 1: and receptions, made a couple of huge catches on fourth

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Speaker 1: down and that ball game against the Coats? What has

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Speaker 1: been the key for you being able to you know,

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Speaker 1: operate in space the way you've operated and have the

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Speaker 1: ball in your hands so much really just understanding the

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Speaker 1: like the receiver position. You just never understand when the

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Speaker 1: ball is coming to you, you know what I mean,

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Speaker 1: so much stuff gotta go on for to get the ball,

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Speaker 1: you know, so my mindset each and every time. It's

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Speaker 1: just like, just be prepared, be ready. You know what

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Speaker 1: I'm saying, Garth them when your matchup, whenever the ball

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Speaker 1: come your way, just makes something happen because you know

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Speaker 1: how many times you can get the ball right. There's

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Speaker 1: been a change at the quarterback position, you know, going

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Speaker 1: to Taylor Heineke. Over the last two ball games, offense

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Speaker 1: you mentioned has had some transition with Taylor under center.

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Speaker 1: What has the what has been the change with with

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Speaker 1: Taylor being an under center? Um? I mean as far

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Speaker 1: as us as a serious we know we got got

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Speaker 1: them make plays. You know, as long as we're doing

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Speaker 1: what we gotta do, getting open, catching the ball and

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Speaker 1: making a big plays, we feel like the offense gonna

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Speaker 1: do a good job. Um. You know, I really think

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Speaker 1: us as an offense, I feel like we were all

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Speaker 1: just playing better. You know, Taylor able to you know,

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Speaker 1: get out the podcat and make extra things happen, and um,

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Speaker 1: you know, I feel like we're doing a great job

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Speaker 1: as you as you look at the situation with the

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Speaker 1: receivers you got Terry McLaurin, Terry went home, had a

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Speaker 1: big game. How has Dad playing with Terry kind of

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Speaker 1: opened things up for you in this offense. Um, we

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Speaker 1: know Terry on garthm and make make things happen. You know,

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Speaker 1: he don't think two back to back to two great games,

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Speaker 1: you know, doing doing what he does. You know, every

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Speaker 1: time the ball is in the era, every time you

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Speaker 1: got a chance, he gonna make something big happen. You know. Um,

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Speaker 1: teams may start, you know, try to double you know

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Speaker 1: what I'm saying. But that's the good thing about our room.

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Speaker 1: Were so deep. We got a lot of guys you

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Speaker 1: know that could come in and make big things happen.

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Speaker 1: We got a little bit injuries, but I feel like

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Speaker 1: every guy that steps in is gonna make something happen

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Speaker 1: out there. We got the six to one minutes. So

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Speaker 1: the Vikings coming in here gonna be a tall task.

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Speaker 1: What do you think is gonna be the key when

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Speaker 1: we're going against this this Vikings defense? Toughness, It's just

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Speaker 1: starting up front. You know, we gotta dominate the line

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Speaker 1: of scrimmish. You know, we gotta protect our protect our

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Speaker 1: quarterback and just make things happening. Just try to put

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Speaker 1: together four quarters of good football, you know, and no

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Speaker 1: slacking off, staying on the field, converting third downs, and

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Speaker 1: I feel like that will help us. Hey last, but

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Speaker 1: not at least. We haven't seen you dancing a while, man,

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Speaker 1: can't we expect to see you dancing this U this Sunday.

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Speaker 1: I gotta get in that end. I got, I got

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Speaker 1: some moves, man, I just waited to get that end.

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Speaker 1: That's that's what my point is. Hopefully we'll get you

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Speaker 1: in the end on this uh this Sunday and say

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Speaker 1: you out there doing your dance more. Absolutely appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: All right. For all of your news and analysis, be

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Speaker 1: sure to tune into Command Center weeknights if five thirty

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Speaker 1: and ten pm on NBC Sports Washington. You can also

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Speaker 1: stream on YouTube and commanders dot com