Here’s what Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan had to say after practice on Wednesday in preparations for Sunday’s home opener against the Eagles:
On practice: "Yeah, I thought we had a good day of practice. Got a lot of productive work done, a lot of corrections that we need to make this week. All in all, I thought it was a good start to the week. First, we've got a lot of work to do before we get to Sunday night, but definitely a good start for us."
On relying on the running game: "For sure. We have to stay ahead of the chains as we're playing games, and we can't get behind like we did the other night in order to run the football in the way that we wanted to. I thought when we did, we had a couple of nice runs, some things that we did well. We just didn't have enough opportunities. That's going to be key for us this Sunday too, is to stay in front of the chains, make sure we're productive on first and second downs so that we keep all of the plays that we have on the table for us."
On offensive line: "I think JB (Jamon Brown) will be good. He's a guy with a lot of experience in this league and has done a nice job for us all throughout the off season. During training camp, he played a lot for us. He'll be ready to go, I'm sure of that. I know Chris Morgan will do a nice job of getting all of our guys up front prepared and ready for Sunday."
On the common thread between the last three matchups -- all losses -- against the Eagles: "We've just got to find a way to come out on top. There's all kinds of different ways to win in this league. Some games shake out differently, but more so than anything, I think we have to stay on schedule on offense. Stay in front of the chains, make sure that we're getting first downs on first and second down and believe in ourselves in good third-down situations. I think that's the key to being successful against these guys."
On takeaways from previous matchups against the Eagles: "Yeah, for sure. We'll take a look at some of the stuff that came up situationally and have adjustments for what we want to do. I'm sure they'll have adjustments for what they want to do as well, but we'll have ourselves prepared and we can use our experience of going against them in the past of what they have done. Same defensive coordinator for a long time up there now, so we'll certainly be able to use that."
On review of the Eagles vs. Redskins tape: "No, I think they're true to form of who they are. They're an aggressive defense. They play really hard. They play with great effort. I think that's been a staple of Jim Schwartz' defenses my entire time in the league. That's kind of always what he's gotten out of those guys. It's just going to come down to us playing physical, being on top of our assignments, making sure that we don't have mistakes that we don't need to have and staying on schedule."
On any offensive adjustments with offensive line change: "No, I think first and foremost, it comes down to communication. You've got to trust your guys up front to take care of their responsibilities. I know our guys will. For me, it's about making good decisions with the football. When things aren't there, or we have something come up, you know, not making a bad situation worse."
On performance during Week 1: "No, because I agree with Dan (Quinn). I thought we were well prepared going into it, we just didn't play well. Sometimes that happens. In this league, I've been around for a long time, when that happens, you have to flush it out of your system, get back to work and have the confidence and belief that a better performance is in front of you the next week. That's kind of the way I feel now."
On any passing game adjustments: "No, I mean, completely different teams. Completely different schemes and defenses that you're going against. That's comparing apples to oranges of how games shake out. The way that Minnesota played, keep things in front, they did a nice job with it. We had to do what we had to do to get it out and keep the ball moving."
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