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Jeff Legwold joins Kreckman & Lindahl 9-9-24 · Jeff Legwold ESPN Broncos Reports

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Jeff Legwald is our Broncos insider Altitude Sports Radio ninety
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  Speaker 1: two five Pro Football. The Insider I've covered Jeff Legwald.
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  Speaker 2: He's the balloon popper. He doesn't blow it up.
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  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
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  Speaker 1: i BBW Local sixty eight.
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  Speaker 2: Start with the JOm and with the career.
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  Speaker 1: This Leggy on Altitude Sports Radio five. It is the
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  Speaker 1: second hour of the show. We're out here at hof
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  Speaker 1: Brow today. It is Jeff Legwald time on a Monday afternoon.
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  Speaker 1: Broncos are zero to one. They now prepare for the
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  Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Steelers. What did we learn about the Bonix era yesterday?
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  Speaker 1: While Jeff Legwald will tell us, of course, uh covering
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  Speaker 1: the Broncos and the NFL for ESPN. Leggy, welcome back
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  Speaker 1: to the program. How you doing man, Greetings fellas, uh,
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  Speaker 1: it is great to have you as always, Leggy. Let's uh,
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  Speaker 1: let let's start here take away biggest upper level takeaways
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  Speaker 1: of week one of the bo Nicks experience. What what
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  Speaker 1: do you got for us?
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  Speaker 3: Well, if there's any curiosity as to whether he's really
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  Speaker 3: a rookie or not, he is, I've tried to you know,
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  Speaker 3: I've said, I think it's sort of unfair how people
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  Speaker 3: some folks have framed this that he's just gonna jump
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  Speaker 3: in and be spectacularly accurate and and all of that.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, none of this is is like a
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  Speaker 3: problem with bon Nicks. None of this is a you know,
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  Speaker 3: testament of if he's gonna make it in the league
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  Speaker 3: or not. None of it. It's but he is a
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  Speaker 3: rookie quarterback and there are gonna be weeks this year
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  Speaker 3: that look like this, and I think everybody should just
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  Speaker 3: buckle up and be ready for that.
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  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 3: And that was my takeaway. There was nothing unexpected for
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  Speaker 3: me in what I saw yesterday at Lumenfield. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: I fully expected Mike McDonald's scheme to be an issue.
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  Speaker 3: I fully expected the ball not to go downfield very often,
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  Speaker 3: and I fully expected it would be a lot more
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  Speaker 3: difficult for him than it was in the preseason. And
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  Speaker 3: all of that was true.
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  Speaker 2: Jeff, I understand, and here everything that you're saying, I
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  Speaker 2: want to offer a disagreement. My main concern from yesterday though,
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  Speaker 2: comes from this that you and I would talk about it.
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  Speaker 2: The passes in the game looked a little like the
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  Speaker 2: passes in practice, and when they went over fifteen yards,
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  Speaker 2: there's almost a deceleration on the ball as it gets
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  Speaker 2: to the receivers. You would call it duck down. Sometimes
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  Speaker 2: that looked like though that was a factor, Like, I,
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  Speaker 2: what can they do to try to open up the
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  Speaker 2: passing game knowing that's how the ball is going to
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  Speaker 2: get to the receiver.
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  Speaker 3: Well, and I guess I would say one thing, and
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  Speaker 3: that is he was clearly aiming the ball yesterday and
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  Speaker 3: he was not. I don't think throwing with the freedom
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  Speaker 3: he may so we don't know, no I. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: even some of the completions you know that were out
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  Speaker 3: of frame, uh completions. You know, some of the drops
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  Speaker 3: Sean Payton kept talking about were out of frame balls
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  Speaker 3: that I would not put put on the receivers. I
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  Speaker 3: had them for two drops in my review. You take
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  Speaker 3: that however you want, uh, but clearly far fewer than
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  Speaker 3: than Peyton had in his assessment of it. But no,
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  Speaker 3: any I know what you're saying. And that's been a
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  Speaker 3: question of bow knicks before the draft by many personnel guys.
