 Mike, do you have to, with back-to-back games for the first time this season, have to maybe guard against taking that, maybe a little bit for, you know, taking it for granted, or do you have? Tell me out here, back-to-back games here for the first time this season, back-to-back home games. You guys have not had to travel, you've been traveling so much home in a way. You finally get to stay at home for back-to-back weeks. I don't think we should take anything for granted, just as a general rule. So, again, excited about the preparation, excited about the opportunity to be in the division. You know, and an opportunity to get another win, you know, try to get back-to-back wins. That's probably more important than whether we travel or at home. I know you're talking about, I guess, how run defense was the first time against them. Obviously, that's one of the keys this week. I mean, what I think we need to look at is just the, you know, anytime you have a 60-yarder or whatever it was, you know, that's going to affect the overall, you know, run defense. I wouldn't say that it was all bad. There's a lot of, you know, no gains. There's some ones, and there's some twos. And then there's some, you know, there's some loose ones. And certainly, the X-Play there on short yardage was one of those, and it was a big one. So, again, we know that this team is an excellent, again, they're really good up front. I think they play well together. I think they work well in combination, good scheme, and they're effective running the football. And so we'll have to be really good. We'll have to, you know, be able to defend, you know, some of those shots that we got last time and, you know, and make sure that the quarterback is not creating loose plays. So, Leo didn't actually, didn't exactly say, go Titans on his way out the door. What kind of conversation do you have with him as he comes back? Well, we had a conversation, and obviously Jalil, I would say that that's out of character for Jalil. I've enjoyed the time that, you know, he was here, getting to know him through the offseason and camp and his professionalism. And obviously, he was frustrated. I think we all, at times, get frustrated. And, you know, that's how he chose to, you know, let that emotion out. It's probably not the way that we would recommend it, and he knows that. But again, we all get frustrated at times, and I don't think anybody's immune to that. So, you know, I know who Jalil is, and I'm comfortable that he'll give us everything that he has. For you, when you get frustrated, do you have like a particular person you go to as an outlet, or what do you do to kind of relieve that frustration? You know, I think family helps. I think, you know, the coaches help. I think players help. I think, you know, the people that, you know, are in this building, you know, help. I think, you know, that's always something, you know, when having relationships, I think are critical just for, you know, the ability to talk through. And, you know, there's, you know, plenty of people here, and family. Beyond the boarding being behind the stakes, which I think were only twice on Sunday, what are some of the things that you have to do better to convert more blurred downs in those situations? Not have three penalties, you know. That went from third and three to eight, seven to 12, and whatever, add five to whatever the other one was. You know, we got to, you know, you got to protect, you know, I mean, you get in games, you get pressure, you know, expect man till it's not. These are all the things that we tell the players, you know, that we try to coach and understand that you get multiple fronts, you get multiple pressures, you know, communication when pressure comes is critical. The quarterback has to be able to, you know, ID the front, the pressure. And then, you know, if they give us something else, then we got to know we're hot and, you know, then we got to protect and get open and execute. You talked a lot lately about cool plays that either you've executed or that you failed to execute because of mistakes, but you've used cool a lot to describe stuff that you've done or tried to do. What makes for a cool play? Well, man, I guess I just felt like plays that haven't been banked reps from the off season that you put in, it's part of the base you know, your base package from the spring throughout training camp that you're coming in here every day working against, working towards. You know, and you work on those and sometimes they sit there for a week or so and sometimes you use them, sometimes you don't. And again, there's a good balance on those because sometimes it's, you know, an ex-play or sometimes it's second and 18 or you turn it over. So typically something you're drawing up on a Tuesday collectively? We've got a catalog. I mean, we've got a catalog that we try to pull from or sometimes they come up on a Tuesday or, you know, again, you can't have a whole entire playbook of them, but just things that we're trying to use that can help us. How are they different maybe from the team you saw on week five? I mean, Stewart's not in there. Leonard's not in there. If that's some corners, you know, rotate their way through there, but Buckner's there, you know, Franklin's there. Those are really two impactful players. Good edge rushers. You know, they just keep throwing edge