Here’s what several Falcons players had to say after the 28-12 loss to the Vikings on Sunday:
JULIO JONES, wide receiver
On getting doubled team: "We have played them in the past and I figured they were going to do that. I got a lot of two-man today. That's outside. They way we play ball we still have to make plays. We still have to go out there. ... By them doing so, everybody has to be accountable. Myself including. Just going out there and making plays. It's simple as that. They tried to take me away especially on third down when I was coming in the game and on early downs."
On getting the contract done: "I had some peace of mind. I talked to Mr. Blank. Just talking about how appreciative I am of him and vice versa. The love I have for the organization and things like that. That's out the way now. It's more on us now and getting ready to play football."
On getting rolling: "We had a lot of penalties. We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. They had like a 80-yard drive, but it was like 30 yards of penalties to let them out of the hole. We control all of this. It's not them, it's us. We just have to do better."
On rebounding: "For me, it's one play at a time. Good or bad happens, get the next play. Get the next play. Whatever happens, happens. That's where the training comes in at. But us training and competing against one another."
On his hand injury: "Yeah, I'm great."
On how it happened: "I don't know."
VIC BEASLEY, defensive end
On the 3-4: "It went well. Honestly, for me, I can speak for myself. I think the other guys would definitely vouch for that, too."
On regular season speed: "We had the right play calls, we just have to execute.
On adjusting to multiple defense: "Yeah, you can say that. We haven't had an in-game experience like that, where it's the regular season, but it's the NFL. You've got players who are capable of getting the job done. They are expecting us, the coaches are expecting us to go out there and execute without experience. We have guys that have experience and have played this game before."
On the Eagles: "You know what, we've got a tough schedule. We have another big challenge for us next week. We have to go ahead and turn to the Eagles for next week."
DEVONTA FREEMAN, running back
Coach Quinn said you guys missed the mark, and you missed it badly. That's obviously not how you want to start the season, but what were your general thoughts on today's game? "We just have to get better overall. Monday, we have to make corrections, move on, and move on quickly."
You guys weren't able to run the ball as much or as well as you would have hoped. Could you pin point what happened? "We just need to play better, and execute. They play defense really well, too, so we have to give credit to them. Like I've said, and I've always said, we just need to do our job better than them."
What's your message to your teammates to try and make sure this doesn't repeat itself next game? "More so for me, just work hard. Look at all the mistakes tomorrow and on Wednesday bust my butt and try to get better."
I know it's only the first game of the season, but is the way the game went from start to finish something to deal with in the present moment? "It's always tough. I don't like losing, none of us like losing, nobody in the world likes losing, I don't think."
How challenging is it when you come out there and your team goes down so quickly? "You just try to minimize it as much as you could, but doing your job. You can't do anything about it, but try to do better."
GRADY JARRETT, defensive tackle
Overall, how would you describe that one? "Disappointing outcome obviously. I wasn't expecting it, but at the end of the day the only thing guaranteed is that we won't have an undefeated season. I feel like there is so much still ahead of us. We just have to respond as a team."
Do you think the way the Vikings started put your team on the wrong path? "We have four full quarters. So what they started fast. From my point of view, there is so much more football to play. You can't control everything in football because it is so unpredictable. Everything in life isn't going to go your way, so you just have to respond."
Coach Dan Quinn said you guys prepared knowing you had to defend the edge well to stop Dalvin Cook. With over 170 on the ground what can you say about that? "We didn't do what we needed to do. They executed well and kept getting outside. We need to address that if we want to have a good defense. We want to get better because teams will put that on film and attack that against us."
Do you feel like some guys weren't ready to play? "I know how I feel before games. I know that every time I get the opportunity to get out there on the field I'm going to be the best version of myself."
RICARDO ALLEN, free safety
Why do you think it started so slow on both sides of the ball? "If I knew, it would have been a totally different outcome. I wish I knew that because I would have tried to fix it on the field before I got in here. I don't really know; it has to be the details. We have to come with it every day. We have to treat every play as important, every quarter as important, and every drive as important. We did it here and there, but we need to do it the whole way down."
Like you said it's only one of 16 games, but does it feel a little different in the locker room? "You don't ever want to start like that. Especially, the start of a new season you don't want to come out like that. However, the one thing I like about football is you get another chance to prove yourself. As we can see if you come out with a slow start it's not good, so we just have to put it together and bring everything we got."
We heard so much from you about tackling, being physical, and stopping the run. However, they were able to run a lot this game. Why were they able to run so much? "I'll let you know on Wednesday when I get to watch the film. You know I'm in the middle of the field, and my job is when it's up I can get it down, so I can't really tell you."
Are there any positives to take away? "What I did like was that we didn't just roll over. There was no one, that when it got ugly early, I heard give up. We went out there and kept fighting. We fought until the very end. We didn't end up on the side we wanted to, but it's a learning lesson."
