Here’s what Falcons quarterback Desmond Ridder had to say about the win over the Cardinals on Sunday:
On what he felt worked for the offense during the last drive of the game: “Yeah. I mean, our mindset and my mindset going into it was get the ball in the end zone, as is every drive that we want to go out there and play. It’s about maintaining the ball. Now you start to get into the situational football of once we get the first down, do we get down? Do we score? What do we do? Making sure everybody is on the same page there. Our O-line did a great job up front of handling them, and Tyler and the backs did a great job of executing that.”
On what it meant to the team to overcome a fumbled snap and what it meant to score on the next possession: “Obviously, got to clean things up. Under center with me and Drew, that was all on me. But then it’s huge for our special teams to come back and make that play and then for us to go out there and put points on the board is huge.”
On whether he feels that now is the time to build his résumé with these final two games: “Yeah, 100 percent. We want to just play our best game every single day. Then we know we can’t be in the playoffs this year. One thing we talked about is we want to finish the last few games strong. Finish it for something good for the future. Obviously, that started well today.”
On whether he was nervous going into the final drive and what kind of energy he tries to give to the other players during those moments: “First of all, just a calmness. Just going out there, not necessarily saying you’ve been in those moments before, but just go out there, see that you’re calm, composed, and can execute things. That’s going to kind of filter off to the other guys and they’re going to want to execute more, execute better. Sometimes it’s just being calm, being poised and everyone else sees that, feels that, and goes out there and executes.”
On how he felt his passing game Sunday compared with previous games: “We only pushed it down the field a couple times. I feel like I took what was there. A couple times early, felt a little pressure, and I might have mixed up my footwork a little bit. The one over the middle to Drake early on. Other than that, I felt like I took what was there. I felt like I did a good job. The O-line gave me plenty of time back there. When there was pressure, I felt like I did a good job of making plays with my legs and taking it when it wasn’t there.”
On the throw to tight end MyCole Pruitt on third-and-7 and what goes into a throw like that: “Like we said before, going into it just calm. Just was another 3rd and 7, 3rd and 8, obviously for the game, whatever you want to say. It’s just playing within the play. It was a play we ran multiple times in the game. We just went back to it and executed it in a different way.”
On how does throwing a ball within a tight space affects the way he executes: “You’re in the red zone, first of all, so windows are going to be tighter. From my perspective, I saw him drop off in zone. Just knew I had to get him the ball that we throw every day at practice. That’s what I did. He obviously caught it, drop stepped, and got us a couple more yards.”
On whether he thinks that running back Tyler Allgeier is becoming harder to tackle: “Tyler’s a workhorse, and his balance is wild. For him to be able to get the ball and then make one guy miss and then get hit by two or three guys but still be up is something I haven’t seen before. Credit to him and credit to the guy’s up front doing their job and moving their guys. He’s a heck of a ballplayer.”
On what he feels are the next steps he needs to take in his progression: “It’s just about finishing, doing whatever you can to win. I’ll go back into this next week and see what I could have done better from this pass game, then keep continuing to try to get better.”
On his thoughts about not throwing a touchdown pass through three games this season: “The red zone is the toughest place to score in the game of football. We’re doing a couple things, I could have took OZ (Olamide Zacchaeus) maybe a little early on the little flight route, and he might have scored. It’s really just about executing. When the pass plays are called, I got to execute better.”
On what worked for the offense in the last two drives that ended in field goals: “Our whole goal this week and every week is to start fast. We did that in the first quarter coming out. There’s a little lull. We got to get going on both first, second, third, and fourth quarters. We didn’t do that coming out in the second half. That will be something we’ll look to improve on every single week.”
On the Cardinals getting the lead with 4:57 left in the 4th quarter and what his mindset was to set out to win: “Go down and score, as any other team’s mindset would be in that situation. We want to go down there and get in the end zone, put points on the board. If we were able to do that with running all the time off, perfect. If not, we’d trust our defense to back us up.”
On whether getting his first NFL win means anything: “Yeah, 100 percent. You can’t take anything for granted, and this is one thing I do not take for granted. Coming out here next week, this will be my last game of our rookie season. We’re not taking any of these games for granted, any of these plays for granted. Grady Jarrett, one of our leaders on our team, brought us up and said, ‘men, we only get two more opportunities to do this.’ Everyone took that, and that’s something we rolled with.”
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Atlanta Falcons 2022 schedule
Sept. 11 Saints 27, Falcons 26
Sept. 18 Rams 31, Falcons 27
Sept. 25 Falcons 27, Seahawks 23
Oct. 2 Falcons 23, Browns 20
Oct. 9 Buccaneers 21, Falcons 15
Oct. 16 Falcons 28, 49ers 14
Oct. 23 Bengals 35, Falcons 17
Oct. 30 Falcons 37, Panthers 34 OT
Nov. 6 Chargers 20, Falcons 17
Nov. 10 Panthers 25, Falcons 15
Nov. 20 Falcons 27, Bears 24
Nov. 27 Commanders 19, Falcons 13
Dec. 4 Steelers 19, Falcons 16
BYE WEEK
Dec. 18 Saints 21, Falcons 18
Dec. 24 Ravens 17, Falcons 9
Jan. 1 Falcons 20, Cardinals 19
Jan. 8 vs. Tampa Bay, TBD
