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Andrew Whitworth on Injuries in a Short Week, Saints Defense | Countdown to Kickoff · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Countdown to kickoff continues ahead of Thursday Night Football the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Jacksonville Jaguars and the New Orleans Saints from the Caesars
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  Speaker 1: super Dome. It's an eight to fifteen Eastern Time kickoff.
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  Speaker 1: Sixteen seasons in the NFL, is a left tackle with
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  Speaker 1: the Bengals and Rams. He's now in his second season
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  Speaker 1: as a pregame in postgame analyst for Thursday Night Football
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  Speaker 1: on Amazon Prime. It is Andrew Whitworth. It's a pleasure
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  Speaker 1: to see you again the Jaguars in prime time. What's up?
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  Speaker 2: Oh man? All is good.
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  Speaker 3: Have to be back in New Orleans, my home state
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  Speaker 3: of Louisiana looking forward to this football game.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I was figured at least they would have
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  Speaker 1: a banner or something of you in that stadium there
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  Speaker 1: because of all the experience you've had before. The NFL
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  Speaker 1: in that place had a lot of success there.
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  Speaker 3: I have, you know, played a lot of football games
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  Speaker 3: in the Superdome, that's for sure. Playing at West Monroe
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  Speaker 3: High School in Louisiana and made a lot of state
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  Speaker 3: champion appearances and was able to be a part of
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  Speaker 3: three winning teams there and then winning a national championship
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  Speaker 3: in college in this building in an NFC championship. Even
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  Speaker 3: though you can't talk about that too much while I'm
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  Speaker 3: here in New Orleans, they're still a little bitter about
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  Speaker 3: that game, a little.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's quite a bit in that town.
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  Speaker 1: Let's get to this one though. Obviously, the jaguars number
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  Speaker 1: one priority this week is the quarterback position, and as
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  Speaker 1: of this recording, still kind of up in the air.
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  Speaker 1: Trevor Lawrence with a left knee injury. What's the balance
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  Speaker 1: for you of toughness and battling through and the long
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  Speaker 1: haul safety of your franchise quarterback.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think obviously when you're talking about Trevor,
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  Speaker 3: but it's long haul safety. But also because these seasons now,
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  Speaker 3: especially with another game, seventeen games, it's a long battle
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  Speaker 3: and it's really, you know, as emotional as we want
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  Speaker 3: to get about one week, it's about finding ways to
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  Speaker 3: win your division and getting yourself in that big tournament
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  Speaker 3: at the end, you want to have a seat in
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  Speaker 3: the playoffs, and so you really got away sometimes I
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  Speaker 3: think on these short weeks, you know, what's overall best health.
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  Speaker 3: He truly feels confident. We're confident and security and the
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  Speaker 3: stabilization of his knee all of that. Then sure you
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  Speaker 3: let him go, but you want to make sure you
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  Speaker 3: keep in mind it's a long year. This is the
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  Speaker 3: guy we expect to be at the Helm for a
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  Speaker 3: long time. Let's make sure we don't let what we
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  Speaker 3: want right now kind of overdo what we really want
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  Speaker 3: in the long term, you know.
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes you get a lot of this on Thursday night.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure guys that maybe have been nicked up and
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  Speaker 1: you just don't know some status some weeks.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's a challenge these Thursday night games.
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  Speaker 3: The great part about it, I think is that you
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  Speaker 3: do have those great added days on the other side
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  Speaker 3: of the Thursday night, But getting to the game, I
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  Speaker 3: think sometimes I would imagine if we polled all the
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  Speaker 3: athletic trainers in the NFL, this is one of their
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  Speaker 3: most stressful weeks because it's who they got to report
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  Speaker 3: the coaches a little banged up, and who they got
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  Speaker 3: to talk into, hey man, you're fine and you're gonna
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  Speaker 3: be okay, and we need you.
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  Speaker 2: To play this week.
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  Speaker 3: It's a tough battle for them because they got, you
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  Speaker 3: know what, long term guys they're invested in that they say, hey,
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  Speaker 3: we got to make really smart decisions around. But at
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  Speaker 3: the same time, you know our league, there is only
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  Speaker 3: seventeen games, and so it is sometimes your team could
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  Speaker 3: be put in a position where it's challenging to allow
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  Speaker 3: yourself not to put your best out there if you
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  Speaker 3: think they can go. But you got to keep the
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  Speaker 3: mentality if we think we're a good football team, you know,
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  Speaker 3: if we just think this is going to hurt us
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  Speaker 3: down the road and lose more games because of it,
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  Speaker 3: Let's not lose three games trying to win one. And
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  Speaker 3: you got to make a decision that way.
