SEATTLE — Here’s what Falcons quarterback Marcus Mariota had to say after the 27-23 win over Seattle:
Q. Marcus, two close ones. How big of a win was this for you all?
A: Huge. Huge. You know, to start 1-2 is always tough. You kind of dig yourself in a little bit of a hole. But it says a lot about our guys, their ability to bounce back, and that was a huge win for us.
Q. And the running game, it looked like y’all stayed with it and finally started to break some runs there and took control of the game a little bit with it. Was that the plan there?
A: Yeah. And that’s sometimes how it’s gotta be, right? Seattle did a great job early on of kind of boxing us in, and we made some plays in the passing game. Once you’re able to do that, it loosens it up, and our guys up front did a great job with just kind of pushing that line of scrimmage, and we found some ways to break runs and really broke the game open for us.
Q. It looked like really ... all eight passes went to Kyle Pitts in the first half, and I don’t know if they took them away or what that helped to open the run game, that y’all were going downfield and so forth?
A: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And that’s kind of the intent, right, is to be able to be multiple. Our guys did a great job of making plays in the pass game early to be able to open that up in the run game, and guys made plays.
Q. And that’s a tough one, the fumble, RPOs, but what happened, and you tried to pull it or you tried to take it?
A: Yeah. That’s on me. You know, in that situation just being smarter with the football. Selfishly I was trying to go close it myself. You know, I thought I could have got around the corner there. But it’s all part of this learning process. You got a young back. This is my third game, again, for a couple of years. And those are processes, those are things that we’ll continue to grow on and things we’ll work out.
Q. And on Drake (London’s) touchdown pass, was that a hot read? Looked like they were on him pretty quick.
A: Yeah. And, again, Drake just his ability, his natural ability to feel zones. He felt it right away once the guy vacated it, that he could look quick. And it’s always, like I said before, it’s always nice to throw a 4-, 5-yard pass for a touchdown. And he made some incredible moves after that. But hats off to the kid. He’s got good feel.
Q. What does it say about moving forward that you guys were able to overcome drone delays and a fumble and being able to come through with a win, moving forward from a psychological standpoint of the team?
A: I think a lot of credit is due to our guys, for sure. It’s kind of a weird deal with the drone, but then a couple plays later we fumble and our defense comes out and makes a play. You know, the last couple weeks we were just talking about playing complementary football. You know, sometimes offense is going to stumble, defense has gotta be able to pick it up, and they did at the end. You know, as for us as an offense we’re going to have to go make plays sometimes, and that’s just the way it is. And in order for our team to be good and to win these games, you gotta be able to have those moments, and our guys on defense did a great job of pulling it out at the end.
Q. Do you feel a sense of relief of getting your first win?
A: Not necessarily relief. I think the expectation for us, especially these first couple weeks, you know, were to win games. So it feels good. Not necessarily like a relief. I think our expectation as a team is to be playing in games like this, to continue to win and put some of these together.
