Here’s what Falcons quarterback Desmond Ridder had to say after the 24-16 loss to the Commanders on Sunday:
On the interception on the throw-away pass: “Yeah, that was just a miscommunication. Obviously, it was third down - the one in the back of the end zone? Yeah. It was third down there. Obviously trying to make a play. Got a miscommunication between myself and Drake, obviously just try to give him a chance. Drake turned one way, I threw it the other. It’s just a miscommunication. Obviously, you look back at the end of it, you wish you would have - because I was also hot in the pressure, so I was just trying to get it up. That’s one we’re going to go back, go learn from and figure out a way to be better.”
On the delay of game penalty: “Yeah, like he said, at the end of the day, we’ve just all got to be better. Whether it’s substitutions, whether it’s reads, whether it’s play call, whatever it may be, we just all have to be better.”
On how he felt about today’s game: “I mean, obviously, that’s tough right there to go out there and put up that showing. When you have plenty of opportunities to go down, put points on the board, plenty of opportunities when you’re moving the ball, getting things going and coming up short, obviously that’s tough for us. But I think what’s great for this team is that game there’s a lot of good things to learn from. There’s a lot of things that went wrong in there that we have done right in the past, that we just did wrong out there. So, there’s a lot of things that us as an offense can go back and learn from, and I think it’s only going to make us better.”
On whether there was a lot of frustration with the outcome of today’s game: “Yeah, obviously it’s frustrating anytime you lose. Like I said, there’s a lot of points where we could have done better, we could have put points on the board, we could have done this, and we just didn’t. Like I said, whatever it was, we have to go figure it out and be better.”
On whether the operational issues in today’s game was on the players or coaches: “Yeah. Like I said, that’s on everybody. Whether it’s substitution, whether it’s getting out of the huddle, whether it’s play call, whether it’s getting lined up, whether it’s making the right read with the ball, it’s just on everyone. This isn’t a one-man, a one-coach thing. It takes all 11, and really all 53-plus. Fifty-three players and all the coaches on the coaching staff and everyone involved. We all have to be on our A-game. We all have to be able to go out there and execute under any type of circumstance, any type of pressure, and that’s just something we failed at today.”
On what he remembers from his interceptions: “The first one, the guy just jumped it again. Second one was hot, just trying to give him a chance. And like I said, we’ll learn from it.”
On whether there was anything he noticed that helped the offense get off to a good start in the passing game: “No. We just came out and jumped on them. We just went out there and executed. That’s all we did. Like I said, that we didn’t do from the first couple weeks was execution. We went out there, kept the ball moving, got the first, first down, kept positive plays going. Missed the early one right there to Red [KhaDarel Hodge] right there on our sideline, was able to bounce back, keep it going, put points on the board. That’s what we got to do every week.”
On how important the first third down was: “It’s huge. The first third down is huge, first play is huge. Getting that first, first down is huge. So obviously, to be out there, to go out there and convert the first third down is huge for us.”
On whether he feels the coaches are starting to trust him more in the passing game: “Yeah. I mean, you got to trust every single guy that’s out there on the field, whether it’s run or pass. Like I said and have said in previous weeks, whatever is working is working. Whether we run the ball a hundred times and throw it once, or throw it once and run it, whatever it may be. At the end of the day, no matter what it is, whatever is called, we have to be able to go out there and execute it.”
