Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - NO CHANGE: Denver Broncos DOUBLE DOWN on Bo Nix, FOCUS on Run Game and O-Line Improvement

Starting point is 00:00:00 Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton has Bone Nix's back and also made note that the Broncos offensive line and run game has to improve. You are locked on Broncos. Your daily Denver Broncos podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's up, Broncos country? Happy Tuesday. Cody Rourke, Sarah Bedinger here. And on today's episode of the show, we're going to talk about Sean Payton having Bo Nix's back and reaffirming his stance that there is not going to be a quarterback change in the mile high city. Plus the Broncos run game and offensive line has to improve. And those are two points that Sean Payton made mention of specifically as Debra hopes to get back on track offensively here in week seven against the Arizona Cardinals.

Starting point is 00:00:46 Then we'll wrap things up by talking about why the Arizona Cardinals coming to this week seven matchup. They're not going to be a slouch. It's not going to be a cakewalk for the Broncos. You get all that here on today's episode of the show. Brought to you of our friends over there at Game Time. Download the GameTime at print an account and use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase. Sarah, we got to catch up with Sean Payton at his weekly press. conference he does over Zoom on Monday. And one of the first questions he was asked is whether

Starting point is 00:01:10 or not the Broncos are entertaining or looking at making a change at the quarterback position, which has been a highly discussed topic from national analysts, the fan base as well and even some local media members here in Denver, John Payton reaffirmed his commitment here to Boe Nix. Yeah. And the answer to the question of whether or not he would consider benching Bo Nix or whether or not he's even given it any thought up to this point is obviously no, right? And I think that's the right decision from Sean. You and I kind of talked about this. It's like it's different than baseball or basketball where guys could maybe sit a couple of games and kind of just, okay, let's clear your mind here.

Starting point is 00:01:47 Or let's just kind of say, hey, you're going on the injured list for a few days and just get some time, take some time away. Let your mind reset, refocus, et cetera. You can't do that in the NFL. You have 17 games. You have 18 weeks. And you kind of just got to go peddle to the metal when the season gets going. And Bo Nix, there's been a lot of factors here, Cody. Obviously, he missed a lot of the offseason program due to his procedures on the ankle and the bone spurs in the foot.

Starting point is 00:02:12 And he obviously was also trying to break in this new look offense with Davis Webb calling the plays. And we heard about over the weekend the terminology changes and whether or not that played a factor in things. And you've got guys dropping passes. You've got guys missing their assignments on the offensive line. You got no run game to speak of. So that's where Sean Payton is talking right now about everything around Bo Nix getting better. and that his improvement will be a byproduct of that, right? And I actually like that he brought that up.

Starting point is 00:02:39 And I like that he said that because I do think that is the most important factor as opposed to just bow playing poorly. He's the reason the offense is struggling. He needs to be benched. And let's just be done with it right now. That's the easy button solution, right? That's the, well, I want this and I want it now. Like the reality is like football is a complex game.

Starting point is 00:02:57 It's 11 versus 11. And yes, once again, we'll have to pound the table. And I almost said pound sand on this. We're going to pound the table. on this. Yes, Bo Nix is struggling. And so is the offense as a whole, including Bo, right? But here's what Sean had to say. Yeah, I said this a week ago. To answer your question, no. He's going to, he's going to become the byproduct of all the finer things that can improve, the improved play from our offensive line, the more efficient we are relative to balance running the football.

Starting point is 00:03:29 And that's, you know, that's our jobs as coaches here. We talked after the game about. about, you know, we're excited to get that win. And you're at the same time find that improvement we need in all areas. So it starts with all of us. When a coach, Cody, like Sean Payton just did, says that the offensive line has to improve. It means one thing. It means that the offensive line is not playing well enough. And when a coach says that you need to be more efficient and have more balance in the running game,

Starting point is 00:03:58 it means that the run game has been inefficient and ineffective, right? So he's clearly identifying these things that I think, A lot of folks want to ignore when it comes to, just like you said, pushing that easy button and kind of saying, well, it's just easier to say Bo Nix stinks and just be done with them. Swap out the quarterback. See if a quarterback change won't fix what ails you right now, right? Well, it's not really that simple with this Broncos team. We've seen, like dating back to the midway point of last season, they have struggled to run the ball. And you and I talked about this.

