Falcons’ Younghoe Koo: ‘I had all of the faith in the unit’

On what went through his mind: “It is the preparation that I got back to. It’s a swing thought. There are no other thoughts that enter you mind. I guys try to get the timing right. It’s easy when you have a snapper like Liam and a holder like Bradley that takes the pressure off of me. I just have to kick the ball.”

On McCullough bringing him the ball: “He’s awesome for that. He just goes (over) there and gets it. He’s my guy.”

On how he felt when he hit it: “It was good. The operation was great. Liam and Bradley are money in that situation. All I have to do is kick.”

CALAIS CAMPBELL, defensive end

On Koo’s game-winning kick: “My mindset was just give him as much time as he needs. Go out there and block hard for him. I’ve been learning very quick that this guy is clutch. He’s got ice in his veins. It was great to see. It was a big-time kick today.”

On Falcons utilizing defensive pressure: “You know, I feel like we had a good gameplan going in. We knew this team was going to be scrappy and play really good football and I feel like this was one of those days where like, you know, the ball just didn’t bounce our way. You know, tough breaks, situations where the ball could have bounced our way and just didn’t and just one of those days where it was [if we get] out of here with a win [that would] be huge, so it feels really good to get out of here with a win. A big part of it was our coaching [staff] gave us a great game plan. We executed at a high level, and we made the plays that we needed to. And they fought hard – they’re a scrappy team, you know. They’re the reigning division champs and so we knew that for us to have a chance at the division we have to go through them, so it’s a good win, but they’re a good team, so we know we’re going to have to see them again.”

On how going through adversity as a team can help them moving forward: “Yeah, you know, I think a big part of that is, I mean, it’s character building. You know, winning tough, hard, ball games – that’s what going to be in the playoffs. We earn the right to be there, you know, so this is good experience. You know, this is a playoff type of game, and no matter what, you just keep fighting, keep swinging. We’re going to have to play a lot of games at this level to be able to go where we want to go. I really feel good about the way we fought, you know, with everything against us, adversity, we just kept swinging, kept sawing wood, kept believing in each other, and found a way to win the ballgame.”

On leading the division through Week 7: “It feels great, but you know, it’s still October, right? There’s still a lot of football left to play. Whether we’re on top of the division today does not matter. We just have to keep fighting and playing better ball, you know, find a way to keep improving. But I will say, getting a win on the road in the division is huge.”

SCOTTY MILLER, wide receiver

On the game-winning kick: “Koo is as clutch as it gets, whether if it be out there making game-winners or in the locker room playing ping-pong. You know he’s going to come through when it counts. We all were sitting there knowing that it was about to go in. He hit it of course and we all went crazy.”

On his big catch: “Yeah, I’ve just kind of been waiting on that big moment this year. I got it. You’ve just have to take advantage of those opportunities when they come your way. I went up against that defense a lot over the last four or five years. So, to get a chance to do it in a game against those guys was….I was just ready for it. Des (Ridder) put a great ball out there. Just grateful to be able to make a play.”

On being in first place: “For me, especially, that’s awesome, being in first place. It was a good divisional win and onto the next one.”

RICHIE GRANT, safety

On his interception: “I just did the easy part. I had the rush. They got in Baker’s face. Then the underneath coverage by Kaden (Elliss). He slowed him up a little bit. Really, I just ready the quarterback’s eyes. I saw that the tight end wanted to break out. I ran out there and the ball was there. I did the easy part. Everybody else did the hard thing.”

On getting the win: “That was unbelievable. That just shows the fight of this team. We are starting to (coming together). On the defense, we’ve got a goal, and we are trying to attack that every week. It’s nowhere near done. We’ve still got a lot of stuff to clean up, but I’m proud of how we are playing right now.”

On forcing the field goal: “That was a helluva red zone stop, forcing them to three right there at the end of the game. We did it before with Koo and the clutch kick. We had faith in the offense to go down. Koo came through in the end, but that was a helluva red zone stand by the defense. (David Onyemata) with the sack. All of us working together, the coverage and the rush.”

BIJAN ROBINSON, running back

On his sickness: “I’ll be good next week and we’ll get right back.”

On if he’s missed a game before: “Yeah, I missed two games in college and then one game, two games in high school.”

On trading numbers with Koo: “Absolutely, even when the numbers switched. Right when it happened. We have built that relationship. We became super close. We became brothers. Every day, we talked to each other. That’s my dog.”

On his sickness: “It was just me coming here and not feeling right over the air waves, off the plane. Then last night it was just more of me trying to sleep and get my head right. I woke up this morning feeling super, super down. Just like, I don’t know what happened…it was hard to sleep. I was just trying to find my groove. I was over the toilet last night. Just trying to get out of it. I woke up this morning and I wasn’t feeling good at all.”

DAVID ONYEMATA, defensive tackle

On holding Buccaneers to a field goal on final drive and the subsequent Falcons offensive drive: “Amazing, man. Amazing – amazing feeling to put them in position to go win the game. [Falcons quarterback] Des[mond] Ridder made a great play to [Falcons tight end] Kyle [Pitts] - changed and flipped the field. Put [Falcons kicker Younghoe] Koo in position to make the game-winning field goal. That doesn’t happen if we don’t go [and] get a stop and force the field goal after a long scramble, unfortunately. Still held them to three and put the team in a position to try and go get a win.”

On what it was like for the defensive unit to watch the offense execute game-winning drive: “You just stay ready for whatever. At the end of the day, we still had the option to still go out on the field if something didn’t go our way, to go into overtime. So, we had to be ready, however it went. But, for the kick to go in – I’m sure nobody doubted that it was going to go in. It was a good feeling, too. But, if it had to go another way, we’d have been ready.”

On final defensive series: “Back against the wall – back against the wall to everybody. Great coverage, great rush. We had to be able to respond after that long scramble. So, we did what we had to do to force three [points]. The position that we were in – just control what we can control in that moment. Was able to get a stop and force three [points].”

On applying pressure today: “Definitely got a lot of pressure. Baker (Mayfield) is hard to get down. He’s very slippery and highly, highly competitive when he moves around in that pocket. So it takes a group effort, not only from the rushers, but from the coverage. So when we got him down at the end, it took a little minute, but that’s kudos to the coverage because he had to hold the ball and had nowhere to go. That allowed some guys to get through and go get him down.”

The Bow Tie Chronicles