Latest / AFR Saints / Saints-Raiders Preview: Mike Triplett on New Orleans’ Win Over Baltimore

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Saints-Raiders Preview: Mike Triplett on New Orleans’ Win Over Baltimore · AFR Saints

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  Speaker 1: let's do it. Saints Raiders. Mike Triplett joins us. How
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  Speaker 1: are you, Mike?
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  Speaker 2: Good. How are you?
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  Speaker 1: I'm doing awesome. As an eight and a half point
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  Speaker 1: road dog to get the outright win, where does that
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  Speaker 1: rate on the surprise meter with the Saints beating the Ravens?
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  Speaker 2: I did not. I mean, that line felt a little
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  Speaker 2: high to me. I picked them to lose by four.
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  Speaker 2: So half as surprising as the Vegas line. How about that?
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  Speaker 1: Okay. Fair enough. Was there anything in the game that
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  Speaker 1: transpired that you thought, I didn't see it that way?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, holding the Ravens to three points in the
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  Speaker 2: second half, absolutely. I mean, early on, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: Saints defense has done a really good job. They've had
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  Speaker 2: to face some incredibly explosive guys, Jameer Gibbs and that
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  Speaker 2: Lions offense, and then Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson. And
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  Speaker 2: they've done a good job of not letting anyone just,
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  Speaker 2: you know, get one-play touchdowns, big explosive plays against them. But,
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  Speaker 2: you know, in the first half of that game, Derrick
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  Speaker 2: Henry was getting five yards when he had to get
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  Speaker 2: five yards. They were moving the chains. They were having
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  Speaker 2: 12-play touchdown drives, I think, and then 10-play touchdown drives.
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  Speaker 2: And I expected that to continue for them to then
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  Speaker 2: come back out after halftime and hold Derrick Henry to
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  Speaker 2: five carries and kind of shut that part of their
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  Speaker 2: game down and hold them to three total points. Real
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  Speaker 2: big statement for that side of the ball. Obviously, everything
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  Speaker 2: Tyler Shuck and the offense did It was incredible. It's
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  Speaker 2: adding to the legend of Tyler Shuck, but holding them
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  Speaker 2: to three points in the second half was quite a feat.
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  Speaker 1: Agreed on the defense. They've largely been outstanding through two weeks.
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  Speaker 1: I can't help but wonder, though, is that secondary better
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  Speaker 1: than I thought, or were they the beneficiary of not
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  Speaker 1: having to face Flowers and Lane and kind of catching
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  Speaker 1: a break there? What do you think?
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  Speaker 2: Probably both. They were my biggest concern, question mark, whatever
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  Speaker 2: you say. Now, I didn't come into the season thinking
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  Speaker 2: automatically that they weren't going to be good enough, but
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  Speaker 2: it was just a little bit of the tightrope of
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  Speaker 2: this team was, you know, is Kool-Aid going to be
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  Speaker 2: good enough to face the number one guys? Is Quincy
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  Speaker 2: Riley going to be good enough to be the other
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  Speaker 2: starting corner? Is Jonas Sanker going to be good enough
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  Speaker 2: in the star role? Is Julian Blackman going to be
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  Speaker 2: able to stay healthy for the first time in a
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  Speaker 2: couple years? And so far, the answers to all those
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  Speaker 2: questions have been yes. I mean, they're not perfect. They're
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  Speaker 2: not unbeatable, but they have not been a weakness at all.
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  Speaker 2: They've really held up their end of the bargain.
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  Speaker 1: Mike Triplett's with us. NewOrleans.football, NewOrleans.football. You can get him
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  Speaker 1: at Mike Triplett. Mikey, there's one thing. So we can
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  Speaker 1: switch and talk offense. And you said that the offense
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  Speaker 1: obviously was outstanding, everything Tyler Shuck. The one thing that
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  Speaker 1: hasn't been is that I thought would be is the
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  Speaker 1: run game. They're currently 27th. Now it's two weeks. It's
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  Speaker 1: a small sample. I'm not trying to overreact, but what
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  Speaker 1: isn't working with the run game right now?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the problem is that it's not a small sample size, right?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it was, it, it was their biggest deficiency
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  Speaker 2: last year. It was the thing they tried most to
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  Speaker 2: fix this off season through, you know, the, the coaching
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  Speaker 2: staff talking about trying to fix it and the personnel
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  Speaker 2: moves that they made. Um, and to see it come
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  Speaker 2: out and look just like it did last year has
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  Speaker 2: been a huge disappointment. And, and it's even worse than
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  Speaker 2: the numbers suggest in my mind, because they've been late
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  Speaker 2: in games when they've been coming back and they've been
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  Speaker 2: going into no huddle and they've been throwing the ball. Um,
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  Speaker 2: that's loosened up some defenses for some draw plays and
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  Speaker 2: things like that, that are kind of adding their stats,
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  Speaker 2: you know, in early in games when they're trying to
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  Speaker 2: establish the run, when it's part of the game plan,
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  Speaker 2: when it's first and 10, they're going absolutely nowhere. So it's,
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  Speaker 2: it's a major concern.
