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Leonard Williams: "We Had Great Energy Today & It Showed" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: To say that was your most dominant game this team.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that definitely was my most dominant game
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: since being a part of the Seahawks. And uh, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it was interesting because I woke up this morning just
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: with a great feeling, and uh, pretty much everyone I
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: approached before the game, I was just like, I got
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: a good feeling about this game. I got a good
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  Speaker 2: feeling about this game, and it wasn't directed towards my
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: personal success. It was directed towards like the team success.
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  Speaker 2: I just had a great feeling about it. But I
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  Speaker 2: just had great energy at that today and it showed.
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  Speaker 2: I think there was you know, a few leaders like
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  Speaker 2: met up before the Niners game and pretty much talked
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  Speaker 2: about how we're pretty much in playoff mode. It was
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  Speaker 2: like right after the bye week, we had uh, two
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  Speaker 2: divisional opponents coming up back to back, and we knew
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  Speaker 2: where we were in the division rankings and stuff like that.
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  Speaker 2: So ever since we had that conversation, we've been treating
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  Speaker 2: it like playoffs. And since then, I just feel like
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  Speaker 2: our team is just coming closer together. We're playing with
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  Speaker 2: great energy, just great great energy. Is there? You woken
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  Speaker 2: up before with that kind of feeling and had a.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Good game as well.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, for sure. I mean there's times where you
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  Speaker 2: know you're just getting the zone as an athlete. There's
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  Speaker 2: certain games where you just it kind of slows down
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  Speaker 2: for you at times, like one of those plays. My
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  Speaker 2: favorite play today actually that I had was the TfL
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  Speaker 2: that I had just because I didn't get too much
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  Speaker 2: practice this week because I was like dealing with some stuff.
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  Speaker 2: But because I didn't practice too much, I was able
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  Speaker 2: to like watch more film and that specific play I
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  Speaker 2: can tell when those two guys were pulling and I
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  Speaker 2: just it just like slowed down for me, and uh,
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  Speaker 2: you know, that's one of those moments when you're just
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  Speaker 2: in the zone and you know you're like you're letting
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  Speaker 2: people feed off of you. I was feeding off of
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  Speaker 2: the crowd. The twelves are just really loud out there today,
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  Speaker 2: so it was a great energy all around. What is
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  Speaker 2: the key to keeping Kyler and check like you did
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  Speaker 2: today keeping him from long scrambles? To me, it's just
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  Speaker 2: a collective effort as a past rush group. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I just said something about that about it out there
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  Speaker 2: a second ago that you know, although I had a
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  Speaker 2: great game in some of those sacks. You know, I
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  Speaker 2: don't take full credit for him. It was a group
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  Speaker 2: effort and for us, it was all about collapsing the
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  Speaker 2: inside of the pocket. I feel like it's like that
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  Speaker 2: for any scrambler, but Kyler specifically because he's a little
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  Speaker 2: bit shorter. If you put an offensive lineman on his toes,
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  Speaker 2: it's kind of hard for him to see over that
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  Speaker 2: guy and get the ball out. So that's when he
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  Speaker 2: like pumps the ball and has to step back sometimes.
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  Speaker 2: So h that was allowing us to get to him.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: You mentioned the crowd being good and as much. How
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  Speaker 1: big of a for you guys to get back to
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  Speaker 1: winning at home after a tough stretch.
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  Speaker 2: Oh that was huge. I mean we talked about that
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  Speaker 2: we've been playing. We had a joke about being road
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  Speaker 2: warriors this year because we've been playing well on the road.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, bringing a win back to Loomingfield is
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  Speaker 2: is amazing. These fans deserve it. They bring it every game,
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  Speaker 2: regardless of how the season's going and stuff like that.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm glad we're able to bring a win back
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  Speaker 2: to them. Message shut down to very potent offenses back
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: to back weeks look like a different team when that's
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  Speaker 2: type of the ball since to buy a week, what
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  Speaker 2: do you think has changed? I mean, the biggest part
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: is being able to handle the run, uh in my opinion,
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  Speaker 2: because if you allow teams to run the ball, then
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  Speaker 2: they're staying on their terms down the down, the stretch
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  Speaker 2: of the of the drive and you know, we're we're
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  Speaker 2: putting them in backed up situations, making them getting get
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  Speaker 2: back on track situations. And that's when we're allowing you know,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Mike to call his plays and uh, you know, we
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  Speaker 2: trust in his players, and there's been times we just
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  Speaker 2: haven't been able to get to the to the plays
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  Speaker 2: we want to run because we're not in the situations
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  Speaker 2: to run them. And I think it all starts with
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  Speaker 2: stopping the run on for us down and getting them
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  Speaker 2: in manageable situations for your friends to see forty nine
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  Speaker 2: yards and Jims corn repeat yards on the seven carriers.
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  Speaker 2: How how rewarding is that for you guys, knowing.
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  Speaker 1: That that's what you starting to get.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, that's really rewarding. Like like he just said,
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  Speaker 2: it showed up back to back weeks of us doing
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  Speaker 2: good against the run game. You know, that's credit to
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  Speaker 2: everybody on the defense. The front getting knocked back on
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  Speaker 2: their blocks and the linebackers coming downhill and you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's keeps showing up and I think we just got
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  Speaker 2: to keep growing off of it.
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  Speaker 1: What do you keep a team out of the end
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  Speaker 1: zone in this league?
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  Speaker 2: What's up?
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  Speaker 1: So what's the mean to keep a team out of
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  Speaker 1: the end zone?
