What Falcons players said after loss to Seattle

Here’s what the Falcons had to say after their 27-20 loss to the Seahawks on Sunday:

CENTER ALEX MACK

On the loss: "When you play a good opponent you have to play a cleaner game."

On the second half: "I see it only as a positive. The guys in this locker room keep fighting, keep working, just stick to the game plan, one play at a time. I think it was a step in the right direction."

On playing with Matt Schaub: "Shaubie had a good game. He did a good job rallying the team and running the offense. I wish we could have got a win."

On the bye week: "Just clear the head, Try to get a little healthy and get ready to get back to work."

On eight games left: "I think key for us to use the bye week to get healthy, rest and get ready for the next game. Take it one game at a time and see how things happen."

On owner Arthur Blank's comments: "The only thing we can do is keep working hard and worry about the next game. Use this bye week to get healthy and get ready to work. That's all that anyone can ever ask of you and that's all that's expected of us. Control what you can control and move forward."

On Dan Quinn's message to the team: "We didn't play a complete game. We want all four quarters to be productive, but going in to the halftime I think we were down 24 points and that's not what we need to do. We need to do a better job on offense scoring points. On defense, we have to try to hold them to fewer points."

On slow first halves: "We've played a lot of good opponents. If you don't make plays, they'll probably capitalize."

On Devonta Freeman fumble near goal line: "It hurts. You don't want to see fumbles. Those are things that change games. You just keep fighting on play at a time."

The defensive lineman has been the subject of trade rumors.

DEFENSIVE END VIC BEASLEY

On falling behind: "It's tough. We got down early. We just have to continue to fight. We fought better in the second half. We just want to do that for all four quarters."

On the game: "I felt like we had good energy out there today. But just the mindset, we have to continue to have that positive mindset. Everybody is trying to fight to get that second win. I think that's what is pushing us every week."

On the run defense: "Just technique issues. We have to stay in our gaps. When they get explosive runs, it's just somebody getting out of their gap. Just a mistake on the defensive side of the ball."

On whether he’s played final game with Falcons: “I don’t know. If a trade happens, it happens. Until then, I’ll keep fighting for this team.”

TIGHT END AUSTIN HOOPER
On what the second half tells you about your team: "Twenty-three in the second half, which is where we fought back. I mean it just shows the type of fight and grit we have. I'm really proud of the way the guys fought, that's indicative of us being this tough, tough resilient football team. And as for me, I worked on a huge block at the beginning of the game, I mean I didn't have success, I have to be more consistent and I feel like if we just execute for four quarters, we can hang with anybody. I mean Seattle is a really good football team, they got tremendous players on both sides of the ball, we were able to do some special things in the second half. Moral of the story is we just have to put it together for four quarters."

On what was said during halftime that got the team rolling: "That's going to be between us and the team."

On what Matt Schaub was able to do so well: "He has been doing this for 15-16 years. He's just seen every single look enough times where he understands exactly, much like Matt Ryan, where the ball is supposed to go pre-snap and he does it within such a quick time and he analyzes the defense so fast it really takes up the pass rush. He's a constant professional. I mean he really helped me out as a younger player, so obviously you want Matt Ryan out there, but we are fully confident when he's in there as well.

On the guys rallying for Dan Quinn: "He's had our back. We got to have his back. I mean I've been here for the highest of highs, so I know things haven't been going right for the first eight games, but I mean our resilience isn't going to waver. I mean that is the man that took us as far as you can go in the sport so it would be cowardly to just tuck your tail and rollover on the man that's brought me and a lot of these other guys here. We love him, and we tried to fight hard for him in the second half. We just got to do it for all four quarters.

On the team not being successful this year while he is on track for 1000 yards: "I don't worry about individual accolades at all. I'm just trying to help the team win. I know that's a boring answer but, that's really what it is."

Falcons center Alex Mack addresses the offense in the loss to Tennessee. (Video by D. Orlando Ledbetter/AJC)

WIDE RECEIVER JULIO JONES
On how the team feels after this game: "I can't really tell you what is going on right now, we played better in the second half than we did in the first half. We just have to figure out how to play that type of ball the whole game. I don't know, I can't give many answers because I haven't watched the film."

On Matt Schaub's performance: "He was being Matt Schaub. We didn't ask him to be Matt Ryan or anyone else. We asked him to come in and do what he does. He gave us opportunities and he went out there and made plays."

On fighting for Quinn to keep his job: "This is not our concern, as far as the players. All we can do is try to get our ball right. At the end of the day, we don't make decisions, we don't get into that talk with that kind of stuff. For us, we just have to get our ball right and be able to play our best ball on Sundays."

On the second half performance providing momentum after the bye week: "Positivity is always good. Anything that is positive you can take from it. So, for us, guys are probably nicked up and things like that. We have to take this time to rest up and recover and come out and try to play our best ball."

On Devonta Freeman recording more receiving yards than rushing yards: "I don't know. I don't discuss other players and their situations and whatever they have going on. I don't know what happened. It is hard to really answer questions and talk about things when you haven't watched the game behind it. Even though we have facts of what is going on, I can't tell you how he was running or what the defense was giving him."

GUARD JAMON BROWN
On the performance of Matt Schaub: "He was accountable, he does everything right, and that is what you were seeing today. He went out there and the guy (Schaub) was not missing."

On the performance of the offensive line: "We knew coming into this game that it was going to be vital for us guys upfront to make sure we gave Matt (Schaub) as much time as possible. I think for the most part we did a solid job. Obviously, the outcome didn't turn out how we wanted – so we didn't make enough plays. For the most part, I think the offense gave him time."

On how he feels after a tough first half, but positive second half: "You are definitely encouraged with the second half, but our biggest thing is that we have got to be consistent. We play a two-half football game, so it does us no good to play bad in the first half and play good in the second half – we have to play good in both halves. I think that will be our focus. I think we will take a week to reset and regroup. Then, we will come back and find out how to be consistent in both halves."

On what to do heading into the bye week: "We just have to take this time to get away from football. We have to take a deep breath and put that first half of the season behind us. There is nothing we can do about it now. We sit here with the record that we sit here at. It is not time for us to sit and pout. It is just time to get away for a little bit and enjoy your family and time off. Then, when we come back, we have to hit the ground running."

CORNERBACK ISAIAH OLIVER
On halftime adjustments: "We feel like the plays we gave up in the first half were due to miscommunication. The two touchdowns, both of them, we just weren't in the right spot at the right time and gave up a couple touchdowns. In the second half, we just made it simpler. We knew what we were supposed to do, communicated about it, talked about it and we were able to fix it in the second half. I mean, that's something that you just can't do. You can't give up those kinds of points in one half of football and expect to be able to come back against a good team."

On the best way to utilize time during the bye week: "Recovery, definitely. That's probably the biggest thing that most guys are going to do. Whether that's going home or staying here, making sure your body is right to come back fresh. Whatever's hurting, whatever's nicked up, making sure you get it figured out before we come back on Monday."

DEFENSIVE TACKLE GRADY JARRETT
On getting the pass rush going with two sacks and multiple QB hits: "We just wanted to attack the quarterback. We even hit (Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson) a couple times and he made some nice completions, so he's special in doing that. But it felt good to get to the quarterback."

On what the second-half comeback says about the Falcons: "That we fought. We fought, but we shouldn't have to be in a hole that deep in the first place. We never gave up and we continued to fight. That's what we're going to continue to do as the season goes on."

On taking any positivity forward:
 Whatever kind of positivity we can draw from it, we're going to. There were definitely some good things that we did, but we've still got to improve and try to get a win. We're fighting hard."