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Football at Four: Expectations for Brandon Graham's Return to the Eagles+More · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Football and four powered by the Inside of the Birds Podcast,
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  Speaker 1: brought to you by the Fanatic sportsbook Ocean Casino Resort
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  Speaker 1: in Atlantic City. Adam Kaplan's here today. You heard from
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  Speaker 1: both coordinators. Brandon Graham is back. What is his expectations
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  Speaker 1: for BG and the Planet Edge moving forward? Plus what
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  Speaker 1: did Adam see in the win over the Vikings. We
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  Speaker 1: got that Ed Moore right now for today's edition of
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  Speaker 1: Football at four on the Sports Bass Live on ninety
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  Speaker 1: seven three ESPN with our friend Adam Kaplan from the
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  Speaker 1: Inside of the Birds podcast.
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  Speaker 2: Adam, Mike, good to talk to you today. Yeah, it
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  Speaker 2: was a really interesting game.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: It's funny because we do the pregame show with Greg
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  Speaker 2: co Sell and Jeff and I and you know, we talked
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  Speaker 2: about some of the things you can do, you know
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  Speaker 2: with the other Viking statistically earbit against the run. Seemed
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  Speaker 2: early on that that was going to happen. You know,
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  Speaker 2: they came out running, which we thought they would do.
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  Speaker 2: Then they struggled against with the running game and went
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  Speaker 2: back to normal like they've struggled every game. So what
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  Speaker 2: do you do? You you gotta turn to something else.
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  Speaker 2: And I've said this whole season. I know people don't
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  Speaker 2: want them to become a passing team. But when it's
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  Speaker 2: not worked, not working, Mike, try something else. And they
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  Speaker 2: did that and you look, it worked in the second half.
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  Speaker 2: Really not much in the first half, but second half
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  Speaker 2: of his bombs away. We had mentioned in our pregame
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  Speaker 2: show the voids and coverage. Despite what the numbers say,
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  Speaker 2: the tip shows differently. They're tremendous voids and biking his
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  Speaker 2: own coverage and void. It hurts Patoula DeVante Smith and
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  Speaker 2: made that one play suggestion. It all worked, It all
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  Speaker 2: worked together, and that now I know. And we'll get
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  Speaker 2: into this, Mike, we'll get to the defense. People want
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  Speaker 2: to are gonna want to know, Well, could they do
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  Speaker 2: this every week? That's a million dollar question, Mike about
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  Speaker 2: this passing game and offense overall.
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  Speaker 1: Well, right, I mean everybody's like, wow, is the offense
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  Speaker 1: back on track? I mean we have people texting in like, hey,
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  Speaker 1: you can't just throw bombs down the field every single
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  Speaker 1: week and you have that be your philosophy here. So
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  Speaker 1: is the offense back on track? And they still have problems?
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  Speaker 1: It appears that it might be the latter it's tb
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  Speaker 1: I think we lost Adam here on the Sports Bash
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  Speaker 1: Live ninety seven three, ESPN will try to reconnect with
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  Speaker 1: Adam Kaplan here from the Inside the Birds podcast, and
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  Speaker 1: it sounds like he was saying, it's a TBD situation
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  Speaker 1: with this Eagles offense moving forward here trying to get
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  Speaker 1: the Eagles offense back on track. You know, one of
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  Speaker 1: the things that I would say is can you throw
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  Speaker 1: bombs down the field every single week? You can, but
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  Speaker 1: you gotta do things to set it up. You can't
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  Speaker 1: just come out firing, you know, balls down the field
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  Speaker 1: every single drive. You gotta do things to set that up,
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  Speaker 1: and you gotta do things that you can build off
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  Speaker 1: of that. And one of those things to do build
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  Speaker 1: off of that would be to be able to throw.
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  Speaker 1: So maybe even short passes, how about screen passes, how
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  Speaker 1: about little stuff out the backfield? How about little dump offs?