rushers at you one after another. You know, Taylor and Moss are, you know, they're figuring out that connection, you know, or that rotation however they want, you know, two excellent backs. But I mean, really, it's been kind of what they are. Their defense is, you know, they do what they do. They're fast, they're aggressive, and they understand their scheme. You know, Kenny Moore, great player, just knows how to work in their scheme and won the Panthers game for them. Well, we haven't had the full week, but yeah, we will. Again, he's got great grasp of the system having been, you know, with that in Philadelphia. You know, he understands the relief throws, the RPO game, you know, really well. That's something that they used last week a lot more. They had it, so I think the command is there and his ability to extend plays and, you know, he's done a good job for him. The way their Red Zone offense has improved so much since the last time he faced them. What are some of the things that you see? Well, some of those scheme plays that you get, it looks like they go fast. There's some tempo to it. You know, given the quarterback options, right? Whether he's, you know, given it, throwing it or, you know, if you overplay that, then he ran one in last week. So, you know, there's some option elements to it down there, you know, they cover you up. And, you know, like they did against us, they just kind of pushed and there wasn't any penetration and the back kind of squirted through. So, it will have to be, you know, excellent there, you know, if they get down there. Things being simplified a little once last week or at least, you know, the message being to keep things simple. I'm curious about that. And, you know, when a team's losing, is there a tendency among players to get their heads a little bit? And maybe this was an answer. Well, again, you know, I don't know if that's players, you know, coaches, people, you know, whatever. You have to stay consistent. You have to try to stay as consistent to what you believe is possible and know that, you know, the rewards will come. The results will come. You know, there are a lot of great examples in there. Again, just a few examples like we touched on that, you know, limited it to 17 points offensively. But, you know, some great examples in the kicking game, but again, some missed opportunities in the kicking game as well. Some great snaps defensively, but then also some penalties or third down conversion. So, I don't think that you let any sort of doubt creep in. You just try to, you know, stay consistent, you know, these guys to understand what they're doing, know what to do, play fast and aggressive, play together, play with some speed, some violence and offensively, you know, try to limit unforced errors. Mac and cheese with a head. Do you find something like that in the little spare time you have when you're screwing around, flipping around your phone like the rest of us, or does somebody feed you clips that might be useful? We find them different places. I thought it was funny. Thought it applied to where we were. Thought it applied to Thanksgiving. Kind of fit good on a Friday tape. It's a good way to start, you know, different ways to deliver the message. And, you know, there's a lot of truth in some of that. There's a lot of truth and humor. And certainly, you know, I don't even know her name. We're just calling her Aunt Betty for whatever, you know, it's worth. But, you know, just don't do your own crap. Are you surprised sometimes as to what's sticky with the guys and what isn't? Well, we're always trying to engage, we're always trying to make sure that everybody's engaged. We're trying to, you know, stimulate learning, stimulate understanding of concepts. You know, that's most important. And again, if you can have some fun along the way, like this is, you know, spent a lot of time together. So you want to try to make it as enjoyable as possible, not make it giggly and not make it goofy. Hold people accountable, make sure everybody's doing what they're supposed to be doing. But then, you know, trying to have as good of a time as you possibly can. Have you ever had one you thought was good that... Oh, I've got a lot of clunkers, trust me, I'm sure, yeah. When I have to say that's a joke, you can laugh. That's usually a clunker. Go ahead, Kayla. Going back to the right back situation, John Bentale with the thumb surgery is going to be out. So, with Zach Moss kind of being able to focus on him. Oh, he should be licking his chops after the game he had against us last time. I know, he's a good back. That's, you know, it's a great example of players that give an opportunity, you know, doing, you know, some great things. And he was, he had, you know, his workload increased and he took advantage of his opportunity and now he'll, you know, obviously probably get more opportunities. Andy Wilson starting quarterback early in the year and yet they're still in the top 10 in points per game. What is it about their offensive scheme that makes it challenging to slow down? Well, I could call it scheme. I think they're really good up front. I think they're, they know who they are. They've put different players in there. They cover you up and they don't give up a whole lot of penetration, not a whole lot of negative plays from them, you know, the scheme is, you know, there's