Starting point is 00:04:28 If the offense is struggling to run the ball, do they really have the number one offensive line in the NFL? like some people say, it just doesn't make sense. And so there are a lot of other factors at play here that I do believe what, you know, Bo Nix, you want him to be the tide that raises all boats in the harbors. That's not happening right now. You need absolutely these other teammates around him, the run game, the offensive line, receivers catching passes. You need everybody else to kind of go along with him.

Starting point is 00:04:57 And then I think we'll start to see this offense really break through. Well, even like last year and even in his rookie year, Like there were inconsistencies. There were stretches where once again, the offensive line at times was not protecting great. He was able to use his mobility, which has been a tremendous asset to his career so far. But that has probably been the biggest difference maker of what we've seen Bo be able to overcome then versus now. Bo is not choosing to run as much. And I think that is a valid critique.

Starting point is 00:05:24 I think anybody can honestly say, you know what, like Bo, where's that juice? Where's the ability to go fight for that first down? Where's the ability to get on the outside there when you're on that pinpole? and pick up the first down against the Seahawks versus, you know, trying to just run out of bounds. Like that, those are valid critiques. And that, to me, is the mental. That's the mental part here of Bo Nix. Try not to get hurt.

Starting point is 00:05:45 But if you think about getting hurt, it's going to cause you to hesitate. And that's going to cause you to have, I think, an impact or a dip in your overall play here. But part of me goes to this point as well. And Sean Peyton made mention of this in his press conference when we were on the phone with him. He had talked about specifically, you know, when asked about the mental part of Bo necks, whether or not the ankle is playing a role into that. And they said, you know, the one thing we really liked about Bo coming out of the draft is that he handles adversity well. And right now he's going through adversity. And I'm sure for Bo, it's not fun. You can tell for

Starting point is 00:06:15 Bo. Bo's frustrated. It stinks. He just, he wants answers to like what's going on. He wants to be able to go out there and solve it. I think collectively, if you can get the run game going, yes, that helps. If the offensive line can be better in terms of protection and not allowing certain pressures, then I think that will certainly help here. But also, I think the variation, too, where Sean Payton can come in is the balance of how you call plays, right? Instead of just saying, hey, we're going to commit to the run just to say that we're committing to the run, make there be an effective approach to the run game. What have we seen so far on first and second down, sir? Run, run, pass on third down.

Starting point is 00:06:48 Well, it's hard and it's predictable. And the trend right now is the Broncos are run on first down, get one or two yards, run on second down, get one yard or go backwards or get no yards. And then all of a sudden now you have a third and eight or a third and seven. Denver has had so many third and seven pluses this season. And now defenses out of this too high shell, they can play and they can take away. They can play the sticks there. And that has what we have seen so far throughout the first six weeks of play here. And I imagine against the Arizona Cardinals, they're going to try to do a lot of the same thing.

Starting point is 00:07:17 We'll obviously talk about them a little bit later. But coming into this matchup this week, obviously as we talk about the mini by week, helping Denver get to where they need to be, it doesn't help when you've got to play a defense. Even though the Cardinals record wise, they're two and four. they're not as great in terms of, you know, some of the rankings and the metrics that people kind of pay attention to when you watch them play, man, they're tough, they're physical, they fly to the football and they made life a little difficult for the Los Angeles Rams offense, which we know is very, very good and can put up points at any given moment here.

Starting point is 00:07:47 But this is a great opportunity for the Broncos to improve the five and two and to get to exactly where they need to be in the offense, hopefully can get on track this week. And part of that is going to be getting the run game going, the offensive line, improving as well and that's a mandatory thing that Sarah and I are focusing on and you should too. Here on today's episode of the show. This message is a paid partnership with Applecard. One of my favorite parts of game day is everything leading up to it. Getting the house ready for a watch party, putting on my favorite team hoodie,

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Starting point is 00:09:47 Just like Mrs. Doubtfire once said, help is on the way, dear. The Broncos, they need help in the run game. They need help on the offensive line. That was a terrible impression, Cody. I did it off. That was great. I need to work on that. I'll work on my Robin Williams doing Mrs. Doubtfire at some point.

