DAN QUINN, Atlanta Falcons head coach
Opening Statement:
“The finish is such an important part of our messaging in our program, so for us to come down when we had the lead and not be able to answer is when it’s hard. Our philosophy is about the football, and I thought, defensively, forcing some of those [turnovers] today was a significant improvement in terms of the way we want to go attack it. We didn’t get any points off of those turnovers today and I think that was a real factor in it. We want to give credit to Indy. We thought they played a tough, hard-nosed game just exactly like we thought going in. We thought it would be tough and come down to the end, and it certainly did.”
On what happened to the offense today:
“I think the turnovers were a bit of the factor. We had two of them in the second half where we were on the first play of the drive as well. You can imagine how that can turn it away when you get in one play for an entire series. That was a significant factor, for sure.”
On how he’s going to rally his team from here and get them moving forward:
“When we went through the bye, I thought we came back and had a good week of practice. I thought that would enable us to play well, and there are a lot of things that we did do well. For us, it’s about the football so can we improve in that area? Absolutely we can. We have a really tight group. We’ve got a close locker room and we know we’ll work like crazy to find the best match-ups and the best ways for the guys to be at their best. It’s a disappointing loss for us, for sure, and one that we’ll get to the truth of after we look at the film tonight and tomorrow morning. Then we’ll get back right with the guys in the afternoon.”
On whether he’s frustrated by the play of his quarterback:
“I get frustrated when we don’t play our best, so that’s where it starts and ends with me from all phases, you know, in how we want to play. I think we’ve got a really talented outfit. For us, when we don’t play at our best and we turn the ball over and don’t get enough takeaways and not have the finish we like, there’s a multitude of things that fall into that.”
On whether RB Devonta Freeman being out changed the game plan:
“I think it was a real factor for sure. It didn’t necessarily change the game plan. We all know the type of year, the competitor, and what he brings to our team. I believe he had three carries and over 40 yards in those three carries so for sure he’s a factor. He was diagnosed with a concussion and he’ll go through the protocol this week. We’ll have more information on that as we go through the week. You know it was for sure a factor just because of the player that he is. It didn’t change the plan though. I think that was your initial question.”
On using timeouts:
“Once they got into field goal range, I thought we wanted to make sure we gave us a chance to go back and have a chance to go kick the field goal. When they ended up getting the first down , I took the first, second, and third one so I knew going into the drive we’d have no timeouts heading into the two-minute scenario. We’ve had a number of opportunities of practicing that in game and in practice. When we looked back, we said okay we’ve been in that situation a bunch at practice time to say ‘okay let’s go attack and do it.’ I think we may have had an incomplete or drop on the first one to kind of move us and get us started so I think that was probably a real factor in it. Oftentimes in that two-minute drive to get going, get a catch, and get on the ball sometimes that’s when it’s attack the best when the incompletes or out of bounds play, really it just comes into a third-down play again and third-down play again when the clock gets stopped.”
On not finishing over the last few games:
“I’m definitely disappointed in the finish just because I know the style of competitor that’s there, so for us to be at our best that has to happen. When it doesn’t, man that’s hard. It’s one that we want to take great pride in knowing that just as a competitor that’s what we stand for. When we didn’t do that today, that’s at the top of the list in terms of how we want to go attack. When we don’t, that makes it harder.”
On the offensive seeming sluggish over the past five weeks:
“For us, making great decisions offensively the way we want to take care of it, we want to attack in all phases but we want to make sure of the mindfulness for the ball. We tried some things today differently. We went on the line of scrimmage; I know you saw that some. We felt like that’s another way for us to attack and we’ll evaluate that as we go through it tomorrow and see which of those plays that we like and how much of that we use moving forward. I felt like there was more urgency when we saw all that today.”
On WR Roddy White:
“I totally realize the storyline there that you’re trying, but I want to let you know that we love the guy and I know everybody’s trying and how of this and that. Matt does, I do, Kyle does. He’s an absolute competitor for us. There’ll be more games where that’s a factor. I totally understand the story line of where we’re going but I just wanted to make sure that I can get that out in terms of where we’re at with Roddy. We absolutely love what he stands for, and we didn’t get it done today.
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