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  Speaker 1: How about things that you can ultimately try and you know,
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  Speaker 1: get the ball to your playmakers, say Quan Partley, even
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  Speaker 1: a guy like Will Shipley. Get those guys out in
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  Speaker 1: space and see what you can do. And see if
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  Speaker 1: you can get those guys out in space and let
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  Speaker 1: them get one all one in the open field and
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  Speaker 1: make guys miss. That really is a big thing that
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  Speaker 1: this team has kind of struggled with. It's the fact
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  Speaker 1: that they have to get guys out in space to
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  Speaker 1: try to loose. If you can't run the ball, dump
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  Speaker 1: it out to that because you know, one of the
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  Speaker 1: things they're not doing is where's the runs to the outside.
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  Speaker 1: How about a pitch in a poll, right, get a
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  Speaker 1: guy out pulling and get him out in space and
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  Speaker 1: see if they can get some of these guys out
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  Speaker 1: on the outside. All right, we got at them back
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  Speaker 1: here on the Sports Bass Live. You were saying that
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  Speaker 1: the offense back on track TB D and then you
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  Speaker 1: were gone, yeah, you felt like the offense.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, Mike, No, that that was my point with
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  Speaker 2: the Eagles offense in the passing game. Let's see a
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  Speaker 2: full game, Mike, of a good passing game before we
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  Speaker 2: say it's back. But look, the good thing is that
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  Speaker 2: you saw something really good, hurts with phenomenal in the
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  Speaker 2: second half. I would I'd like to see from Patoulo.
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  Speaker 2: Is something I've mentioned with Kellen Moore last year and
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  Speaker 2: the same thing with Batuolo hol Pertz. Get rid of
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  Speaker 2: the ball faster like this game didn't matter in the
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  Speaker 2: second half. Hey, the protection was incredible. Another part of
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  Speaker 2: this passing game has been despite what people think, it's not.
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  Speaker 2: It's not their offensive line blocking that is getting this
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  Speaker 2: job done. We know it's not. It's there. It's their
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  Speaker 2: pass blocking. Mic. It's actually been very underrated, really good
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  Speaker 2: this season, which you would expect. But people are killing
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  Speaker 2: the running game. There their their run blocking, which is true.
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  Speaker 2: But the pass blocking was great. But however, what hurts
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  Speaker 2: struggles sometimes the whole and he's hold on the football. Well,
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  Speaker 2: you gotta structure the offense to get it out of
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  Speaker 2: the stands faster. And that's something that throughout his career, Mike,
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  Speaker 2: it comes up a lot when he holds on the
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  Speaker 2: ball too long.
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  Speaker 1: So what do you think their past run philosophy is
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  Speaker 1: right now on offense?
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  Speaker 2: Well, look, they want to be a running team. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: this is what we learned last year and they tried
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  Speaker 2: to do it. You have two choices in the National
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  Speaker 2: Football League, actually three. You could be a balanced team,
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  Speaker 2: which is a pass run Pass run ratio is fifty
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  Speaker 2: five to forty five pass. It's typical. You could do
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  Speaker 2: what the Eagles did last year. They were the only
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  Speaker 2: NFL team to run the ball more than they passed
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  Speaker 2: it and also only NFL team to run the ball
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  Speaker 2: more than they passed in the first half. But they
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  Speaker 2: can't do that anymore because they can't run the ball.
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  Speaker 2: They're trying. You can't just not run it. But well,
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  Speaker 2: you know what do they want to do? They love
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  Speaker 2: to run, They like to be a running team, but
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  Speaker 2: they can't now. The other problem is Mike. Now with
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  Speaker 2: the Jergon injury, we've outlined all football at for for
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  Speaker 2: several weeks. My lot has not played as well. Lan
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  Speaker 2: Johnson struggling a little bit with the shoulder, though he's
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  Speaker 2: getting better. Uh, you've got seeing it right guard. Who's
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  Speaker 2: new Dickerson coming back from the left ankle, Opentry now Jurgen.
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  Speaker 2: So it's you got to take what you can get.
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  Speaker 2: And what they really should do is start leaning towards
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  Speaker 2: the pass war because a hurt has got a great arm.
