Latest / AFR Saints / Will Jeremiah Wright Replace Cesar Ruiz? Saints Offensive Line Breakdown

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Will Jeremiah Wright Replace Cesar Ruiz? Saints Offensive Line Breakdown · AFR Saints

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  Speaker 1: the New Orleans Saints won in New York on Sunday.
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  Speaker 1: New Jersey. In one of the more improbable games, as
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  Speaker 1: far as game flow, getting down 10, scoring 34 on answer,
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  Speaker 1: then having to hang on for dear life, literally a
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  Speaker 1: pass in the end zone with 12 seconds left that
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  Speaker 1: could have potentially tied or won the game if they'd
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  Speaker 1: gone for two. I think John Harbaugh would have gone
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  Speaker 1: for two, by the way. I think had they scored,
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  Speaker 1: I think the Giants were going for two in the win.
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  Speaker 1: May never know, but it worked out for the Saints.
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  Speaker 1: But one of the things that maybe the Saints were
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  Speaker 1: able to uncover is some semblance of a rushing offense. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to go overboard here because they ran
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  Speaker 1: for 175 against the Giants. I mean, the Giants came
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  Speaker 1: into that game ranked 29th. There it is. Yeah, the
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  Speaker 1: Giants came into the game ranked 29th against the run.
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  Speaker 1: So it's one of those things where it's like, if
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  Speaker 1: you can't run the ball against that team, can you
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  Speaker 1: run the ball against anybody? I mean, a fair question
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  Speaker 1: to ask. Well, the Saints go and they committed to
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  Speaker 1: the run, and they ran 38 times for 175. Tyler
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  Speaker 1: Shuck had a couple of nice runs as well. Tyler
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  Speaker 1: Shuck had the long run of the day for 25 yards,
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  Speaker 1: but I would even say One of the positives about
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  Speaker 1: the rushing offense is it wasn't like you had one
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  Speaker 1: big chunk play that skewed the stats. Kamara's long was 15, C.J.
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  Speaker 1: Donaldson's long was 17, Kendra's long was 11, and he
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  Speaker 1: had 20 carries in the game. So I like the
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  Speaker 1: fact that you actually committed to balance and committed to
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  Speaker 1: running the football. But there are two things that happened,
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  Speaker 1: and neither of them were intentional by this coaching staff,
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  Speaker 1: but the circumstance necessitated it, which might have allowed you
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  Speaker 1: to inadvertently stumble upon the answer to your issues running
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  Speaker 1: the football. It's almost like how we discovered penicillin. You
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  Speaker 1: left a petri dish uncovered and then the mold killed
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  Speaker 1: the virus. And it's like, oh, did we just find
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  Speaker 1: something amazing?
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  Speaker 2: Maybe.
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  Speaker 1: Well, like Cesar Ruiz getting hurt. And I'm not that
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  Speaker 1: I'm celebrating a guy getting hurt. Please don't misunderstand me.
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  Speaker 1: But with Ruiz getting hurt, Jeremiah Wright went into and
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  Speaker 1: Wright was the fourth-round pick from Auburn, and he is
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  Speaker 1: more of the physical road-grading offensive lineman. And then, because
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  Speaker 1: Kelvin Banks is hurt, and Asim Richards is just incapable
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  Speaker 1: of playing left tackle in the NFL, and was getting
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  Speaker 1: annihilated in that game by Abdul Carter, back-to-back holding penalties,
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  Speaker 1: they went to a 12-personnel look in the second half.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, I'm not giving you my observation. Drew
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  Speaker 1: Brees was talking about it on the broadcast, where you
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  Speaker 1: saw Jawan Johnson and Oscar Tell playing the bulk of
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  Speaker 1: the snaps in the second half with him with 12
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  Speaker 1: personnel to give help. So that might have been a
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  Speaker 1: thing that sort of inadvertently helped them find a way
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  Speaker 1: to get going offensively. Now, Saints coach Kellen Moore had
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  Speaker 1: a Zoom with the media on Monday and was asked
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  Speaker 1: what got the run game going.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think all 11 at the end of the
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  Speaker 2: day is all 11 physical up front. I thought our
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  Speaker 2: running backs ran really, really hard. You know, receivers get
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  Speaker 2: into the safeties and some of those things and tight
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  Speaker 2: ends battling. And I thought we had a good mix there.
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  Speaker 2: And so, you know, we got to continue that. We
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  Speaker 2: got to build on that. I thought some of our
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  Speaker 2: combination blocks when we were able to get those going,
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  Speaker 2: they were very effective.
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  Speaker 1: Rob might just put a moratorium on Ellen. Remember we
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  Speaker 1: did that with Alvin Gentry.
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  Speaker 2: Were you here?
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  Speaker 1: I was on OTB, but I remember the moratorium because
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  Speaker 1: I would have to fill in for brain every once
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  Speaker 1: in a while. When Alvin Gentry was the coach of
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  Speaker 1: the Pelicans, I put a moratorium on Alvin Gentry. So
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  Speaker 1: we're never playing another Alvin Gentry soundbite as long as
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  Speaker 1: he's the coach. It's just worthless. It's not worth your
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  Speaker 1: time or mine. And I'm getting there with Ellen. Ellen Moore.
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  Speaker 1: You're one of the worst running teams in the NFL.
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  Speaker 1: You actually get going. They ask you, hey, what happened?
