Here’s what the Falcons had to say after the loss to the Saints:
JULIO JONES, wide receiver
On consoling Calvin Ridley as they walked off the field. "That's between me and Calvin. He'll be good."
On what he said to the team. "We just have to keep fighting. You know, we'll see what the guys are made of. When you're going into battle you want somebody. ... It's rough right now for us. You don't want guys to quit. This is a time that you get see what guys are really like."
On the morale of the team. "We know we are a better team than what we put out there today, especially on offense. I can't speak for defense. ... I feel like the defense did a great job for us today. … We just have to do a better job."
On the Saints defense. "They did good. They played well. They stopped us. We stopped ourselves. We just gave the ball away. We have to take better care of the ball."
On if being 4-7 is frustrating. "For me, it's never frustrating. I love football. I love playing with these guys week-in and week-out. It's just that when you don't get the results that you work hard for and things like that, but I just love to go battle for them."
On his fumble. "Every fumble is crucial. One play is not bigger than the next play. Every play is big for us. For me, I never let one play define who I am as a player. If I drop a pass or fumble or anything, it doesn't matter. ... They know I'm not out there trying to fumble or drop a pass or anything like that. I'm a fighter. I'm a dog. I going to keep going until it's zero, zero, zero."
DE’VONDRE CAMPBELL, Linebacker
On where the team goes from here: "We just have to keep battling."
What's going on in your mind big picture: "Nah, we're worried about tomorrow. We're worried about next week. The only thing we can live for is tomorrow."
Takeaways from this game defensively: "I mean, we're a team. It doesn't matter how we play. Defensively we lost. We just got to go back to the drawing board and make corrections and move on."
On mentality to players that are upset: "Like I said earlier. We just have to keep battling. We can't turn on each other. We a team. We win as a team, we lose as a team."
On the difficulty stopping the running game today: "I mean, it wasn't difficult. They just made some plays honestly."
On if they were more confident playing Drew Brees due to it being the second time playing against him this year: "Man, we see him twice a year so we know him as an opponent. He's just a great player and he made a couple great plays."
JAKE MATTHEWS, left tackle
On the team. "We have to get back to playing our style of football and execute better. Because obviously it's not working right now."
ROBERT ALFORD, cornerback
On the rivalry here on Thanksgiving: "I mean, it was good. We knew it was going to be a battle, like you said. There's been a rivalry going over decades. I mean, we came in to it looking to win, but we got a lot that we've got to improve from this game and just come back battling."
On what they did during the first half to keep Drew Brees in check: "There's just something that we've got to go back and watch on film and see what we fell short at, at the end of the day. I mean, you can't take it from him. Drew is a heck of a quarterback in the NFL. At the end of the day we fall back on what we could improve on."
On what Alvin Kamara did to be so successful against the Falcons defense: "Just the ways that they use him. They use him as a running back, as a receiver. Pretty much just as a dual guy. So when you studying guys like that, you have to be on your P's and Q's and you have to just study them down to the T and make sure that when you face him, that he gets nothing.
On moving forward here after this game:
"We're going to move on. This team that we have here, I mean, we have a great group of guys here. We never hold our head down. As long as there's still ball to play, we going to battle. We're going to come back on Monday and battle our tails off against each other and come away with a win on Sunday."
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