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  Speaker 3: What what will Because Oregon's offense did not feature him
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  Speaker 3: making the half to the far sideline throw hash mark
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  Speaker 3: to the far pylon throw, and those are going to
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  Speaker 3: be until he shows, you know, what he can do there.
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  Speaker 3: We don't have the full answer yet, but yesterday I
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  Speaker 3: thought it was all a very clear factor of playing
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  Speaker 3: very tired. I asked him straight up after the game,
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  Speaker 3: are you nervous? He said no, And I guess I
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  Speaker 3: would expect him to say that as an NFL player,
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  Speaker 3: but I think he was clearly nervous. They didn't protect
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  Speaker 3: very well, and I think when things were difficult early,
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  Speaker 3: like a lot of rookie quarterbacks, he didn't find his
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  Speaker 3: rhythm until he just started, you know, running with the ball,
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  Speaker 3: and that you see that often with rookies. It's like, Okay,
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  Speaker 3: nothing else is working, I'm just going to keep it
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  Speaker 3: and run a bit. And you know that that was
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  Speaker 3: kind of the feat of the scoring drive. But there's
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  Speaker 3: gonna be days like this, especially in this opening four weeks.
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  Speaker 3: He got no zero love from the league, not that
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  Speaker 3: they care, but you know, these are four very defensive
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  Speaker 3: minded head coaches with very long resumes with very you know,
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  Speaker 3: a lot of success against young and rookie quarterbacks.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I have it open up against four consecutive defensive coaches.
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  Speaker 1: Not the easiest thing they're asking Bonnicks to do.
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  Speaker 3: You know, three on the road, Nate, You three are
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  Speaker 3: on the road, and it's just like I say, it's it's,
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  Speaker 3: you know, part of me wonders, you know, should they
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  Speaker 3: have waited, you know, to Halloween, you know whatever. But
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  Speaker 3: you know they're committed to this now and they're gonna
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  Speaker 3: I think they also have to support him better. You know,
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  Speaker 3: you can't throw the ball forty two times. I just
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  Speaker 3: don't see that as a And I asked Sean Payton
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  Speaker 3: that did you want to throw the ball forty two times?
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  Speaker 3: And he said, no, you know, very adamantly, no twice.
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  Speaker 3: So I believe him in that. But you know, again,
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  Speaker 3: I think you gotta sort of have a discipline to say,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the situation calls for throwing the ball, but
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  Speaker 3: in this scenario, maybe that's not the case.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. The expected completion, according to next Gen for Nicks
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  Speaker 1: seven percent below expectation. They used the tracking data to
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  Speaker 1: to figure out is this typically a completed ball or not?
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  Speaker 1: So Nicks did have his struggles right there. But but
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  Speaker 1: you let us right to the next place there, Leggy,
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  Speaker 1: you give your backs twenty carries and you throw the
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  Speaker 1: ball forty two times. Now, I know Seattle was making
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  Speaker 1: it really tough to run up the gut and we're
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  Speaker 1: absolutely stacking the box. I mean I was. I was
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  Speaker 1: pausing it today on rewatch and just looking at it
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  Speaker 1: directly after snap. I mean, they were facing six, seven,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes eight man boxes and make Donald knows what's up.
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  Speaker 1: There weren't many surprises that were getting thrown his way. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: yet you can't run it only twenty times to forty
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  Speaker 1: two throws. That's not going to help your rookie quarterback
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  Speaker 1: in the slightest bit. What can they do to work
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  Speaker 1: the edges of the defense a little bit, to try
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  Speaker 1: and just ease things up, to make some of his
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  Speaker 1: play action look a little bit more convincing for an
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  Speaker 1: opposing defense, and to make life a little bit easier
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  Speaker 1: for Nicks.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I mean that is the question they're facing.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, again, you know, it's not bo Nix's fault.
