CHICAGO – Here’s what Falcons quarterback Taylor Heinicke had to say after the 37-17 shellacking by the Bears on Sunday:
Q. What were the factors that kept you from sustaining things today? You came out, moving it, had a seven-yard loss, missed a couple field goals early.
A. “Yeah, it’s the same thing from the rest of the year. We turned the ball over, and we can’t do that, especially this team and how they play and this weather. Can’t give them short fields. Can’t turn the ball over. Got to play clean football. There were spurts where we did that, and there were some where we didn’t, so we’ve got to clean it up.”
Q. In the passing game, what were you seeing?
A. “Yeah, they didn’t do anything different from what we’ve seen on film. Maybe some of the pressure stuff on 3rd downs and different fronts that they used that we’ve seen on film, they didn’t do that today. It was more vanilla. I thought they just played a great game. They just beat us. Again, go back and look at the film later tonight and see what we can do better and learn from it, but right now I think they just beat our (behind).”
Q. What was your view on the screen pass? Looked like Tyler picked up a couple blocks that were sitting in the corner.
A. “You’re talking about the one that Tyler (Algeirer) went for 75? Yeah, great play call, and quite honestly they brought a blitz that it worked perfectly, so they brought the nickel, Tyler kind of bluffed them into making them think he was going to block them and slipped outside, and it a perfect play call call for that defensive call, and we executed it perfectly.”
Q. How much did the ankle injury affect you today and do you think you’ll be able to go next week?
A. “I wouldn’t say it was affecting me that much. I would say it was kind of in the back of my mind, whether it was like transferring weight with throws and stuff like than kind of feel it. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow and go from there. But right now -- I could start to feel it later in the game. Second to last throw I had there, I think someone stepped right there on my foot and started to feel a little bit of sharp pain. Other than that, I don’t think it really affected me. I’ve just got to play better.”
Q. Which ankle is it?
A. “Left.”
Q. You had a couple scrambles where it looked like you had a quick decision to make toward the end of the game?
A. “I don’t know. Once you’re in the heat of the battle, the adrenaline kind of takes over and you just go. On most of those scrambles I wasn’t feeling it. It was mostly when you get to the sideline or you’re kind of sitting there in the huddle with the cold, it kind of creeps in your mind. Again, I’ve just got to play better.”
Q. The ankle combined with the weather affect you?
A. “No. No, again, I didn’t really feel the ankle at all until later in the game, and then again, like I said, it kind of compounded when I got stepped on there at the end.”
Q. Your first few drives you missed throws in the end zone. I don’t know if those were misses or -- just walk me through kind of what you saw on both of those and what happened.
A. “The red zone throws?
Q. The one to Kyle and the one to Van.
A. Yeah, so the one to Kyle, it was a schemed-up play, and I saw Kyle kind of slip the corner and got on top of him and tried to give him a shot. A little too deep and inside. And then the one to Van, quite honestly, I thought it was a perfect ball when I threw it. I got hit right afterwards, so I didn’t really see how it ended. But yeah, something I can go back and look at film, see where I can do better.”
Q. I know you haven’t started every game this year, but consistency-wise, it seems like it hasn’t been there. Why has it not been there with this team, and are there parallels you can draw from other places you’ve been?
A. “Again, when you turn the ball over it’s hard to win, so that’s step one. You can’t turn the ball over three times and expect to win the game like that. Then we didn’t really have any penalties today on offense or on defense I think until very late, so in that aspect we played very clean. But when you turn the ball over three times, give that offense short fields with conditions like this, it’s tough to win, especially on the road.
Q. Big picture when you look at the entire season, but it’s been really the last three weeks have been kind of inconsistent?
A. “Well, I would respectfully disagree within the last three weeks. I think we played some -- obviously the Carolina game with that weather. But when Des was playing against Tampa, I thought we were moving. Again, there were some turnovers there. But other than the turnovers, I thought he played a really solid game there. The turnovers today, Carolina with that weather and then last week, I thought we were on a roll. Again, I think it all falls back on turnovers. If you don’t turn the ball over, yeah, you’re going to have some three-and-outs, but that’s part of football.”
Q. Where do you think this team goes from here? This team is still technically in it.
A. “Yeah, well again, it feels really shitty right now, to be honest, to come up here and get beat like that. But the fact that we still have a chance going into week 18, the last week of the season, the fact that we’re still in that, that’s what you want. If someone told us week 18 you’re going to have a chance to go to the playoffs, you’ll take it. That’s where we are right now. We’re going to focus on the Saints, go up there and beat them and root for the Panthers this weekend.”
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