Starting point is 00:10:03 But you know what? While I may need help on the impressions here, the Broncos need even more help in the run game on the offensive line. Just the more that thought has been simmering. I'm trying to collect myself here, everybody. Come on. I mean, geez. Now you got me thinking about all the other impressions Robin Williams has done through the years.

Starting point is 00:10:22 I got to figure out which ones to insert into the show a strategic. going forward. But run game. Let's talk about that first and foremost, Cody, because Jonah Coleman is supposed to potentially be back this week. Obviously, we know he's eligible to come back. He can come off IR as of this week. It felt like he had a short term enough of an injury at the time that I don't know that injured reserve was necessarily like mandatory or I don't know what the whole situation with that was if it was about getting Adam Prentice onto the roster and finding a spot for him. And so I have my assumption is that he's fully healthy and ready for this game.

Starting point is 00:11:00 But are we putting too much pressure on him to think that he's going to be this run game improvement, like the catalyst for it that Sean Payton was talking about at his press conference? Yeah, look, I think it's hard to say, you know, one guy's going to come in and change everything. You know, certainly there could be a little bit of a boost. And we've seen it with some of the better backs around the NFL. Like look at Kenneth Walker right now, just what he's been able to do there in Kansas City. He's kind of been a little bit of a reprieve for that offense where I feel like if you take him off that offense right now, I think the Chief's offense would be kind of middle

Starting point is 00:11:32 of the pack without him. He's a game changer. And the Broncos, they like what they've seen out of Jonah Coleman. Now, we have such a short sample size, right? Going back to the preseason, we've seen some of the nice downhill runs where, hey, he just hits the hole. He's patient. He's got good vision. He knows where to go. He's smart. He can uphold him past protection. All of that stuff certainly does matter, right? But, you know, to me, even with JK, like I understand JK's kind of been battling, you know, maybe even just health getting to 100 percent, but I still think the root of the issue here for the Broncos' offensive struggles outside of, you know, Bo Nix's play so far this season, I think so much of it has been the offensive line, whether

Starting point is 00:12:12 that be pass protection, whether that be run blocking. They're not consistent enough. Like Quinn Miners right now is the best blocking offensive linemen right now on the Broncos and past protection. and obviously in run support, Garib Bulls, we know what he's able to do as well. He and Quinn kind of lead the way for this unit, but you've got deficiencies at right tackle, you've got struggles at the center position, you've got struggles at the left guard position,

Starting point is 00:12:34 and Ben Powers is this type of guy where he's giving up a lot of pressure. He's seeing a lot of snaps and a lot of pressure looks from opposing defenses, where in key situations where they want to rush the quarterback or they want to generate inside pressure, they're attacking he and Luke Wattenberg. So in my opinion, Sarah, until that changes within this Bronco, was offensive line structure, I think it's going to be hard for them to get on track. But to the point I was trying to make a little bit earlier when talking about the run game

Starting point is 00:13:01 and how it's kind of gone on first and second down, if the Broncos can somehow find a way, let's say it's first and 10 and they run and they can get four yards, they can get five yards. Now you have second and manageable. You can avoid the penalties. Now you have manageable drives and down in distances. And right now the offensive line, in my opinion, is the biggest thing that is contributing to the lack of run game success. and also to the issues where the offense finds themselves backed up due to a penalty. That has to change.

Starting point is 00:13:28 And until that changes, I think we can expect more of the same. So I'm curious. My question to you now is how do the Broncos embrace this mini buy, which they already have, how do they use this to their advantage to go out there and adjust the scheme? Because so much of it for three years, I think it's very clear when we look at the tape. The scheme is an issue with it. And the Broncos, this obviously, he went and tried to make some changes, but so far that hasn't worked.

Starting point is 00:13:52 Yeah, I think it's just simplify, simplify, simplify. How many times have we seen? Let's go to an example, right? The Chargers game, the first play of the very, like the first play the offense had in this game. It was a fake screen out to Bo Nix's right. And then you hand it off to J.K. Dobbins up the middle. So right away, you're kind of trying to get a little too cute with it, in my opinion. I think it's just a matter of get under center, get the fullback out there,

Starting point is 00:14:18 get the extra O linemen out there and say, hey, we're going to go absolutely punish the guy in front of us and get to your second level if you got to get to the second level or pull if you got to pull. But make sure you get a hat on somebody and drive them backward. That is the problem right now for the Broncos offensive line and run game in general. In my opinion, Cody, listen to some of these numbers from next gen stats regarding J.K. Dobbins this season. He's near the bottom of the NFL when it comes to facing 8.5. plus men in the box at 17.28%. There's not many full-time running backs that are actually, you know, have a less than that. They're facing less eight men boxes or more than J.K. Dobbins this year.