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  Speaker 2: Help him out with getting out of his hands quickly.
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  Speaker 2: As they just said fast hurt. Particulate if the deep
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  Speaker 2: pass game is not working, and go with what works.
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  Speaker 2: And by the way, now I'm not complaining, but got
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  Speaker 2: it really to get the ball that you should have
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  Speaker 2: in the second half. But look, Smith was incredible. He's
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  Speaker 2: got a great season so far. Brown and I we
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  Speaker 2: we didn't mention it. The the cryptic tweet on ig
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  Speaker 2: which I actually understand a little.
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  Speaker 1: Bit, but Confucius, What does he say here? Confucius? Because
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  Speaker 1: I'm thinking, I'm thinking to myself, what is this guy doing? Now?
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  Speaker 2: Well, this is the way I read this one. This
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  Speaker 2: one I kind of understood. So there's a clip out
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  Speaker 2: there where basically, you know, I'm not going to go
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  Speaker 2: deep into it, but my interpretation of the sound clip
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  Speaker 2: that's out there or reading the lipslows he wants to
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  Speaker 2: be the primary play a lot more, the primary pass
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  Speaker 2: target number one in the progression instead of okay, the
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  Speaker 2: play broke down, so I got the football. That's what
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  Speaker 2: I've not By the way, fast forwarding is what I meant.
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  Speaker 2: I read them through the I G post. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: unless you talk to ag Brian truly not gonna know.
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  Speaker 2: But that would be my interpretation when I when it
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  Speaker 2: was shown to me, because that there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: random randomness to this task game. Uh you see this
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  Speaker 2: with Patrick Mahomes a lot, but it works and AJ's
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  Speaker 2: is going to learn or have he knows already. As
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  Speaker 2: long as he's going to be here, a lot of
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  Speaker 2: players are going to break down, and it's you may
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  Speaker 2: not be the guy that, you may not be the
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  Speaker 2: primary in the play, or you you might have been,
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  Speaker 2: but you're not getting it, or you're you're you're the primary,
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  Speaker 2: someone else gets it, or you're not the primary, and
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  Speaker 2: somehow you get it because it's because Hurts is running
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  Speaker 2: around when he shouldn't be runing around. That that because
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  Speaker 2: it's Josh Allen. But the big one is Mahomes when
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  Speaker 2: you see it, when when you have to come back
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  Speaker 2: to the football, this is just the way it is,
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  Speaker 2: and he clearly doesn't like it. That's that would be
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  Speaker 2: my interpretation of these cryptic social media posts without talking
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  Speaker 2: to the guy. And look, he's like one more thing.
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  Speaker 2: You heard what he said last year, what's wrong with
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  Speaker 2: the offense the passing game? Like he came out and
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  Speaker 2: said that like you coulda turped out a bunch of ways.
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  Speaker 2: Sure you're talking about Kellen Moore and you're talking about
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  Speaker 2: Jalen Hurts. This is last year.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and listen, you're right. And and I go back
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  Speaker 1: to what he said in the Super Bowl of him
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  Speaker 1: winning the super Bowl and it was unfulfilling, and it's like, okay,
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  Speaker 1: then why what is fulfilling to you? I don't get it, Like,
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  Speaker 1: what if you win the super Bowl? What is the feeling?
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  Speaker 1: And then this week he has a monster game and
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  Speaker 1: that's not good enough. So it gets to a breaking
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  Speaker 1: point of all right now, listen. I try not to
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  Speaker 1: pick too much, read too much into this. He seems
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  Speaker 1: like a guy man. I like just hearing him talking,
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  Speaker 1: He's like a very intelligent, very calculated kind of guy,
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  Speaker 1: and almost like he can pull the steams what he
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  Speaker 1: feels like.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've talked to I talked to the Titans coaches
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  Speaker 2: at the time of the trade get a feel for
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  Speaker 2: what he's like. But I think I put this out
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  Speaker 2: on your show and on Instid the Bird, I talked
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  Speaker 2: about it. So one of the Titans told me that
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  Speaker 2: is as much as they respected Ryan Tannehill AJ Brown,
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  Speaker 2: and this person's mind was the heartbeat and the soul
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  Speaker 2: of the football team because he connects so wealth people.
