Here’s what Falcons interim coach Raheem Morris had to say after the 31-27 loss to the Bucs: Sunday in Atlanta:
On what he liked in the first half of Sunday’s game: ”We dealt with our roles, went out there and executed our roles. The defense went out there and got stops. The offense went out there and scored touchdowns. We were able to get three. We were able to execute our game plan at a high level. A big part of the game plan today was protecting Matt. Did a great job of doing that. Another part was using the cadence. Matt did a nice job of using cadence to protect himself. Another big part of it for all of those guys was to be able to keep the chains moving, keep those guys being able to score points. Execute those things in the first half, defense was going to play tight, sticky man coverage. We were able to do that in the first half. Those guys did a really good job of stepping up in the first half. We were not able to maintain it throughout the second.”
On what Buccaneers QB Tom Brady and their offense was able to do on the opening drive of the second half: ”The one particular I can think of is Mike Evans down the middle of the field. Absolute laser beam. He threw us a couple good balls in that drive, got his team going, got them on the board, got those guys rolling. That was part of the problem. We got to answer, and we did. But we got to continue to answer. When those guys get hot, we got to get hotter.”
On the touchdown pass from Buccaneers QB Tom Brady to WR Antonio Brown: ”We were in man-to-man coverage. They got into a stack. We had a signal, bad communication. Tyler got beat on the play. Put up a bad matchup, got beat in the play. That’s on us.”
On the adjustments the Buccaneers made in the second half offensively: ”They got the ball to 13. Did a nice job of using his body. Did a nice job on third down. He is big man, allowed to push off, made some plays based on our man coverages. He got us down the field. Got a nice call along the sideline. Made a couple good plays that made it hard to deal with No. 13, really got going.”
On the adjustments Tampa Bay made to limit the pressure on QB Tom Brady in the second half: ”Second half they did a nice job of staying down third down and manageables. We didn’t get to many third downs in the second half. The ones we did, did a nice job of protecting them and picking them up. Tom came out, a couple screens, a couple nice throws in some of these run plays, we call run alerts. Able to get some of those things kicked out, receivers picked up big yardage, in order to keep those guys (indiscernible) down and distances.”
On the adjustments the Falcons were trying to make in the second half: ”They wanted to give them a couple different looks. You know Tom is going to make adjustments in the first half, see what you’re doing. We came out, had a couple flat calls, went away from some of the things we were doing early, try to get back to those things they started helping us. You have to have two different game plans against a quarterback like this. Have to have the ability to change. Go out there and get stops. Flat out at some point you have to make plays, we just didn’t make them.”
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
On the reason for the discrepancy between the passing and rushing attacks: ”When you came into this game, you knew it was tough running the ball. We knew it would be an issue. You didn’t know how much of an issue till you get in the game. These guys can absolutely stop the run. We got our pass game going, we were looking for easy completion, looking for completions on time. We got a bunch of them early, got a bunch of them when we needed, some at the end. We just needed a couple more to get those things rolling. Obviously going to be some type of discrepancy in the run and pass in this game.”
On whether RB Todd Gurley gave up the sack to Buccaneers LB Devin White on third down on the final drive: ”It was more a good play by Devin White. He was covering man-to-man coverage. Gurley went to chip and help out the tackle. Devin replaced with lightning speed, made a good play in order to get to our quarterback. A nice play for the player, not so much on Todd.”
On the difference defensively between the two halves and whether the Brady to Evans connection was the main factor: ”Mike made a couple big plays down the stretch. Antonio had the big one we saw at the end. Mike Evans really got going, got his thing going, able to have a good connection with Tom, whether third down or first or second. He got some things going and it was really good. Tom did a nice job with his eyes, zone coverage, moving us. He was able to get some completions there, as well.”
On the explanation he received of the spot on the final play of the game: ”Those calls all come down based on New York. They don’t have clear evidence, so to speak, that it’s not a first down. Maybe we had a better camera view from the halo board than they did in New York. It is what it is.”
On whether he agreed with the spot: ”Doesn’t matter if I agree or not. They made the call. You deal with it.”
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