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  Speaker 1: I think. Um, Alvin Kamara had 14 touches on Sunday.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I don't love that. No. Okay.
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  Speaker 2: What?
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  Speaker 1: Well, there's two things I want to ask. One is
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  Speaker 1: why was Kendra Miller a healthy scratch?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I, I'm not completely clear on that either,
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  Speaker 2: but I guess, I mean, I guess based on the
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  Speaker 2: explanation and based on what everyone's roles were, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: CJ Donaldson, obviously they like in that package where he's
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  Speaker 2: playing fullback and, and he can do some of those things.
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  Speaker 2: And then, and then Travis HN and Alvin Kamara, obviously
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  Speaker 2: the top two guys that you expect to get the touches. Um,
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  Speaker 2: and so if in their determination, Kendrick Miller is, is
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  Speaker 2: going to be, you know, the third guy in touches
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  Speaker 2: and he's not going to be playing in that Donaldson package, then,
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  Speaker 2: then I guess it makes sense in that aspect. And then,
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  Speaker 2: You could have had four running backs active, but, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Kellen Moore explained why they had those injuries creep up
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  Speaker 2: late in the week at defensive tackle and defensive end
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  Speaker 2: and one other position, tight end. So they carried one
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  Speaker 2: extra guy at each of those positions than they maybe
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  Speaker 2: normally would. But all of that is to say that
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  Speaker 2: they definitely have given all the other guys more to do,
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  Speaker 2: and it is pretty surprising to me, especially after Kendra
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  Speaker 2: Miller looked really good in week one. I'm really curious
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  Speaker 2: if anything changes with that after after they did give
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  Speaker 2: Alvin that many touches, and it was pretty ineffective.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, he had, what did I say, 14 touches
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  Speaker 1: for 27 yards maybe on the day? 15, 20? Yeah. No,
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  Speaker 1: 22 yards.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's... And I'm obviously not just going to
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  Speaker 2: blame him, but he's not the solution. He's not going
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  Speaker 2: to mask their run game problems and create on his own.
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  Speaker 2: They're going to have to create for him to give
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  Speaker 2: him opportunities.
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  Speaker 1: What do you do... with Kelvin Banks out for an
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  Speaker 1: indefinite amount of time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm actually writing today about Austin Richards, who is
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  Speaker 2: the guy they're going to fill in. And now left
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  Speaker 2: tackle is his natural position. We saw him last year
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  Speaker 2: start four games at right tackle. Got better as the
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  Speaker 2: year went along, but had some bumps in the road
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  Speaker 2: playing that position. I wasn't 100% sure that he would
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  Speaker 2: hang on to it this offseason, but They traded for
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  Speaker 2: him on cut-down day last year, and so now he's
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  Speaker 2: had a full offseason, a full year in the system,
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  Speaker 2: a full year to develop in their blocking schemes that
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  Speaker 2: they prefer, and now he'll be playing left tackle, which
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  Speaker 2: was his college position at North Carolina when he was
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  Speaker 2: the left tackle for Drake May. So he's more comfortable
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  Speaker 2: in this system. He's at the position that he should
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  Speaker 2: be more comfortable at. So he'll have a fighting chance,
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  Speaker 2: and I would definitely believe that's where they're going to
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  Speaker 2: offer the help That's where you'll see the tight ends
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  Speaker 2: and the extra chipping, whereas they can trust Tali Flog
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  Speaker 2: on the right side to kind of go solo. That'll
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  Speaker 2: be put to the test this week, though, because Tali
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  Speaker 2: Flog is going to see a lot of Max Crosby
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  Speaker 2: in this game. He likes to live on that side
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  Speaker 2: of the field.