Starting point is 00:15:02 He's kind of in the, you know, the 12 to 15 range there. But J.K. Dobbins, essentially, Cody, is not getting where he's expected to be going. On next gen stats also, he's at 25% rushing yards over expected, which means that when it comes to, you know, around the NFL, that's the second worst mark in the league based on where the holes are opening up, where J.K. should be running and how much time he's spending behind the line of scrimmage. And those are all just kind of long-winded ways of saying, like, the vision may not be there. The offensive line is getting pushed back. J.K.'s doing a little too much of, you know, Le Vion Bell impersonations at the line of scrimmage, trying to maybe make something

Starting point is 00:15:41 happen or be patient to wait for something to happen. I think it just needs to be as simple as go get a hat on a hat, go push somebody backwards, and just go full speed into the hole and try to make a play when you get past the line of scrimmage. That's kind of where the Broncos are struggling right now. It seems like it's just a little too horizontal, a little too cutesy. Yeah, they've got to find a way to get north-south consistently. And look, I would even say as well, I think Broncos country has made it a great point. I've received emails about it from fans who are very interested in the run game operation. You know, Sean has kind of gone away from R.J. Harvey a little bit at this point.

Starting point is 00:16:16 where RJ, I mean, once again, I think people critique RJ for not maybe seeing the best in terms of the holes opening up in terms of the vision as a ball carrier. But specifically, RJ is the most explosive guy here that the Broncos have right now at the running back position. So how do you establish these archetypes as you're trying to evolve your scheme where you're trying to get your offensive line to play better? Or you're also trying to get more production from your running backs in terms of the balance in which you rush. Like those are the things that I'm paying attention to, especially as we go on from week seven on, You have to find your rhythm. You have to find your identity sooner or rather than later. Like if we're sitting here four or five weeks from now, right, when we get to week 11,

Starting point is 00:16:56 week 10, week 12 in that juncture right there, if we're getting here at that point, we say we still don't know what the offensive identity of this team is, then that's going to be a problem. The Broncos have to find a way to inject life into the run game and into this offensive line unit. And I don't know. Like, Sarah, my thing that we brought up on another show is I think you got to bring in and you've got to push Ben Powers. You've got to push Luke Wattenberg. You've got to push Mike McGlitz. You've got to let these guys fill the heat a little bit and that might raise their level of play. Maybe that is going to take place behind the scenes. I don't think that'll be something that's

Starting point is 00:17:29 necessarily broadcast here, especially as we go out to practice this week. We only get to see the media viewing stretch period and also the individual period before we go back in. They're not going to show us team stuff just yet. It's not like training camp where you could tell in training camp if that was going to be the approach. I think turning the heat up on this group right here specifically is what the Broncos need to do. And hopefully they can get going this week against an Arizona Cardinals defense that has some really talented playmakers across the board that know how to get after the quarterback. They can create pressure off at the second level. This is going to be a challenge here for the Broncos. And Sarah, if they can't run the ball, it's going to be a problem because they're coming off of

Starting point is 00:18:06 the game where they held the Los Angeles Rams, who we all know, they can run the hell out of the football and they can be very good at it. They held them to, I believe, 92. total rushing yards in Sunday's win against L.A., which so-fi apparently seems to be the fun home for the Arizona Cardinals this year, beating the Chargers, and now the L.A. Rams, now the Cardinals and the Rams have the same exact record at 2 and 4. So the run game is key here. In Broncos, country coming up next, Sarah and I are going to talk about why the Cardinals, it's not going to be a cakewalk for the Broncos. There are no slouch, and we learned that in Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Rams. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by our friends over there at game time. The NFL is full of

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Starting point is 00:20:32 So pick them on the money line, the spread, you name it here on the Fandu app and make sure you check out the Fandu rewards club. Make this your most rewarding season ever with Fandu. Visit Fandu.com to get started. The Arizona Cardinals proved to be a little bit of a tougher test than most people thought on Sunday's win against the Los Angeles Rams. And now the Deverebracos have to go on the road to Arizona and they got to beat this Cardinals team that has a little bit of rhythm right now after beating a really good Rams team, despite the fact that the Rams are now two and four. We'll get into that here.