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  Speaker 2: He's a really good dude, great with his teammates here
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  Speaker 2: and in Tennessee. But I just feel like he's so
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  Speaker 2: frustrated that he's not getting the ball when he thinks
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  Speaker 2: he should get the ball. I look, receivers sometimes act
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  Speaker 2: out that he's IM sure he's told his coaches this.
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  Speaker 1: It's not like he's Do you get this sense that
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  Speaker 1: he would rather go someplace else if the team wasn't
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  Speaker 1: as good, if he was Like, I don't get that
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  Speaker 1: sense either.
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  Speaker 2: He doesn't see he said this last year. He didn't
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  Speaker 2: when when when he made not just a comment about
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  Speaker 2: what's wrong with the offense, he made other comments. He
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  Speaker 2: said he didn't want to be that guy. Well, people
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  Speaker 2: brought up out tur Lewans and that stuff with McNabb. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that's the people have worked with Brown that I've talked
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  Speaker 2: to over the years. It's not like that. But I
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  Speaker 2: also don't think it helped. Like do you really have
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  Speaker 2: to go to social media to vn I just how
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  Speaker 2: does it help? Though it helps him?
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  Speaker 1: That's a generation way behind us, Adam that really you know,
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  Speaker 1: that's their life, right, Like they do get a lot
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  Speaker 1: of uh, I don't know, dopamine off of the reactions
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  Speaker 1: that they put out there for people.
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  Speaker 2: I guess, well, you gotta be careful with that. Now. Now,
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  Speaker 2: look here's the thing. They still want a Super Bowl
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  Speaker 2: last year. They're a really good team. They're five and two.
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  Speaker 2: We'll talk more Friday about the matchup against the Giants,
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  Speaker 2: but it's uh. Their Eagles are a very interesting football team.
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  Speaker 1: Well, the matchup Behians is a lot more interesting than
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  Speaker 1: we thought it would be too. I mean the way
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  Speaker 1: this team, you know, they beat you and then really
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  Speaker 1: they should have won the game against Denver last week.
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  Speaker 1: I do want to get into real quick because I
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  Speaker 1: know we're in short the defense right now. Any concerns
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  Speaker 1: on the defense and then adding Brandon Graham and the
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  Speaker 1: expectations for this bringing Graham.
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  Speaker 2: Back, All right, Mike, let's start with the latter with
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  Speaker 2: Brandon Graham. BG is going to have a limited role
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  Speaker 2: this season. He did last year, but he was phenomenal.
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  Speaker 2: I Jeff and I interviewed him for the season started,
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  Speaker 2: and I asked him that Rams game, which I would
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  Speaker 2: argue was he tormented Warren mcclennon the tackle for the Rams.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's one of the best games ever seen
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  Speaker 2: by any Eagles edge rusher in a number of years.
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  Speaker 2: Just was incredible that they was perfect. When they started
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  Speaker 2: winding down, Beg's role to play somewhere around a third
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  Speaker 2: of the snaps. But I love what Vic Fangio said.
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  Speaker 2: I heard I heard you talking about it before I
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  Speaker 2: came on. You can't just pitch an old So in
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  Speaker 2: the first week they're back. You saw with Zadarius Smith,
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  Speaker 2: they saw he was in good football shape. Now he
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  Speaker 2: played right away. The difference between that is big is older.
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  Speaker 2: Plus he's coming back from a follow up surgery on
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  Speaker 2: the triceps, so they don't know till they get him.
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  Speaker 2: But Fanjo wouldn't roll out him playing this week, and
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  Speaker 2: I get it. And Mike, they are entire straight to
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  Speaker 2: the edge, so so similar role to the last year.
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  Speaker 2: He knows the defense, No, I know, Vic said, he
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  Speaker 2: has to see what his recall is. Bgi's one of
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  Speaker 2: the most savvy defensive players you have had in decades.
