Falcons rookie Robert Alford will provide a weekly diary for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this season.
The Hammond, La., native who played at Southeastern Louisiana, made his NFL debut Sunday in his home state against the Saints.
Here’s his second installment, as told to D. Orlando Ledbetter.
We (Alford and fellow rookie Desmond Trufant) played real well (Sunday). The coaches said that we did when we watched film. It was like we have a little competition. We had a few errors, but everything went well. We didn’t give up any deep balls and not too many balls at all. For the most part, we played very well.
The speed of the game was the most difficult part. Coming from (FCS), a small school, pretty much it was the speed of the game that was the most difficult adjustment.
But we had to throw that out the window under our 24-hour rule and come back at practice and try to build on what we did that first week. I want to play even better now that the first game is out of the way.
I’m a very confident kid, so pretty much there is not going to be too much that will get me down. I’m going to always be confident. Just playing in that game and picking off Drew Brees, a future Hall of Famer, I feel real good about that.
We’ll have another challenge against the Rams because Sam Bradford is a No. 1 pick. He has a very strong arm. He makes good decisions. Just overall, he’s a very good athlete.
They have a very good group of receivers there. We have to just trust in (defensive coordinator Mike) Nolan and his play-calling. Go out there and just execute it on Sunday.
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