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Starting point is 00:21:21 plus you get all 22 film breakdowns, post-locker room interviews throughout the week at practice and games and so much more. Check it out today. Lockdownbracos. That supercast.com. Sarah, man, I tell you what, watching the Cardinals play the Rams this past week, that was a very interesting game from the standpoint of the Rams, offense, they really struggled.

Starting point is 00:21:41 and Arizona made it pretty difficult at times for Matthew Stafford. They hit him a couple times. They sacked him. They had, I think, seven total quarterback hits in this game specifically. And they limited their rushing attack to 92 yards, which that is a superpower of them. We saw the Broncos give over 150 plus yards rushing to the Rams specifically. Arizona was able to put a cap on that. Yeah, I mean, go figure.

Starting point is 00:22:03 These guys get paid to play too, right? I mean, that's kind of where we're at with the Arizona Cardinals right now is, you know, they're like what Michael Scott said. Maybe next time you will estimate me instead of underestimate me. You know, that's where the Cardinals have been like in their two wins the season, Cody pretty much unanimously picked to lose against the Chargers in week one. And then I think pretty much unanimously picked to get the absolute wrath of the L.A. Rams over the weekend, which did not happen. They played a great defensive game. It's a new coaching staff in Arizona, but somebody made a really good point that the more Sean McVeigh's coaching

Starting point is 00:22:40 tree continues to grow around the NFL, the more difficult it's going to be for him because all these teams kind of know how he operates. And so I think there is that familiarity aspect, even with it being a new coaching staff in Arizona. By the way, speaking of Arizona's coaching staff, you know who their offensive coordinator is right now. It's one Nathaniel Hackett. So very interesting. We get a chance to see him again as well. But look, I look at an opponent like this and you could easily view this as a trap game, right? This is this is kind of like the poster child for what a trap game is. You're going on the road. You're facing off against a two and four team that realistically you should beat the Chiefs game in Denver next week. This is the

Starting point is 00:23:24 trap that you can't fall into though. If you're the Denver Broncos, you need to utilize this as a get right game because of one number, Cody. And here it is. The Arizona Cardinals in the 2026 season, they rank 32nd in the NFL in net yards per attempt allowed through the air. If you want to get right with your passing game, if you want to figure out a way to get Bo Nix on track, I don't care what happened against the Rams. I don't care what happened against the Chargers. This is your opportunity to do so against a past defense that has been susceptible this season. Yeah, you got to watch out for Buda Baker on the back end, right?

Starting point is 00:24:00 He's this guy that could play a little bit of everywhere. He blitz the quarterback. I imagine that this Cardinals defense will probably try to take a page out of what we saw what the Chargers did and also what the Seahawks did and designate a spy on Bo Nix and keep passing down situations in case he wants to run. That's something you certainly have to pay attention to here. Now, what was very interesting about this, the Cardinals somehow squeaked out a victory, Sarah, without scoring an offensive touchdown. Their kicker had himself a day. 18 points, he scored all their points in terms of the kicking department. here in this game specifically. But the Arizona Cardinals' offense, they were five of 15 on third down.

Starting point is 00:24:38 We know Denver's defense has been pretty good on third down. They love to send pressure. They love to bring the pain for opposing quarterbacks as that pass rushes started to heat up a little bit. But they also had one turnover where Jacoby were set through an interception. The Broncos have been on a little bit of streak of pressure in the quarterback and generating takeaways. To be able to generate takeaways off of Matthew Stafford, pretty hard. The Broncos did that. Justin Herbert. I mean, they're kind of giving things away left and right right now. But historically, they have not been able to do that on a consistent basis. And then Sam Darnold, generating three total takeaways against the Seahawks.