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  Speaker 1: Andrew Whitworth with us, all right, I'm curious your thoughts
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  Speaker 1: about overall offensive line continuity and consistency. The Jaguars have
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  Speaker 1: had anything but that this season. Cam Robinson missed the
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  Speaker 1: first four games with the suspension. He's been back for
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  Speaker 1: two weeks. The guard positions have been dinged up a
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  Speaker 1: little bit or have been changes there, the centers in
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  Speaker 1: a second year, the right tackles a rookie who's been
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  Speaker 1: playing through a shoulder issue from training camp. That's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of moving parts and how difficult is that to
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  Speaker 1: find that continuity and consistency up front with all the changes.
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  Speaker 2: You know, it's a challenge.
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  Speaker 3: I think that really when you start talking about that,
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  Speaker 3: it's one of the things you can really go team
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  Speaker 3: to team across this league, and when there's guys changing
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  Speaker 3: in and out up front on the offensive line, it's
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  Speaker 3: very little times that you see much success because it's
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  Speaker 3: really challenged as an offense because I think it's numerous
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  Speaker 3: or you know, there's so many different reasons, but I
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  Speaker 3: think one of those is if you really think about
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  Speaker 3: all five guys, sometimes it's about having that communication and
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  Speaker 3: camaraderie amongst each other, but also just the efficiency of playing.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I look at even like a Cam Robinson
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  Speaker 3: as good a player as he is, hearing him talk about, Hey,
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  Speaker 3: you know what, it was an okay performance. I felt
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  Speaker 3: like I felt good, but there's still some things I
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  Speaker 3: need to clean up and be better at. You heard
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  Speaker 3: Doug Peterson kind of say the same thing. You take
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  Speaker 3: a guy's experience as he is has played as much
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  Speaker 3: as he is. Just when you're in and out of
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  Speaker 3: the lineup like that, I don't care who you are,
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  Speaker 3: there's gonna be little mistakes. Now you start switching all
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  Speaker 3: the positions, you got guys who haven't played as much
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  Speaker 3: football who are getting in and out of the lineup.
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  Speaker 3: There's gonna be mistakes just because it's just them getting
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  Speaker 3: used to being out there themselves much less how they
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  Speaker 3: work with everybody else. So you're really kind of getting
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  Speaker 3: it from two sides, and so that kind of creates
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  Speaker 3: a little bit of a stall on offense because there's
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  Speaker 3: a holding penalty, or there's a mistake, or there's a
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  Speaker 3: mental lapse on something. And I think that's what makes
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  Speaker 3: it so challenging in this league when that offensive line
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  Speaker 3: is rotating. There's not many offenses that are able to
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  Speaker 3: have a whole lot of success.
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  Speaker 2: There's not really a week off either.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, every defensive front seems to have somebody up
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  Speaker 1: front to be able to wreck your game, and really
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  Speaker 1: no different in New Orleans this week. I mean, this
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  Speaker 1: is a veteran defense, especially up front. They've been together
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  Speaker 1: for a long time. Not the week to be trying
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  Speaker 1: to figure out an old line.
