FLOWERY BRANCH – Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan went on SiriusXM NFL Radio – The SiriusXM Blitz with Bruce Murray and Rich Gannon – and shouldered his share of the blame of the team’s 1-3 start and their red zone problems on Wednesday.

A full transcript is below, but here are some of the highlights:

1. Wide receiver Roddy White is recovering from his high right ankle sprain and is taking on an expanding role in the offense.
2. He blamed everyone for the offense’s red zone problems, including himself.
3. Hopes to get on a roll and eventually overtake the Saints.

OPENING COMMENTS: “I know one thing, we’ve got to be better in the red zone. We’ve moved the ball really effectively through four games, kind of up and down the field and we’ve had a lot of opportunities in the red zone, we just haven’t scored as many touchdowns as we need to in order to win games. In my opinion it comes down to a little bit better execution down there. We’ve had opportunities, but across the board, our execution has not been what it needs to be. That is something that I think we can continue to work on, continue to improve on. We are not that far away. But it’s three or four more plays in those situations that are going to change the outcome.”

ON THE RUNNING THE FOOTBALL MORE EFFECTIVELY IN THE RED ZONE: “You know what, I think a little bit of it is situations in games. When you look statistically at how things shake out, a couple of those trips to the red zone, two in particular in the last game, one in New Orleans at the end of the game, we really didn’t have the luxury of running the ball in that situation.  And, the way the game kind of shook out, we were down on the clock and had to throw the ball in those situations and that makes it, like you said, it makes it more difficult to throw the ball when the threat of the running game is not there. Across the board, I think we just need to block a little bit better. We need to throw it a little bit better. We need to catch it a little bit better and our guys needs to run it a little bit better. If we can all pull our weight just a little bit more, I think we’ll be fine.”

ON THE FOURTH-AND-2 WHERE HE MISSED RODDY WHITE WHILE ROLLING TO HIS LEFT: “Hey, you’re right, 99 out of 100 (times) you put it right on their front shoulder, we get the first and we move on. But that’s, talking about that execution, that’s one of those things. I haven’t done it as well as I need to. That ball just got away from me a little bit. I tried rushed it, put a little too much on it and ended up catching a flyer. Its plays like that, that change the outcomes of games. If we convert there and we’re able to punch it in, that changes that game completely and puts us in a different situation. And, so , we’re close. We know we can make those plays. We know we’re capable of getting that done. We just have to be confident that we are going to do that moving forward.”

ON THE BEING THAT AGGRESSIVE: “I think as players you have great trust in your head coach.  I think our entire football team has great trust in what Coach (Mike) Smith is going to do. He’s going to play it by feel there. He put the confidence in us as an offense to go get it done. I think 11 guys in that huddle fully expected to get the 2 yards and keep the drive going, and to punch it in. We just fell a little bit short there. As a player, you love that kind of aggressive mentality and you take it on yourself to make those situations work so that in the future when you need those situations to happen again he’ll have the confidence to do it.”

ON TIGHT END TONY GONZALEZ’ BIG GAME: “It’s unbelievable. It really is. He’s playing great. He seems to continue to get better as he keeps going on. First and foremost, he works his tail off. He really puts in the time on his body and is the consummate professional when it comes to that and having himself prepared out on the practice field. He’s great in that respect. And, so it doesn’t surprise me that he’s playing as good as he is. But it’s certainly, incredibly impressive.”

ON RODDY WHITE’S INJURING COMPROMISING THE OFFENSE:  “He’s getting better, but you’d have to ask him where he’s at. But I think he’s continuing to improve. He’s certainly playing more for us and in a bigger role as we continue to progress through the season. Certainly, when he’s at full-go he’s one of the very best in the league. We certainly have a guy on the other end who is certainly is as good as anybody else also. But it’s changed a little bit what we’ve done early on. We’ve featured Harry Douglas a little bit more. He’s a guy who’s stepped up a lot for us and I think he’s played really well for us through four games. But at the end of the day, with whoever is out there and whoever is at 100 percent, we have to be ready to roll.”

ON THE JETS STOUT DEFENSE: “Their defense is playing extremely well. Specifically, their front seven is as physical in the run game and very good against the pass as well. So, we’ve got our work cut out for us. We know going into it that we’re going to prepare for everything that we’ve seen thus far, but there is going to be something that we have not seen up until this point. I think when you go up against a defense like that, I think it’s imperative that you know your game plan inside-out. We have to understand what we are trying to do and communication really well so that we can handle whatever they throw at us and trust the rules that we have in our offense.”

ON NOT SCORING MORE THAN A TOUCHDOWN IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE LAST SIX GAMES: “I the last game, against the Patriots, we made a good run at the end  of the game.  We weren’t able to string two touchdowns back-to-back when we needed it. You know what . . . . we are working on it. We are working to be more consistent for 60 minutes and we are working on being more efficient in the red zone. Those are the two main focuses for us right now.”

ON JETS CORNERBACK ANTONIO CROMARTIE: “He’s playing at really high level. He’s a big guy. A big corner. Very long and very physical. He does a great job with his hands and re-routing wide receivers. I think he benefits from playing in that scheme, too, He’s a talented player and can play aggressive because he understands that he has a really good pass rush in front of him and a really good scheme in terms of creating a lot of one-on-ones an unblocked linebackers as well. I think he’s playing at a high level and playing really well for the Jets.

ON NOT STAYING CALM AT 1-3, WHILE THE SAINTS HAVE JUMPED OUT TO 4-0:  “I don’t think you can worry too much about what everybody else is doing. We have enough on our own plate. We have to focus on our own stuff to figure out how to win this week. Just chip away at it. We have 12 more games before they decide who is going to be in the playoffs.  We’ve just got to chip away at it, one game at a time. Keep that mindset, and it sounds cliché, just keep that mindset of day-to-day progress and improving day-to-day, and I think if we do that, that will be the thing that helps us kind of get the ship back on track and get ourselves moving in the right direction.”

ON HAVING VETS IN THE LOCKER ROOM: “Having guys with a lot of experience and understanding, how the season shakes out and understanding that their ebbs and flows. When things are ebbing away, you just have to hang on and trust in your process. Then when you get in a flow, you just have to get all that you can get and ride that out. We are at that point right now, where we are hanging on and we’re just going to keep trusting in what we are doing and try to chip away at it slowly and hopefully we’ll get on a roll and get moving in the right direction and string a couple of wins together . It all starts with this one Monday Night.”   

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