Smith: We weren’t able to get stop at the end

Here’s a snippet of head coach Mike Smith’s postgame news conference following the Falcons’ loss at Arizona in the first round of the NFC playoffs.

Opening statement:

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Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com

Coach Mike Smith said the three turnovers played a key role in the Falcons’ loss.

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First let me say that I’m disappointed. Our whole football team is disappointed in the outcome of the football game today, but we are not discouraged. I’m proud of the way that these guys fought today. We just didn’t get it done. They made the plays when they had to. It’s tough to win when you’re minus on the turnover ratio. The three turnovers were very big. But I really thought the guys fought very hard and showed their resiliency there. It’s tough when you have a chance there at the end to get a stop and we weren’t able to get the stop there at the end. That’s tough. My hat is off to Coach (Ken) Whisenhunt and his football team. Congratulations to them. They played very passionate, hard-nosed football. It was a hard-nose game. We’ll go into this offseason, we have got some issues that we have to address. This is all part of the process. This is just another step in the process. We are going to remember how it feels as a football team. We plan on being back in this situation. We want to remember how this feels.

Q. Coach, what did they do to shut down your rushing attack?

A. They did a nice job of getting off blocks. They loaded the box. They did a very good job controlling the line of scrimmage.

Q. Antrel Rolle’s touchdown, did you see what happened there?

A. I think the ball got punched out. They slid in through the front. From what I saw, the guy jumped the block and was in the backfield. He was very disruptive. It wasn’t a clean play for us. The ball popped up. That was a big play in the football game. We had come out and taken the lead right before halftime. We had an opportunity to have possession of the football for the first series of the second half.

Q. How important was it for them to be able to run the football today?

A. We felt like that they were going to try and come in and run the football. They do have some very talented runners. Edgerrin James has been one of the more talented runners in the league. (Tim) Hightower has had a very good rookie season. In the playoffs, you’ve got to be able to run the football. I really believe that.

Q. How did Matt Ryan play?

A. I thought Matt would like to have some throws back. But this is a new experience for him. This is a new experience for our entire football team. Really, we’d have to watch the tape to give a more qualified answered. I was pleased with the way he ran the no-huddle. The no-huddle was the thing that changed the momentum there in the second (quarter). He’s done an outstanding job running our no-huddle all season long.

Q. Do you think he wore down at all?

A. It’s a long season for everybody. This is our 21st football game. I didn’t really see and of course I’m seeing Matt every day. I felt like you’ve got to look at his entire body of work throughout the entire season. I don’t know that you could really break it down and evaluate what he’s done here of late. I think you’ve got to look at what he’s done the entire season. Not just Matt, but the entire football team.