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  Speaker 2: It's definitely not.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I think that the good thing is that
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  Speaker 3: you've seen in Trevor Lawrence's progression if he goes, you know,
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  Speaker 3: one of the things he's done so well is being
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  Speaker 3: able to get the ball out of his hand. You know,
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  Speaker 3: he's really sped up his ability to get through his
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  Speaker 3: progressions and develop as a quarterback, and that helps you
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  Speaker 3: a ton. I mean, I really think that if Trevor
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  Speaker 3: hasn't been that style over the last really year and
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  Speaker 3: a half, you've seen him really take a surge there
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  Speaker 3: getting the ball out of his hand and handling that
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  Speaker 3: so much better. I think this really would be more
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  Speaker 3: talked about is some of these offensive line rotations, because
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  Speaker 3: he hed some of that with ability to get the
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  Speaker 3: ball out of his hand. And I think that this
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  Speaker 3: week will be a big challenge because if he goes
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  Speaker 3: this front can create pressure. They're a veteran group that
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  Speaker 3: gets after it. The physicality they play with, you know,
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  Speaker 3: is what always sticks in my mind when I talk
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  Speaker 3: about the Saints defense is you know that d lin
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  Speaker 3: is gonna play with the first a certain physical presence
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  Speaker 3: in every game. And I think that the leadership obviously
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  Speaker 3: all starts with Cam Jordan up front. But it's gonna
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  Speaker 3: be a heck of a challenge for this Jacksonville group
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  Speaker 3: just to come into New Orleans. It's a loud place,
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  Speaker 3: It's a place that I've played a lot of football,
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  Speaker 3: and I know, there's a lot of challenges communication whilse
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  Speaker 3: you come in here. And then on top of that,
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  Speaker 3: they're a really good physical defense that plays a lot
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  Speaker 3: of Mando man, a lot of press coverage. They're going
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  Speaker 3: to challenge these skill guys to get off the ball
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  Speaker 3: and find ways to get open. So I think it's
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  Speaker 3: it's gonna be a fun match up to watch.
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  Speaker 1: Andrew Whitworth with us from Amazon Prime. Let's flip it around. Now,
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  Speaker 1: let's Jaguars defense overall playing good overall team defense. They
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  Speaker 1: lead the league and take away, they're third against the run.
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  Speaker 1: They really hang their hat on that thing. And there's
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  Speaker 1: been talk around here on our shows and things Andrew
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  Speaker 1: that there's really not a game wrecking player like one
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  Speaker 1: guy you really have to plan for on this defense.
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  Speaker 1: But Josh Allen might be taking some steps in that direction.
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  Speaker 1: At least he's playing some of his best football. What
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  Speaker 1: stands out about Alan now in year five for you
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  Speaker 1: when you when you have to look at him coming
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  Speaker 1: across from you, you know, how do you plan to
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  Speaker 1: slow down a guy like Josh?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think what's interesting with Josh.
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  Speaker 3: I really think it's something that's it's commendable and it's
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  Speaker 3: it's really what you see in that team a little bits,
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  Speaker 3: you know, as you as you become a franchise that
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  Speaker 3: you know, here they are, you know, with a great start,
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  Speaker 3: one they haven't experienced in recent years, you know, having
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  Speaker 3: four wins and being in this kind of seedy they're
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  Speaker 3: in right now, and like, hey, you look at over
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  Speaker 3: the last year and a half, really how well they've played.
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  Speaker 3: You're gonna need guys to step up and be just
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  Speaker 3: like we just talked about who Cam Jordan is for
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  Speaker 3: this Saints defense. You're gonna need that guy that you say,
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  Speaker 3: hey man, this is the identity. This is when we
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  Speaker 3: talk about the Jacksonville Jaguars defense. This is one of
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  Speaker 3: those guys we identify as this is how they play football.
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  Speaker 3: And I think Josh Allen, to me, it's not so
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  Speaker 3: much the moves or the capabilities and things that he has,
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  Speaker 3: it's how he plays. The effort, the energy you see
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  Speaker 3: the rundown, the chase down. Plays he's making all over
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  Speaker 3: the field where it's just purely the effort he's giving
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  Speaker 3: is why he's making this play. I think those things
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  Speaker 3: resonate and stick out, and then guys minds across that defense.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, we're gonna take pride and how we do things.
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  Speaker 3: They can look at a guy right there, a veteran
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  Speaker 3: who plays the game the way he should, you know,
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  Speaker 3: who's looking for that next opportunity for himself to get
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  Speaker 3: paid and to be you know, rewarded for how he plays,
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  Speaker 3: but is also setting the tone with the energy and
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  Speaker 3: effort he plays every snap with. I think that's really
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  Speaker 3: something that can't be talked about enough to be that way.
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  Speaker 3: And then you look at them, they'll be able to
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  Speaker 3: stop the run and be a turnover team.
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  Speaker 2: You know what.
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  Speaker 3: Sometimes I rather a team that gives up a ton
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  Speaker 3: of yards but turns the ball over any day, because
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  Speaker 3: to me, that's really what Dick takes games.
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  Speaker 2: I mean you really, you look at it.
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  Speaker 3: Outside of points, that turnover margin can tell you who
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  Speaker 3: wins and loses football games over and over and over again.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Andrew, final thoughts with you here. The Saints
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  Speaker 1: offense has had some moving parts this year as well. Right,
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  Speaker 1: Alfren Camara is back he missed the first few games.