motions, you know, relief throws. So, you know, Pittman's been a reliable target, you know, they kind of play a bunch of tight ends and they run the football. What comes to execution, what comes to execution, right? If you guys throughout the week, you go over, okay, if he does this, you have to do that and you just repeatedly go over and then you get on the field and it doesn't happen. How do you handle the accountability aspect of it? Uh, yeah. Coach, hey, what's going on? You go to the player, how do you? Well, I mean, I think we all, we have conversations with all those different people. And, you know, it was, is it a mistake? Did you just get beat? Were you loafing? You know, was it an aggressive penalty? You know what I mean? If you could maybe give me an example, I could try to help you specifically work through that. There's just a lot of different things that come up, you know, or positively at the end of half. Like we've been repping down, down clock since the beginning of training camp. And for us to be able to do that from the other side of the 50, really excited about that. You can see our players and it's okay to be excited. You know, you put a lot of work into this and you know, to go down there and clock it and they're protecting the sidelines. We get that thing done and Bruce spots the ball and everybody's running and set. So that's an example of positively. And then negatively, if it's a penalty and it's we're looking in the backfield and it becomes something that's over and over, you know, you have to, you know, eventually if there's other players or you're holding all the time or you don't take care of the football or you're loose with a football, you know, you have to find other options. So I apologize if there's a specific example that you want to talk about. But even like sort of Jaguar's game, really he had the 20 yard touchdown and I know you guys were kind of like rotating the coverage a bit. I guess there was a miscommunication on that side, on that right side of the defensive side of the offense or something like that. Like we have a miscommunication or a blown. Yeah, I mean the miscommunication, you know, the accountability is just, you know, on each other, you know, to make sure like if I'm a player that is expecting help, I'm going to remind the guy that's given me help or hey, if he goes here, you know, you've got him or if the guard pulls and we have to spill it, you know, there's all these just different things and the reaction time that you have is limited. And so again, just the more that you can rep it and coach it and again be as consistent as possible whether that's simple and running the stuff that we've ran. So that's not, you know, sometimes you try to scheme up a defense or scheme up a play and it's not against the look that you, you know, maybe at practice because you only have a limited amount of reps. Now it's well, the margin for error gets greater as opposed to, you know, if you're in this call and they go empty, we know what we're doing. If we get five down this run play, we know how we're handling it because we've done it. So there's a mix of, you know, your core concepts and then scheme play. Was Sunday one of Skarotsky's cleaner, better games in terms of his overall play? And is he now seemingly back to full strength after? Yeah, I think he's back to full strength. I don't know, cleaner, better, like, you know, him continuing to improve and, you know, show the play strength that we saw on tape continue to work and pass protection and games and, you know, but like his play demeanor. How much confidence they get from a performance like they have on Sunday? How much do you think momentum is a real driver or a given player or a unit like a D-line? Well, and we've been through this, I think before you've kind of started covering us, but, you know, the whole momentum and the confidence thing, I think you can, you can have confidence. You know, momentum is something that gets built throughout the week in preparation. I don't think it necessarily carries over confidence and playing well and, you know, getting off the field. I think that those are things that do, but we've had, you know, this conversation, which is a good one and an interesting one with some of the people that have been here. But, you know, we have to have great practices for this week and how you play one week doesn't necessarily mean how you're gonna play the next, but as a player, I think you build some confidence from how you're doing the game. But I think as a team and as a unit, and we have to build that momentum back up each week. Yeah, probably. Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, I just, you know, that was a situation where Arden, you know, we talked so much about working together to create ball disruption, right? Tipping a ball, tip balls get picked. First guy in, making a tackle, second guy hammering. You know, Arden had an opportunity to help Jeff just two plays prior on a conversion, on a third down conversion. Maybe one player or two player, whatever it was a little earlier. And he, you know, he didn't execute, right? Didn't just, didn't quite get it done. And, you know, so they're talking through and, you know, hey, let's make sure, you know, whatever, it's conversations. And, you know, for him to just be able to come back and factor on the edge and, you know, it's a huge play. You know, we talked about these turnovers and what they can do to the game, to the ball game and, you know, short fields and special teams and all that stuff. So it was just, it was fun to see these guys working and chasing and finally hitting. And I had a good view of it too. So that's probably why. Thanks, guys. Until that moment, I guess, played the Colts the first time around, imagine you prepared that way. How much did those studies maybe help you going into, going into this one? Good, yeah, it was nice to, for the first time, you know, study a team and have that kind of come back to you and realize that, think about the things that worked and didn't work and, you know, how we're going to intern response this time around. So this is the interesting part of the year when you get to play those second divisional games and knowing that we talk about it's always going to be a street fight, you know, that we're coming to play our best ball. We know each other as teams. So it just makes everything that much more important. This is where they selected. That was one that you were really projected to go to. Do you remember some of the meetings and things that you had with the Colts and how that went? Yeah, I thought they went well. And I thought there was definitely a shot that I would be going there. And I think kind of right up until that draft day, like both Anthony and I were kind of like, it was going to be like, we don't know. And it was, I thought that it was a good chance, but obviously it didn't work out. And luckily, I ended up here. You had a chance to converse with all the other quarterbacks in your class. What did you think of Anthony Richardson and whatever time you had? Yeah, I mean, I played him once as a starter and just very impressed with him, just what he's able to do with the ball. I mean, he's gifted. And obviously he's not playing for the rest of this year. And I would have loved to compete against him, but Gardner's a heck of a quarterback. And I was able to watch him do a lot of great things against us and throughout the film we've been able to see of his. But Anthony's a great dude. I mean, I was able to meet his family too when I was down there for the draft and they're great people. And I wish him the best. How's attitude just mindset been this week coming off a win, knowing six games left still got a chance to make it interesting down this draft? Yeah, I mean, we don't need examples of why we need to work and have the mindset that we're still in this. But just looking at it as recently as last year, the Jags being a similar spot in the same record at the same point, making the playoffs. I mean, you never know what's going to happen. So we come in here every day just working to win the next one. And we know if we can just stack some together, then we can make something happen here. So that's encouraging. But regardless of our record, we're going to come and work the same way. Mike was talking about when a play that you've put in recently works something that's relatively new to the playbook as opposed to something that's been a staple from the beginning. I know you take whatever works. But when you see something like that come to fruition, is there a little bit of an extra charge about it? Yeah, that's special because I mean, when you have a game plan specific play that maybe is not as sound as a concept, it might look on paper. But just because of the response that you might be expecting to get and they nail it, I mean, I feel awesome. I don't design the plays. I can't imagine what those guys in there are feeling. So that's great. And for every one of those, there might be one that doesn't work. But when they do hit, it's a great feeling. How translatable is what Brian did skill set wise to what you do? Do you look at that and see yourself, or is that kind of a one for one? I mean, I see what he did right and try to follow that. But ability-wise, I wouldn't say like I'm trying to copy what he's doing, but more so on a decision-making and timing-wise. I think he did a good job against them that first game. Obviously showed in the stat line, but I think just overall he played a really clean game, that game, and it didn't show up in the score, but hopefully we can play as clean as a game just like that and eliminate the couple of mistakes that happened so that we can come up on top. How much, when you're in a situation where, like on Sunday, a lot of times there were four rookies in the huddle, including yourself, and you can go down and you do what you guys did at the end of the half and get that field goal with 30 seconds on the clock. How much does that kind of validate, trusting the process and you guys working together and learning together? Yeah, I mean, it's awesome for like the end of half, the down-down clock situation that we work a lot, going back even to training camp and for it to come to a game for us to execute it and then for us to nail the field goal. I mean, that felt awesome going to the locker room and it sucks that we weren't able to kind of carry that over the second half and keep things rolling, but there's a lot of good things to take, especially from that first half. And when there are four newer guys in the huddle like that, it makes it feel, you know, that much better. Art and I say, in the circle, and you broke them down and