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  Speaker 3: They ran the ball twenty times, but he felt the
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  Speaker 3: you know, the after effects of that, and I you know,
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  Speaker 3: I always think the best running teams I've ever seen
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  Speaker 3: people know they're going to run the ball. People stack
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  Speaker 3: the box and you get it done. You know now,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I realize that this pro football and everyone
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  Speaker 3: on the field is getting paid. But the Broncos have
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  Speaker 3: invested in the offensive line like very few other teams,
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  Speaker 3: and you're either going to ride with that or you're not.
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  Speaker 3: So if your protection is not what you want it
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  Speaker 3: to be, and Sean Payton said it wasn't, then I again,
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  Speaker 3: I think sometimes it goes back to the coach with
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  Speaker 3: the play sheet, and that is Peyton. So a lot
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  Speaker 3: of this is what he thinks in the moment, how
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  Speaker 3: he feels in the moment, and I think he gets
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  Speaker 3: far more aggravated with failed run plays than he does
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  Speaker 3: with incomplete passes. And that's a very old story for
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  Speaker 3: every offensive coordinator. I know, you know, one bad run,
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  Speaker 3: they run for cover and don't call another one for
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  Speaker 3: you know whatever, two possessions. You know, six incomplete passes
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  Speaker 3: in a row, they have no issue with throwing six
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  Speaker 3: more passes on the next possession.
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  Speaker 1: So oh, audre estimate fumbles once yesterday and it was
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  Speaker 1: a good run. Hey coughed it up rookie on his
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  Speaker 1: first NFL Carrie, they call his number once the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the game. The guy can break tackles give him
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  Speaker 1: a chance to make a damn play.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and again I want, I sort of want, uh,
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  Speaker 3: you know what I can't have, which is consistency. If
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  Speaker 3: it's okay for bow Knicks to make interceptions and incompletions,
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  Speaker 3: it's okay for Arodric Estimate to put the ball on
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  Speaker 3: the ground, so you know, give you know, they didn't
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  Speaker 3: give bow Nicks one more throw after the interception. They
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  Speaker 3: just said, keep on going, work your way out of it,
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  Speaker 3: you know, rise above.
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  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 3: I think you have to do that with other players too.
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  Speaker 3: I get it. Turnovers are terrible, but they didn't take
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  Speaker 3: bow Knicks off the field after two very bad interceptions.
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  Speaker 3: They let him keep throwing. So and even today he
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  Speaker 3: said that Estime's fumble was a pretty good play by
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  Speaker 3: the defender, and you know that maybe he could have
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  Speaker 3: done without them hurdle, you know, in the end. But
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  Speaker 3: you know, again, I just think, if you're gonna have
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  Speaker 3: a young team full of young players, these are the
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  Speaker 3: things you're gonna have to deal with. And he has
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  Speaker 3: not had very many young teams. So we're seeing Sean
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  Speaker 3: Payton in real time sort of working through these things
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  Speaker 3: like you know, all coaches do. So, you know, one
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  Speaker 3: game does not a season make and we all you know,
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  Speaker 3: we make assessments immediately. But they got a rookie quarterback,
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  Speaker 3: they got a young team. Some things are just not
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  Speaker 3: gonna look the way they're supposed to sometimes.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think for some of us, Jeff, the pushback
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  Speaker 2: is we should have pumped the brakes on the parades
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  Speaker 2: that we're going on through a lot of us we're asking.
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  Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean that's I've been saying that all
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  Speaker 3: I know.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we're tight. So I'm sorry to interrupt you
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  Speaker 2: because I gotta get your thoughts to Sean Payton. Have
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  Speaker 2: to be careful being the guy calling out the locker room.
