What the Falcons said after the loss to Tennessee

On how does he feel he’s come along over the last year:

“For one, I just try to win the day every day. Try to stack days I’m out there with the guys, either learning from my coaches, learning from my mistakes. Stuff like that, man. I just want constant growth. That’s what I seek for every day. Even as this team, as a team, as a unit, we just looking for constant growth.”

On thoughts of getting his first sack:

“Good play, good sack, good execution from everybody across the board. Everybody was going through their disguises, the corner, the nickel, myself, everybody held their disguises. Went through the gap and executed the play. It felt good. But unfortunately we lost, so back to the drawing board. Got to learn from our mistakes and just keep going.”

On being active in camp and is there something specific he saw different from last year to this year:

“It’s just coming from winning the day, just trying to get better every day. That’s what I feel like. Just, like I said to her, just learning from my coaches and from Coach Hope, learning the scheme, just growing within that. I feel like coming out there every day, just working hard. We just trying to be consistent, that’s it.”

On a specific off-season study that might get him to where he is today:

“Just studying the playbook, new scheme. Got a new staff. Just really studying a lot, putting in the time, meeting with my teammates, learning from some of my teammates, us gelling together, giving each other hands and tips on certain things. We’re all coming into a new scheme, so yeah.”

On how much has an off-season program benefitted him compared to none last year:

“Very beneficial compared to last year. Learning from a virtual program is a little different. Had to teach yourself a lot of the stuff. Couldn’t be out there with the guys and really gel. Communication is big, especially being in the back end. Having OTAs, having pre-season, training camp, where we’re doing stuff more active, back to normal, everything helps a lot.”

On if he feels he has to prove himself all over again with a new coaching staff:

“I feel like every day is a day you got to prove yourself, especially playing football. I feel like every day is a day you got out there show out. Our coach preaches that, take no days off. I feel like every day is a day you got to go out there and compete.”

OFFENSIVE LINEMAN JOSH ANDREWS

On the assessment of first half of play:

“There are a lot of things to clean up, you know. Really just working out the kinks with the preseason to be honest with you. We’ve got to build from here and go on to Miami and learn from looking at the tape and learn from what we messed up on and what we need to improve on and build from there.”

On the assessment of personal performance and holding calls:

“It’s tough. It’s football, you know, and you just have to look at it and learn from it and correct it, you know?”

On the impact that playing with different teammates during the game than in preseason practice had on performance:

“It really doesn’t matter. It’s really just getting into a flow, and we didn’t really get into a flow. There were penalties and a lot of self-inflicted wounds and we didn’t really get a flow into the offensive part of the game like we wanted to.”

On how valuable watching tape is to assess progress from first game:

“Every rep is valuable and just to look at it on film and go out to practice the next week and learn from those mistakes – I’ll tell you, that’s how quick fixing the game is.”

On if there was a desire to play in the first preseason game:

“I enjoy the first game and every time I go on that field in Atlanta, I enjoy it.”

QUARTERBACK FELEIPE FRANKS

On what the team was hoping to achieve in the second half, thoughts on overall performance:

“I think just from a team standpoint and from achieving, it was just go out there and play clean ball. Obviously there are things we can clean up with the penalties and that starts with me at the quarterback position. I have things to clean up right there but other than that, I thought we did a good job and had a good first experience for an NFL game to go out there and really keep the ball moving and keep the chains moving to come up with three points. Obviously, we need more than that to win the game, but it was a good first experience for us I think, and for a lot of guys that were in there as rookies.”

On the evaluation of passing performance:

“There are things that we can always improve on – me included. A couple protection things here and there that I could of gotten into, but from an overall standpoint, I thought we did good and thought the offensive line held up pretty good. I thought the receivers did a good job. It takes all 11 of us to go out there and compete at the highest level, so there is obviously improvement that I think we will make going into Miami. But other than that, I thought there was good excitement and good energy from the players to go out there in the first game. A lot of good stuff was shown from the rookies.”

On how long it took to settle into the first game as a rookie:

“I was good at the beginning of the game, but you know, I think that obviously, it’s different once you get in there. It’s different, I’ll put it in this standpoint, from practice when obviously you’re not getting hit as the quarterback and then you’re getting into the game and people are coming out there and they’re going to hit you if you’re standing there. So that was a little bit different, but it’s always fun once you get that first hit out of the way and it’s been a little minute since I’ve gotten hit, so getting going again and kinda just working on things I need to improve on.”

On his 51-yard run in the fourth quarter:

“I don’t know. Obviously, I felt like the pocket was a little bit collapsing’, so I tried to step up and saw a lane, and the next thing I know, a five-yard run turned into a 50 however long run it was, so it was fun though. It was cool. I thought I had more gas in me to keep going, but I knew better than that.”

On what coach Arthur Smith and quarterback Matt Ryan said to Franks coming off the field:

“They just kind of relayed the same thing. Obviously, there are things we can correct, but at the same time, just getting the hand movement was the most important thing and getting points on the board. But I thought that me and AJ (McCarron) both did a pretty good job today of just managing the offense. That was our main goal to just manage the offense. There’s a lot being thrown here and there, but just managing the offense and leading the guys. Obviously, we’ve got to do better on third-down conversions, but like I said, for the first experience for a lot of those guys – offensive linemen and rookies coming out here and playing their first NFL game – I thought we did a pretty good job and it’s just something to improve on this next week.”

On nerves going into first NFL game as a rookie:

“Obviously I’m a competitor and I was anxious but just glad to go out there and play in my first NFL game. But also as a competitor, too, I feel like no stage is too big, so I was just excited to get out there. I know a lot of the guys were excited. But yes, I think I was more anxious than excited.”

DEFENSIVE END MARLON DAVIDSON

On how he played tonight:

“I felt that I played pretty good. I felt ecstatic put it like that. I had fun.”

On how the defensive line did as a group and also the pressure on the quarterback:

“I felt that we did a pretty good job today against the quarterback, we showed that we can actually play ball. They had two big players so there was a difference, so we had our guys step up.”

On Grady demonstrating moves for him:

“He was just telling me to play fast. He could tell I still had my jitters in, and he told me not to worry about it “Be the player that you want to be” and ever since then for a game it just changed for me and I told him that during a game, “I appreciate you, bro, like I needed that.”

On the season you had last year and moving on from that, what kind of step is this:

“It’s a happy feeling man. Just coming from last year not doing anything and coming to this year and actually can play a little bit and showing people that we can actually play. I look at some fans and be like dang that’s our second-round drafted. It feels good man. It feels good, really good.”

On starting fast in the field:

“I’m always trying to play fast man. Take about two guys and just have fun.”

On how much quarterback pressure you guys generated as a whole must have been an encouraging sign for the front:

“Of course, man you always want to go out there and be able to tape-record that. You want to get back out there and put some pressure on him, knock on the ground and do something to rattle him. You know what I mean, but I felt that we did a great job with him.”

On how he will reflect back on this tape over the next couple of days before he gets back to practice:

“We did some good thing, and we did bad things but we gotta go back in the office and we gotta fix it. I feel like we can get the job done.”

On making the most of every opportunity, how will he keep stacking from this:

“By keeping approaching the day as you want to be better than what you want to be the best at. Every day I’m just gonna look at that barrel set myself better than yesterday. I felt that I left a lot of plays on the field today, but I can do better. Anybody that plays the game of football can do better than what we did, so I have to keep continuing to grind and improve.”

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