you told them about dogs and playing like dogs, you know, for you as a younger guy, and where does that comfort level and that confidence come from to be able to tell all these veterans what you told them? I think I'm still trying to figure out my leadership style. Like, I'm slowly, I guess, kind of feeling out my involvement in that area, but I mean, I'm just trying to be myself and speaking from the heart and speaking in a way that I feel like could bring others up and try not to be corny and just be authentic and that's all I can be. So I just try to give them a little message and hopefully it gets through to some guys. Was there a particular point, was there a point where you felt comfortable enough to do that or has it just been a gradual process? I think this week, actually a couple of teammates like even helped me like push me on like, hey, like they break us down, like get us going like and to hear that from guys and to know that like they're pushing me to be in that more type of role that helped me a lot, but I think it's just a slow process of, you know, figuring out my style of leadership and being authentic and doing whatever I can to get the guys ready to go out and play. What pushed you to do? Arden was one of those guys in the locker room that day, but even throughout the week, like with breaking down stuff and communicating and getting the guys together, Coach Varela made a big emphasis after, you know, team periods to get the whole offense together and run through the tape and evaluate it right there on the field for the first time just to kind of get the corrections and the knee-jerk reactions to the play and then, you know, we watch it again when we go back, but I think that translated into the game well and that I was able to communicate a little more comfortably with all the different position groups. So just got to keep working on that. Think about any of that stuff ahead of time, like the night before the hotel, if I hadn't changed to talk, this is what I say, or driving or is it spurting? Sometimes I think I, it wasn't spur the moment that day. Like I think that morning I knew that if I had the opportunity to come and say a message, like I knew what I was going to say. So, okay, I had the opportunity to, I was looking to take that opportunity when it happened and I'm glad I did get the opportunity. I think I saw him from a guy like DeAndre, just such a veteran in the league. It's his first year here with this team, but I feel like you guys have built that connection from the get-go. What did he talk to you? Yeah, I mean, he is just like, you know, why I love Coach Varela so much is that, you know, he pushes all of us and that standard that he holds for us is even higher than the standards that we hold for ourselves, which that's what you look for in a coach. And that's the same thing with DeAndre. Like I think maybe the first couple of weeks he gave me a little leeway, but now it's like I got to be on my stuff. And if I miss something and I miss him, he'll let me know. And you know, I'm going to do my best to not make it happen the next time or to make it happen the next time. But I love my relationship with him and we're able to speak with each other freely and I trust what he sees. And we've got to make sure that we're on a similar level so that I can get him the ball more. I showed a small social media clip to the defense with mac and cheese thing. I don't know if you heard it. But it was a big hit. And really hit the theme and was sticky. But I asked him if he ever falls flat on his face and he said plenty of times he has to say like it's okay to laugh that was meant to be a joke. You remember any times where he put something up and got like a zero reaction and... No, I think coach does a good job of bringing up clips that are relative to what's going on. I think someone came up to Thanksgiving dinner making their own mac and cheese and that didn't fly with mama and she let her know. And so that kind of was in relationship to what was going on with us was to not go on and do our own stuff and to play together as a team. And then I kind of took that and my message to the guys was sure like don't do your own thing but be you, be that dog you got inside of you. I felt like in the last few weeks we'd lost that kind of swagger that we had and we got to be walking around a field knowing that we got it. And I feel like we got some of that energy this past Sunday we got to keep it going. How much fun is it when there's a laugh moment like that that makes the thing? Yeah, it helps you get through the days, you know? You need those laughs and Coach Fraves is a good job of mixing them in when it's least expected too. You're in your last this week but have you ever been told that you're like unusually comfortable playing in the cold? I see you out here with no pants, no sleeves. You said you sweat a lot during training camp when you're hot. Is that just like natural for you? I just, I'm more comfortable sleeveless. Like I don't know like wearing a long sleeve when I'm throwing and stuff just doesn't feel the same but I try to go sleeveless whenever I can but I think it's a product of where I'm from like growing up in the Northeast like I'm not afraid of the cold but yeah, if it gets below like 20 you might see me in a long sleeve but we'll see. Thank you for joining me. Thank you.