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  Speaker 2: For me, that's a mindset. There's times where you know,
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  Speaker 2: offense might throw an interception, or something might happen on
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  Speaker 2: special teams or anything like that, and we just end
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  Speaker 2: up in the red zone. Or you know, even if
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  Speaker 2: we give up a huge chunk player or something like that,
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  Speaker 2: we're in the red zone. Uh. That's when you really
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  Speaker 2: have to like check in with each other, like look
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  Speaker 2: each other in the eyes and be like, hey, they're
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  Speaker 2: not about to score a touchdown right now. So to me,
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  Speaker 2: that's a mindset. And I just feel that, like I said,
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  Speaker 2: that collectiveness, that cohesion just growing more and more on
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  Speaker 2: this defense. You could tell when you look each other
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  Speaker 2: in the eyes that it's like, Okay, we got this,
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  Speaker 2: you know what I mean? And Uh, there was times
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  Speaker 2: in the beginning of the season I didn't feel that
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  Speaker 2: same thing when I would look at a teammate in
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  Speaker 2: his eyes. Like there's times where we were in a
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: game and we're kind of down and Yah would look
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  Speaker 2: someone in the eyes and they didn't have that same
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  Speaker 2: fight in them, And uh, I feel like now we're
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  Speaker 2: on that track and it means more. Where do you
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  Speaker 2: think it changed? What was the GPS? I'm not sure
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  Speaker 2: exactly what it was that made it change, but like
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  Speaker 2: I said, as like part of it was that leadership
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  Speaker 2: group meeting and saying that this is the playoffs, and
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  Speaker 2: I think like that made it like just crunch time
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  Speaker 2: for us. We just understood the urgency of getting the
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  Speaker 2: job done and just taking it week by week.
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  Speaker 1: What were you thinking when they look like you at
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the fourth oun stop and then they said you had
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  Speaker 1: time out, so you had.
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  Speaker 2: To do it again there and the results and Kobe's touchdown,
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  Speaker 2: Oh that was that was awesome Because I wasn't on
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  Speaker 2: the field, so I was trying to remember, but yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that was an awesome play just because I remember we
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  Speaker 2: called a time out even though we and then we
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  Speaker 2: got the stop which was incompletion, and then they ran
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  Speaker 2: another play but it ended up being even better picked
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  Speaker 2: six and uh, you know that was just credit to
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  Speaker 2: Mike just knowing that he had a better call in
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  Speaker 2: is uh in his arsenal and uh and made it work.
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  Speaker 1: You told us a few weeks ago you felt like
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  Speaker 1: part of the should run the fest. Those guys weren't
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  Speaker 1: trusting what's.
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  Speaker 2: Going on around them. Mmm.
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  Speaker 1: You feel like having Hurnist Jones in there is helping
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  Speaker 1: the average with that trust.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think he's made a huge impact on this defense.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I really love that addition bringing him in.
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  Speaker 2: He's a great guy. He's still young, Uh, still got
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  Speaker 2: a lot of ball ahead of him. So I'm looking
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  Speaker 2: forward to playing with them in the future as well.
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  Speaker 2: And uh, you know, he's a d He's definitely a
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  Speaker 2: guy that I can trust behind me.
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  Speaker 1: When you mentioned the leadership group coming together, who are
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  Speaker 1: those guys who.
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  Speaker 2: Kind of put their heads together? And Uh, I can't
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  Speaker 2: mention exactly who's on the leadership group just because we
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  Speaker 2: don't have like captains on the team. Uh supposedly, like
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  Speaker 2: you know, nobody wears a seat on their chests or
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  Speaker 2: anything like that. But uh, there's a lot of leaders
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  Speaker 2: in the in the team, and and uh, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to just point out those specific guys
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  Speaker 2: and make it seem like they're their only leaders.
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  Speaker 1: So what did a lot today about energy?
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  Speaker 2: What does energy do for this defense?
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  Speaker 1: When you have energy, it provides what for this defense?
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  Speaker 2: I mean to me, that's what defense is about. Offenses
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  Speaker 2: a little more like you want the crowd to be quiet.
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  Speaker 2: You want to take your time, like get to the
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  Speaker 2: get to your landmarks and stuff like that. Defense is
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  Speaker 2: all about, you know, just crashing out. You know, obviously
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  Speaker 2: we want to be where we're supposed to be and
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  Speaker 2: stuff like that. But at the same time, it's like
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  Speaker 2: sometimes a ball might get through my gap, but we'll
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  Speaker 2: make up for it with the energy that we have.
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  Speaker 2: On defensive, everyone's flying to the ball and we gain
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  Speaker 2: tackle that guy after someone messes up or something like that,
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  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So I feel like defense
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  Speaker 2: is all about the energy.
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  Speaker 1: You mentioned the leadership group. But some of the young
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  Speaker 1: guys now, the way they're stepping on the defense side
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  Speaker 1: of the ball of Tyree's playing a linebacker, Devin's play
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  Speaker 1: as Kobe's play today, how are you seeing the young
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  Speaker 1: guys now feed off of the direction from the veteran
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  Speaker 1: players and maybe start to carry some of that leadership Mantel.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, to me, it's
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  Speaker 2: all about understanding your role. Regardless of what your role, Liz,
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  Speaker 2: do it to the best. And uh, you know, we
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: had some some Seal Team people come in and uh,
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  Speaker 2: I think that was one thing that I took a
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  Speaker 2: lot from those guys, is they talked about understanding their role,
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  Speaker 2: whether it's like preparing the cockpit or anything like that.
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  Speaker 2: As and and I feel like that's the same thing
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  Speaker 2: with the young guys. Is you know when they when
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  Speaker 2: they put tea night up to start, Uh, he understood
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  Speaker 2: his role and understood what he had to do. And
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  Speaker 2: uh he's been doing a great job at it. Anything else,
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  Speaker 2: thanks leaving, Thank you,