Here’s what the Falcons had to say after the 23-13 loss to the Saints on Sunday:
DEVONTA FREEMAN, running back
On his fumble. "You just have to man up. I know I fumbled. I shouldn't have fumbled. I know that. I know I can do better with holding the ball."
On his penalties. "I don't really want to speak on it. They are the refs. I play with so many emotions and they've got to make their decisions and I've got to do the right things. Obviously, I need to do a better job."
ALEX MACK, center
On the state of the team. "We are pretty disappointed. This was a very good opponent and we made a lot of mistakes. You can't do that. These guys are too good for us to give them that many penalty yards. That was too many yards."
On what led to the penalties. "If it was an easy thing to point it out, we would. But it just seemed like a bad luck game. We'll have to focus on that. It's a hostile environment. It's loud out here. It's definitely a hard place to play a clean game. But we have to perform in tough situations."
On getting ready for Carolina "I just think we need to focus on the details. There is nothing magical about playing football. It's about 11 guys doing the right thing, hopefully at the same time. That's not what we did (against the Saints). It's good to have control of our future. I think we just need to focus in and get back to work. Learn from this game, move forward and get better."
VIC BEASLEY, defensive end
On moving forward. "We just have to have a short term memory. We have to understand that we can see them if we win next week, there's a possibility of playing them again in the playoffs."
On the play of the defense.
“They scored a majority of their points on explosive plays. For the most part, I though we did well against the run game. Our offense wasn’t able to get it into the end zone like they wanted too, but we are just going to go back to the drawing board and try to correct those things.”
On the playoff race. "We understood what was at stake, a chance to solidify a spot the playoffs. We were unable to do that. We look forward to going against Carolina, now."
On if getting a rematch with the Saints motivation. "It's motivation just to be in the playoffs. We understand that if we won this game we would have been in the playoffs. We understand that that we have another opportunity next week."
DEION JONES, linebacker
On moving on. "Just like every week, go out there and go through our process and don't make things up. Put this game behind us."
On what happened against the Saints. "I think everyone stuck to our process and guys still fought until the end. Things just didn't happen our way. We just have got to keep fighting until the clock hits all zeros."