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  Speaker 1: The Raiders' pass rush is legitimate. That's a gigantic concern
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  Speaker 1: this weekend. Is there anything else when you look at
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  Speaker 1: this matchup that you point to and say, yep, got
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  Speaker 1: to watch that aside from the Raiders' pass rush?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, we know very well how good Clint
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  Speaker 2: Kubiak is at, you know, the wide zone run, the
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  Speaker 2: outside zone run game. And he's got a healthy Ashton
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  Speaker 2: Gentry running it right now. So Clint Kubiak is not
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  Speaker 2: going to stop running the ball. Like Gary Henry only
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  Speaker 2: had five carries in the second half last week. I
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  Speaker 2: guarantee you that they're not going to just give five
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  Speaker 2: carries to Ashton Gentry in the second half. And they're
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  Speaker 2: going to try to do play action off that. And, and, Um,
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  Speaker 2: and they're going to stubbornly stick with it. So they're
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  Speaker 2: going to, they're going to make sure that the saints
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  Speaker 2: stop that for all four quarters.
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  Speaker 1: Uh, do you believe the Raiders are any good?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I don't know how many teams are
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  Speaker 2: two and oh, I don't think they're one of the X,
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  Speaker 2: you know, top 10 teams in the NFL, but, um, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you have to believe in the results that
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  Speaker 2: I think they've got a really good coach. If it's
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  Speaker 2: anything like when Clint Kubiak was with the Saints, I
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  Speaker 2: bet everybody knows what their assignments are and their roles
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  Speaker 2: and their reasons for doing it. It's going to be
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  Speaker 2: a highly functioning offense, even if it lacks star power.
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  Speaker 2: At receiver, they might get Brock Bowers back. He won't
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  Speaker 2: be 100% Brock Bowers yet. Kirk Cousins is what Kirk
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  Speaker 2: Cousins is for better and for worse. Probably won't lose
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  Speaker 2: you the game, but probably won't just completely be the
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  Speaker 2: reason they win the game either. So they're definitely a
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  Speaker 2: beatable team, but, you know, they're doing a lot of
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  Speaker 2: things well, and they probably deserve credit for it.
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  Speaker 1: Raiders 2-0, Saints 1-1 on the season. How, when you
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  Speaker 1: think big picture for New Orleans, with, I mean, right
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  Speaker 1: now with the Bucs and Falcons at 0-2, Falcons are
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  Speaker 1: probably going to go to 0-3 after tonight. when you
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  Speaker 1: think division and long-term and season long projections, how important
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  Speaker 1: is Sunday's game at home against the Raiders?
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  Speaker 2: Not necessarily individually important, but you know, you want to
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  Speaker 2: take the ones who can win, you know, and, and
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  Speaker 2: that's true of this stretch coming up. I mean, there's
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  Speaker 2: a good chance there'll be favorites and is it seven
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  Speaker 2: straight games? It's, it's, Raiders and Falcons at home. It's
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  Speaker 2: at the Giants. It's the Steelers in Paris. It's home
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  Speaker 2: against the Browns. I think I'm missing one. I don't
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  Speaker 2: know if they'll be favored. That'll be the toughest matchup
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  Speaker 2: of all of them, but maybe there'll be favored since
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  Speaker 2: it's in the Superdome. So yeah, I mean, get hot
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  Speaker 2: now and try to go like five and two over
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  Speaker 2: this stretch. I don't, I don't think they'll win every game.
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  Speaker 2: They're favored to win. Just, you know, they can go
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  Speaker 2: up and beat Boston. They'll, they'll probably get bit in
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  Speaker 2: the butt in, in, in a one score game that
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  Speaker 2: goes the other way, somewhere along the way. But yeah,
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  Speaker 2: stay ahead, stay ahead of the chains. And then this team,
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  Speaker 2: You'd like to think they can get healthier later when
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  Speaker 2: Jordan Tyson comes back, when Calvin Banks eventually comes back,
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  Speaker 2: maybe later in the season. I'm sure other injuries will
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  Speaker 2: creep up, too. But, you know, win while you're hot.
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  Speaker 2: Win while you've got a quarterback who is playing at
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  Speaker 2: this level.
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  Speaker 1: He's Mike Triplett, NewOrleans.football. Saints and Raiders, 325 on Sunday
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: from the Dome. You can read about it all over
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: at NewOrleans.football, NewOrleans.football. He is at Mike Triplett. Make sure
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: you give him a follow. Visits with us here on Thursdays.
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  Speaker 1: Always appreciate it, man. Thank you. Thank you.