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  Speaker 2: He'll be fine. And he's thirty seven. You just don't
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  Speaker 2: know how many STAPs he can handle. But Mike, they
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  Speaker 2: are so far down and you heard him say, oh,
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  Speaker 2: Ja Luri doesn't think he's gonna play.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that was pretty concrete.
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  Speaker 2: How about that? Yeah, we have kangas right now. Patrick
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  Speaker 2: Johnson should be a fet not a third.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was pretty concrete on Ojilar. He did not
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  Speaker 1: think he was going to play. Uh so that brings
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  Speaker 1: up other concerns on the defense. What a you know
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  Speaker 1: what's interesting. We opened up the show, say, look this
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  Speaker 1: Sea's five and two, which is probably where we thought
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  Speaker 1: they would be, just not the two you thought they
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  Speaker 1: would be and not the five how you thought they
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  Speaker 1: would get them. But the defense looked like it was
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  Speaker 1: going to be a big part of this offense of
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  Speaker 1: this team. And now there's concerns there.
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  Speaker 2: Mike. No, we said before thee started, when I gave
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  Speaker 2: you what my concerns for the season started, I said,
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  Speaker 2: corn opser Mitchell, Yes, obviously an edge I didn't think
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  Speaker 2: I told it. I talked about this on our shows
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  Speaker 2: on Inside of the Birton August. I did not think
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  Speaker 2: that Jaelex Hunt was ready to be that edge rusher yet.
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  Speaker 2: Now could he have a Nolan Smith turn around in season? Sure,
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  Speaker 2: he's good against the run, he's got good lance, athleticism,
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  Speaker 2: will and learn are very intelligent. But he's just not
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  Speaker 2: there as a pass rusher. And they they've got a
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  Speaker 2: major problem at edge rush. Like the Beiji signing is
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  Speaker 2: not going to impact anything at the trade deadline. This
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  Speaker 2: is just a depth signing and it's Jeff and I
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  Speaker 2: know we know that, you know that he's been in
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  Speaker 2: talks with people with Eagles for a while. So it
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  Speaker 2: got exacerbated because of Zadarius Smith. Then, uh, just by
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  Speaker 2: the way, sudden nobody knew that was coming. Now you
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  Speaker 2: got the Ojelari injury. I mean, it's just crazy how
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  Speaker 2: this stuff is happening. And now now when you watch
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: for those who watch or listen to the inside of
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: the tape show tomorrow with Greg Ostato on John Campbell's role,
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  Speaker 2: it's not quite what you thought. We're gonna let Greg
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  Speaker 2: talk about that tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: Vic talked about it, but he really did not Campbell
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  Speaker 2: really worked much as an ad rushers. You think people
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  Speaker 2: thought it was mostly as a team played mostly in bass,
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  Speaker 2: which is when you're and they moved Campbell to edge
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  Speaker 2: as an ad in defender against the run. It's not
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  Speaker 2: quite what people thought. I thought it was more edge,
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  Speaker 2: but Greg kind of corrected us, and that's not what
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  Speaker 2: the tape looked like. In VIC more or less confirmed it, though.
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  Speaker 2: It's just a little bit bit of a different interpretation
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  Speaker 2: for VIC. But it's in the same ballpark. But the
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  Speaker 2: bottom line is they got to have let see Campbell
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  Speaker 2: on third down and like four or more in obvious
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  Speaker 2: past Russian situations. What do they have to lose at
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  Speaker 2: this point, Mike, they've run out of players. Yeah, they
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  Speaker 2: brought out a players.
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  Speaker 1: Well, they're playing a giant team that gave them a
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  Speaker 1: ass whip in the last time. Quite frankly, they beat
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  Speaker 1: them up in all facets of the game. Adam Kaplan's back.
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  Speaker 1: On Friday, we will break down Eagles Giants, which you
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  Speaker 1: can listen to right here on ninety seven three ESPN.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks Adam, Thank you. All Right Inside the Birds podcasts
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  Speaker 1: available on all podcasting platforms. Football at four available right
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: here on the Sports back