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  Speaker 1: All 11. Let me give you the most ridiculous, cliched,
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  Speaker 1: nonsensical answer possible. Listening to him is worthless. It's just
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  Speaker 1: a waste of time. Anyway, in this game for the
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans Saints, I do think it's worth looking at
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  Speaker 1: what it was like with Ruiz and without Ruiz. Now,
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  Speaker 1: it's worth noting, Cesar Ruiz in this game played 29
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  Speaker 1: snaps and was your highest graded pass blocker. He graded
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  Speaker 1: an 86. C.J. Donaldson was next, then Eric McCoy at
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  Speaker 1: a 78. Tali Fuaga, 72.9. David Edwards, a 63. Jeremiah Wright,
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  Speaker 1: a 54. Asim Richards, a 43. So, from that perspective,
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  Speaker 1: it's not your answer. But I'm talking about the ability
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  Speaker 1: to run the ball. And Fulaga and McCoy were your
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  Speaker 1: top-rated run blockers. And then was Jeremiah Wright at a 61.9.
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  Speaker 1: And hasn't that kind of been the issue? Now, Ruiz, again,
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  Speaker 1: it's just PFF, graded a 59.7. So it's not like.
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  Speaker 1: Jeremiah Wright had this dramatically better grade than Ruiz, but
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  Speaker 1: it was better and was thrust in there in the
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  Speaker 1: middle of the game. And against my better judgment, I
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  Speaker 1: will let you hear what New Orleans Saints head football
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  Speaker 1: coach Kellen Moore had to say about Jeremiah Wright in
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  Speaker 1: his postgame after the Saints win.
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  Speaker 2: Jeremiah, certainly he's a really good blocker. He's a physical player.
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  Speaker 2: We saw that, obviously, through camp and all those different things,
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  Speaker 2: and we feel great about him. We feel like he
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  Speaker 2: can go contribute and play. I thought those other guys, though, Dave, Seas,
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  Speaker 2: I thought those guys did some good stuff as well.
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  Speaker 1: Getting closer to the moratorium. But it'll be interesting if
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  Speaker 1: Ruiz is injured and Wright has to play if we
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  Speaker 1: can see a continuation of the running offense get going
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  Speaker 1: This was, against my better judgment, New Orleans Saints head coach,
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  Speaker 1: Kellen Moore, giving an update on Cesar Ruiz's knee injury
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  Speaker 1: and how serious it is or could be.
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  Speaker 2: We'll see. You know, he'll get the MRI, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the goofy logistics. So I think he'll try and get
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  Speaker 2: an MRI as quickly as possible before we get out
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  Speaker 2: to Paris and collect as much information as we can.
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  Speaker 2: But he was moving around okay in the locker room.
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  Speaker 2: So we'll just see.
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  Speaker 1: Listen, you don't ever want an injury to a starter.
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  Speaker 1: You're already down your left tackle. And I understand the
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  Speaker 1: feeling a lot of Saints fans... I'm not saying anybody
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  Speaker 1: wants Cesar Ruiz, the human, to be hurt. We have
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  Speaker 1: talked about Cesar Ruiz for a long time here with
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  Speaker 1: his struggles within this offense. He has been the weak
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  Speaker 1: link on the offensive line. So I'm not talking about
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  Speaker 1: anybody wanting him to be injured. I'm not saying that.
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  Speaker 1: What I think is notable is it will be interesting
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  Speaker 1: to see if he can't play And you give Jeremiah
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  Speaker 1: Wright a full week with the first team offense and
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  Speaker 1: he gets a game against Pittsburgh. Cam Hayward on that
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  Speaker 1: defensive front. How it looks. That's just, it's something that
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  Speaker 1: we'll keep an eye on and see how it goes.
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  Speaker 1: And remember, we're talking about defense and run defense in
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  Speaker 1: Pittsburgh is kind of smack dab in the middle of
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  Speaker 1: the league in run defense at 103 yards per game.
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  Speaker 1: So let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
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  Speaker 1: They're 15th. So they're 15th in the NFL, just smack
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  Speaker 1: dab in the middle. So you're not going to get, like,
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  Speaker 1: they're dramatically better than the Giants, who are 29th in
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  Speaker 1: run defense, but they're not a top five run defense
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  Speaker 1: or anything like that. So this will be an interesting
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  Speaker 1: opportunity for new Orleans against that defense to see if
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  Speaker 1: you can run the ball again, because you have been
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  Speaker 1: an abysmal running team through the first five games of
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  Speaker 1: the season until you ran for one 75 on Sunday
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  Speaker 1: against the giants. Maybe part of it is Jeremiah, right?
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  Speaker 1: Maybe too tight end look, Maybe it's committing to it
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  Speaker 1: with Kendra Miller getting 20 rushes and C.J. Donaldson being
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  Speaker 1: a physical between-the-tackles runner. Maybe it's a combination of all
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  Speaker 1: those things. It could be. And I don't have the answer.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to extrapolate a definitive answer from a
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  Speaker 1: small sample size of roughly a half of football. But
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  Speaker 1: it's certainly something that we all need to keep a
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  Speaker 1: closer eye on moving forward because if this offense is
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  Speaker 1: going to get in gear, especially when Kelvin Banks comes
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  Speaker 1: back and Travis Aitken comes back they got to be
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  Speaker 1: able to run the football. And even when they had
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  Speaker 1: banks and Aitken, they were not running the football. They
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  Speaker 1: did on Sunday. Let's see what you do for an encore.
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  Speaker 1: We'll keep an eye on that right guard spot as well.