Starting point is 00:25:11 That was big for the Broncos winning and giving the offense at times in those games great field position. So for Bownicks and this Broncos offense, they got to find a way to get going here specifically. But in a week where really you look at what they did against the charters and their rushing attack, they shut it down. They limited what Blake Corum and obviously Kyron Williams can do. So they're going to try to do the same exact thing here with J.K. Dobbins, R.J. Harvey. We'll see if Jonah Coleman or Tyler Badey are available to play in this game specifically.

Starting point is 00:25:37 But Bow's got to have a game where he can also use his legs. I think that's going to be big here this week against Arizona. I came away from this game against the Cardinals saying, you know what? Like there's a lot of things about the offense that Arizona runs right now that's not pretty. Obviously, they just traded away Marvin Harrison Jr. So they lose one of their bigger playmakers, but they still have Trey McBride. And we know that the Broncos historically have struggled against tight ends. I will say this year it seems like they've done a lot better in that department against some of the better tight ends in the NFL that they've faced so far here early on, including the Rams 13 personnel set that we saw a few weeks ago on Sunday night football.

Starting point is 00:26:12 Yeah, they've had a couple of lapses against George Kittle and Travis Kelsey in terms of some yak, some mistackles in space and can't have that. But I think to your point, Cody, they have been much better this year. And they've figured out ways to defend these guys. We'll see who's actually out there in the secondary for the Broncos in this game. As you know, it's kind of a weekly toss up at this point with guys getting healthy, you know, guys getting hurt, et cetera, et cetera. Seems to be on the men, though. So we'll see how they end up defending Trey McBride and Michael Wilson,

Starting point is 00:26:41 who's one of the more underrated sort of high volume target players in the NFL right now. Here's another interesting note, Cody, about, I guess, regarding this Arizona past defense. They just held Matthew Stafford to his lowest average depth of target in a, game since 2018. So when you talk about the Broncos struggling to get the ball down the field and struggling to find those big plays, the Cardinals are coming off of a really good game in that regard. So you're going to have to buck some more narratives here. And I can't help but think there's a little bit more at stake in a game like this, right? When you're four and two, you're kind of approaching this midseason point, approaching the NFL trade deadline. We just saw the Colts fire

Starting point is 00:27:22 their general manager, Chris Ballard, Cody. And there's a lot of folks in Broncos country being like, Go take advantage of it. Go get them into a fire sale mode. You know, go trade for Quentin Nelson or go trade for Jonathan Taylor. We know the Broncos called the dolphins last year at the trade deadline and didn't make a deal. Ultimately, they had an interim GM in place. But firing a GM now, that might indicate that the Colts are willing to play some ball. If the Broncos win on Sunday, I mean, they may be more likely to do something at the trade deadline.

Starting point is 00:27:52 We'll see. But I find it all very fascinating here as the offense continues to struggle. there's potential of upgrades out there. You know, you just got to keep your eyes peeled right now. Special teams is going to be a big one this week as well for Denver. No worries about Jeremy Crosho. But, you know, I think Denver's kick coverage is going to have to be on point here once again. I think this is a week where you could really see a benefit in a big Marvin Mims return.

Starting point is 00:28:16 Teams have kind of been punting away, right? They've been punting high and out of bounds to kind of pin the Broncos field position, you know, within their own 15-yard line. And that happened consistently against the Seattle. Seahawks, we certainly saw that, where they had longer fields that they had to work with. And until the Broncos offense starts to challenge a little bit more, teams are going to still have that same approach. They'll avoid kicking a Marvin, but they will coffin corner to try to pin the Broncos inside

Starting point is 00:28:39 their own 15 and just let their defense kind of pin their ears back, play back on the sticks and send their four-man front and an occasional blitz here and there after Denver's offense. It's going to be big for the offense to bounce back this week. I know that's what everyone in Broncos country, if they had one wish this week, it's for the offense to get on track. And that's going to be our wish here. as well. And with that said, Broncos country, that I'll wrap up today's episode of the show,

Starting point is 00:29:01 Sarah and I, we're going to sit down tomorrow. We're going to do a little bit of a tail of the tape. How does the Broncos' offense match up against the Cardinals' defense and Denver's defense against the Cardinals' offense? We'll look at the biggest numbers that more than likely could define this outcome here in Sunday's game on tomorrow's episode of the show.

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