Here’s what Matt Ryan said after the 24-9 loss Sunday to backup quarterback Taysom Hill and the Saints:
On being under duress: “They did a good job of rushing different packages the entire day, stressing our pass protection. They did a good job of covering on the back end. I got to tip my hat to them. We have to play better in a couple of weeks when we see them again.”
On the Saints defense: “They are playing well, there’s no doubt about it. They’ve been playing well all year and giving people trouble at different times. Again, my hat is off to them. They played really well. We have to find a way to be better in a couple of weeks when we see them.”
On if there was any talk of making some adjustments at halftime (quicker throws, shorter routes?): “I think we just needed to be better on first down. In the third quarter, on first and second downs we got behind the chains pretty much. We put ourselves in really tough third down positions that you are not going to convert at a high clip. I felt we came out and we didn’t play great in the third quarter and we got behind in the game in the chains a little too much coming out of the half.”
On more max protections, shorter routes as he need more time to throw the ball: “We did. We had some different protection schemes. We were keeping five and six and helping with a seventh. Again, it was just one of those days. We have to find a way to be better. We didn’t do a good enough job today.”
On missing Julio Jones: “I think it’s always tough, anytime that he goes down. It’s hard to replace that production and it also changes how teams defend us. But it’s not an excuse. We have got to find a way with the guys out there to be better. That’s going to take all of the guys on our offense, 22, 23 guys deep. We have to find a way to be productive.”
On the week of practice: “Yeah, anytime you don’t score touchdowns you are disappointed whether if you are coming off a bye or regardless of the week. We do this and we work hard, our responsibility as an offense is to score touchdowns and score points. We were not very good today. We’ve got to be better next week.”
On the offensive line not being physical enough against the Saints: “I just think we’ve got to be more efficient on early downs, first and second down to get further into drives. When we run the football the best as we get into drives, six, eight, 10 plays into we start to run the football and wear people down. We really didn’t have many drives like that today.”
On playing the Saints in a couple weeks at home: “For sure, it’s going to be a quick turnaround. Obviously, we’ve got (Las) Vegas next week and they are playing very well. So, we have to focus on that be better and get a win next week. We’ll see these guys in two weeks and hopefully we’ll have a different outcome.”
Falcons’ next four games
Raiders at Falcons at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29
Saints at Falcons at 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6
Falcons at Chargers at 4:25 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 13
Buccaneers at Falcons at 1 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 10
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