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  Speaker 1: Derek Carr veteran quarterback, but they just haven't seemed to
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  Speaker 1: really find their sea legs offensively. Why have they been
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  Speaker 1: so clunky on offense in New Orleans.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think, you know, I think we're always in
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  Speaker 3: a hurry when we get people added to a team,
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  Speaker 3: especially when you start talking about quarterback position, multiple changes
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  Speaker 3: in the offensive line, sometimes skill players and those things.
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  Speaker 3: We all want those things to just mesh right away,
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  Speaker 3: right and we all expect, well, but you got this
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  Speaker 3: guy and that guy, and you just added this quarterback.
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  Speaker 3: We want to see it all look perfect from the jump.
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  Speaker 3: And I think that that's just not the reality of football.
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  Speaker 3: In football, it takes time, you know. I remember you so,
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  Speaker 3: I made a point last year we talked about some
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: of these Super Bowl teams having these lulls before they
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  Speaker 3: took off and got on these streaks. When Tom Brady
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: joined the Bucks, like, you know, everybody was big about it, Oh,
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  Speaker 3: it looks so special, and then there was this lull
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  Speaker 3: as like, oh man, they just they're not on the
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  Speaker 3: same page. It's not what it was supposed to be,
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  Speaker 3: you know. And then with Stafford, we had the same thing.
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  Speaker 3: In LA We kind of started good, then had this
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  Speaker 3: three game losing streak and it's like, oh man, that's
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  Speaker 3: just not what people thought it'd be. I just think
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: it takes more time than people think, and you need
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  Speaker 3: some situational things to go your way to have success.
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  Speaker 3: And then eventually, as you get to know each other
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  Speaker 3: and Derek Carr gets to really have a feel for
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  Speaker 3: all his skill guys in a game, Alvin Kamar, the
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  Speaker 3: offensive line, everything, I think you start to see some
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  Speaker 3: of that come together. And so I think the Saints
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  Speaker 3: football their best days are ahead of them still. But
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: I think it's a little more able. It's easier to
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  Speaker 3: explain than people think. I think it just takes time
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: in this lead to get on the same page. And
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  Speaker 3: you just haven't seen them take advantage of some of
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  Speaker 3: these ops they've had. They've had some plays that are there,
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  Speaker 3: they just haven't made and for whatever reason, these kind
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  Speaker 3: of in their own way. I think last week they
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  Speaker 3: took a positive step tons of yards, but struggled in
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  Speaker 3: the red zone. You know, they need to finish those drives.
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  Speaker 3: We'll see if they look like they've kind of found
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  Speaker 3: an answer there in the red zone this week.
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  Speaker 1: Are you buying the Jaguars this year?
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  Speaker 3: I am?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you look at it.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, what you know ten and three since their
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  Speaker 3: bye week last year. I mean, I think They're a
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  Speaker 3: team that, if you really look at it, has been
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: winning some football games and finding ways to win even
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: you know, I love that more than I want to
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: see teams dominate. I want to see a team that
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: continuously finds a way to win a football game. And
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: I really like as you look at those defense, not
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: only they created turnovers and done it, you know, to
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  Speaker 3: lead the league right now. They kind of talk about
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: it a lot, and it almost has given them this
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: edge like, hey, you know, I look at it's like
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: your safety valve, Like no matter what, like you might
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: get some yards on us, we feel like we can
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  Speaker 3: take the ball away. And when you start to grow
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  Speaker 3: confidence of that, and you see defenses that do that
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: every year, it just seems like they go on this
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  Speaker 3: crazy run and just keep getting those turnovers every week.
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  Speaker 3: And I think if they can do that and offensively
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  Speaker 3: continue to shore up to the line get healthier there,
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: they got the weapons and the athletes on both sides
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  Speaker 3: of the football field that I don't know why we
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: wouldn't think this team doesn't have a chance to win
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: this division and make a run in the playoffs, because
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: they showed last year they were right there. I mean,
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: just a couple plays from taking down the Chiefs and
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: moving on themselves, so I don't see why we wouldn't
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: be able to do it again.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Tough game tonight, Thursday Night on the road in the
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  Speaker 1: Caesars super Dome, Andrew Whitworth, Amazon Prime. Always a pleasure,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Appreciate the time, enjoy the game tonight.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you man, always