Here’s what Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said after the 30-26 win over the Detroit Lions:
On if he's ever been in a game that ended in such a wild fashion: "Honestly, the only one that comes to mind is us playing against Detroit in London I guess three or four years ago. That was another ending that was one of those situations that was different, so that's one of the most unique games I've been a part of. But our guys battled. I've got to give credit to our defense, they played for every last inch of that field. They had talks about that during the week all the time, and guys have a belief in that, that they have to defend every inch, and it was a great job by our defense."
On his range of emotions at the end of the game on the sideline and if he was aware of the rule: "So the range of emotions—First, the immediate thing is to go to Sark (Steve Sarkisian) and say, 'OK, we have no timeouts, I think it was eight seconds, 'What is the possible scenario for us when we go back out on the field?' That's the first thing. Obviously, you're disappointed that they scored for sure in that situation, but as a player, you have to go, 'What are we going to do?' As the replay went in, I was standing with Sark, and we both—he commented to me that it was going to be a 10-second run-off and I was honestly, probably 75 percent sure of myself at that point, not 100 percent sure, but I thought that was the rule. And when he said it, it made me feel a lot better about it, so it makes sense. I mean obviously, it makes sense why they have it in that way, but it was a crazy finish."
On what play they were going to run if they got the ball back at the end: "Yeah, there's not many good plays for that situation."
On if he was wondering where everyone's focus would be once the game started: "Well, I think one of the unique things about Dan (Quinn) and our organization is that, things are very open, and there's a forum for discussion in our team meetings to be able to talk, to be able to talk about things that are going on in the world that are relevant to the guys in our locker room. Adrian (Clayborn) had a comment I think probably two or three weeks ago where he referenced that if the rest of the world was similar to our locker room, it'd be a lot better place. We have people from rural parts of the country, people from inner cities, we have all kinds of different races. We've got guys from out of the country in London, yet we all come together for a common goal, we all get along really well. We're different, but we certainly make it work, and that's why it's cool to be a part of it because you see the way it could be, how things could be. And certainly I disagree and I think, I don't want to speak for other people, but I disagree with some of the comments that were made a couple of days ago. It meant a lot to me to have Arthur (Blank) down on the field pregame. I saw this morning that was the case in Jacksonville and Baltimore in the game that I caught beforehand. I think that statement says a lot, and I think the players really appreciate that from ownership. I've always known that about Arthur being here as long as I have, but I think today showed that to a lot of the guys who are new here."
On the offense being a work in progress: "I thought we played well offensively. Our offensive line did a fantastic job today, we ran the ball extremely efficiently, had some explosive chunk runs. They did a great job in pass protection against a defense who's been getting a lot of pass pressure, pass rush the first two weeks. So I was proud of the way our offensive line played. It comes down to taking care of the football, for sure. We talk about that all the time. When you're minus-three in the turnover differential it's tough to overcome that. We were able to do it today, but that's certainly something that we have to clean up moving forward."
About the Author
