Falcons wide receiver Roddy White said the Cleveland Browns kept the offense off balanced and had them confuse during the 26-24 loss on Sunday at the Georgia Dome.
“They kind of had us confused at times,” White said. “They did a good job on defense today. You have to give them their props for going out there and being consistent and holding us when they needed to.”
They Falcons were not able to get into a rhythm. The Browns did a good job of shutting down the Falcons’ rushing attack.
With the run closed down (63 yards on 27 carries), the Browns were able to mount a pass rush against quarterback Matt Ryan. He was sacked three times and hit six times.
White said the confusion stemmed from the offense not being able to pick up Cleveland’s tendencies because of the vast array of blitzes.
“They just throw so much at you as far as coverages,” said White, who had nine catches for 96 yards. “It’s not any particular look that they give you. You go over the blitz tape on Wednesday and they give you 30 to 40 blitzes.
“Different ones from every game, so there are no tendencies that you say, ‘this is going to be this or that.’ They don’t give you that and they change it up.”
No attack mode: White also wished the Falcons would have attacked the Browns from the no-huddle attack after cornerback Desmond Trufant came up with a spectacular interception in the endzone with 4:51 to play in the game.
“I felt like when we got the first one, when Trufant picked it off I thought the game was over,” White said. “I thought we’d just go out there and kind of push the tempo. I felt like we didn’t do that. We just kind of sat back and looked at the clock and said, ‘hey, let’s try to play this out.’ I don’t think that’s what we should have did.
“We should have kind of attacked those guys because we had them on their heels every time we went uptempo. But we kind of slowed everything down and they responded on defense. They did a good job.”
The Falcons picked up a first down before stalling at their 37. After punting, the rookie safety Dezmen Southward came up with another interception for the offense, but the Falcons couldn’t run the clock out and get a field goal.
“We managed to only gain 15 yards,” White said. “In times like that, when you’re up and you’ve got the ball at the 48 or whatever it was, we have to get three or four first downs, run out the clock and kick the field. That’s on us. “
Trufant on Gordon: Browns star wide receiver Josh Gordon had eight catches for 120 yards in his return from suspension, but Falcons cornerback Desmond Trufant believes he made him work for those yards.
Trufant, a second-year starter, was the primary defender against Gordon.
“It was good to compete against Josh,” Trufant said. “It’s no secret he’s one of the elite receivers in the game. It was good to see him back playing in games. I felt like I got better from the experience because it was a tough challenge. That said, I felt like I held my own against him.”
Gordon led the NFL with 1,646 receiving yards last season in spite of playing just 14 games. Gordon also had nine touchdown receptions with six scores for 37 yards or longer in 2013.
Gordon missed the first 10 games this season while serving a league suspension for violating its substance abuse policy. The Browns wasted no time going to Gordon, who was targeted twice as many times (16) as any other Browns receiver.
Gordon had three catches for 15 yards or more against the Falcons. His most important catch, a 24-yarder on Cleveland’s game-winning drive, came with Southward and linebacker Paul Worrilow in zone coverage.
“He deserves (praise),” Trufant said of Gordon. “At the same time, he’s got to go through me. I just approached it like that. I was willing to step up. He made some catches but I feel I showed I can guard anybody in this league.”
Jones not sick: Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones, who missed two practices last week because of a cold, caught his first touchdown pass since Sept. 18 against Tampa Bay.
He was targeted on 13 passes, but caught just five for 68 yards while mainly going against Cleveland cornerback Joe Haden.
Jones wouldn’t use his illness as an excuse.
“I’ve been here four years,” Jones said. “We just … that’s on us. We have to hit those plays. We have to make it work.”
He didn’t feel that Haden slowed him down.
“I played (Haden) in college and I don’t feel like, Matt and nobody here feels like one guy should be able to stop me man-to-man out there,” Jones said. “We just have to keep working and make those plays.”
Peters and Cox had words: Falcons defensive tackle Corey Peters and defensive line coach Bryan Cox had words with each other on the sidelines in the first half.
The two had to be separated by defensive end Kroy Biermann.
“We were just having a discussion,” Peters said. “It was a man-to-man talk… . we’ll leave it there and move forward.”
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