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  Speaker 2: You talk about not doing your young quarterback a lot
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  Speaker 2: of favors, and you went too dry. Now, I was
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  Speaker 2: curious what you're your assessment of the line was gonna
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  Speaker 2: be when you call everybody else out. But the guy who,
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  Speaker 2: as we've talked about, it looked like that was not
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  Speaker 2: much of a competition but a decision. Then you call
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  Speaker 2: out the locker room from not helping him out. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: are we walking something lines here? Is he the coach?
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  Speaker 2: So he gets away with a no big deal?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think now it's not a big deal.
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  Speaker 3: I think people expect him to protect the rookie quarterback,
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  Speaker 3: you know, sort of pop a bear type of thing.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna protect my guy. I'm
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  Speaker 3: gonna stick by him, and I think veteran players will
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  Speaker 3: know the score. It's just it is a young team,
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  Speaker 3: and he will have to I think at some point,
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  Speaker 3: you know, and I bet he has. In fact, I've
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  Speaker 3: been told he asked. But eventually, you know, you're gonna
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  Speaker 3: have to ding bo Nicks in a meeting in front
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  Speaker 3: of everybody so they all get the okay, you know,
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  Speaker 3: he's part of the you know, the criticism as well,
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  Speaker 3: and I'm sure I'm sure some of those quarterback meetings
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  Speaker 3: aren't as occasion for both. So not a problem right now,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: but you get late in the year and if things
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  Speaker 3: are going bad, then one or two folks may speak
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  Speaker 3: speak up at that point.
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  Speaker 1: Leggy news items, injury updates, particularly Garrett Bulls. Where are
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  Speaker 1: we at there?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, Sean Payton continues to say everything MRIs
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: and X rays were negative. But I personally watched him
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  Speaker 3: go to the bus on crutches last night with a
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  Speaker 3: walking boot on, So I think that that bears watching,
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  Speaker 3: and obviously walking boot and crutches means this week against
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  Speaker 3: the Steelers a significant question mark in my mind. He
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  Speaker 3: he had a difficult time even standing to put some
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  Speaker 3: sandals on to go to the bus, So I think
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: there's something going on there. They're calling it a contusion,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: but contusions can hurt like hell, So I have no
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  Speaker 3: doubt it hurts, like.
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  Speaker 2: Go, hey, who's coming in this week?
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  Speaker 1: TJ.
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  Speaker 2: Watt, No big deal?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah it's fine.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Who needs starting tackles and condoosed?
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  Speaker 1: What's going on?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? You know, these next three games, I think it
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  Speaker 3: better look like forty two runs and twenty passes. That's
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  Speaker 3: my personal assessment. These are These are all defensive coaches
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  Speaker 3: who want to go after the quarterback far more aggressively
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: than Mike mc Mike McDonald uses creativity and unique sets
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  Speaker 3: and you know, visual sort of tricks. These next three
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  Speaker 3: guys are just coming after you, and that's all. That's
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  Speaker 3: a whole different problem.
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Legwald, everybody, ESPN of course, uh alumni the great
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  Speaker 1: University of Illinois. That's your two and L fighting a line.
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  Speaker 1: I right there, Jeff Lewald, that's right baby, it's it's
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  Speaker 1: rushed the field after a Kansas win. I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: but we'll take it. Beautiful rushing.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: We'd rushed the field after a good halftime show. The
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  Speaker 3: way it's going lately, uh.
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Legwald. Everyone, it's it's not fun. Okay, it's it's fun,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: but it's not that fun. Jeff Legwold, everybody from ESPN,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: ESPN dot com, Rita's latest his assessment of bo Nix's
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  Speaker 1: first performance, Leggy charting two drops, two drops Sure Froncos
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  Speaker 1: wide receivers. Jeff Legwald, beautiful.
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  Speaker 3: Workman, Thank you, Thanks fellows.
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  Speaker 1: See it all right, Jeff Legwald. As always, is brought
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: to you by our friends at the International Brotherhood of
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Electrical Workers i b e W Local sixty eight. You
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  Speaker 1: start with the job, you end with a career.