Smith happy about third straight winning season

Falcons head coach Mike Smith congratulates tight end Tony Gonzalez on his 4-yard touchdown catch that gave the Falcons a 10-3 lead before the half. Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com

Falcons coach Mike Smith sounded a bit hoarse in the post-game interview.

He’s either catching a cold and was doing a lot of yelling during the game.

Here’s some of the highlights from his post-game press conference.

OPENING STATEMENT: “Just another day in the Dome. We talked all week about ball security and being able to control the tempo in all three phases of the game and I think we got that accomplished today. I think all three phases contributed to the success that we had. That’s a very good football team that we played today. It was very hard fought. They made a lot of plays. We were able to make some plays. We made our mistakes. They made their mistakes. But I’m really proud of the way the guys performed today. Their effort was outstanding.”

ON FOURTH QUARTER SCORING: “It’s part of the makeup of the things you have to do to be successful. You’ve got to score points in the fourth quarter of the ball game either to seal the game or come back. We’ve been able to do that. It was a very good drive there at the end.”

ON FOURTH DOWN GAMBLES: “We’ve got a lot confidence in our offensive football team. There were two instances were we felt like you’ve got to be able to move the ball inside the 1-yard line when it was fourth-and-1. I felt like we had to score points.”

ON RESILENCY OF THE TEAM: “I can’t say enough about the resiliency of this team. The way that they come to work. The way that they play the game. I just felt like it was a team effort. No one blinked even when we gave up the touchdown on the fourth down and 11. They came over and they know we are going to move the ball. . . (After return and penalty) we were just basically a completion away form having Matt Bryant in his range. I can’t say enough about Matt. He is kicking the ball between the pipes ever chance that he gets.”

ON THE D-LINE: “The defensive line had some tough duty today all the way around. They were facing a very good quarterback that gets the ball out of his hands very quickly.”

ON TURNER’S TOUCHDOWN: “It was just a power football play. We had our fullback leading through the play. It was mano-a-mano. When you are inside the 1-yard line, you’ve got to win your battles.

ON THE 3^RD STRAIGHT WINNING SEASON: “It’s great to get winning season. But our expectations and our goals are a lot higher than that. We want to keep them internally, but we are progressing on our journey to where we want to be as a football team. In December that’s when the games become very important.”

ON THE TEAM’S CONFIDENCE LEVEL: “It’s a group that doesn’t blink. They don’t’ blink. There is no, ‘woe is me, the sky is falling.’ They know that whatever happened on the previous play, happened on the previous play. We have to go make a play on the next play. . .I think it starts with the confidence level of our older players. They are very good mentors to the young guys and they are teaching the young guys how the game is supposed to be played.”

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