QUOTABLE: What the players were saying . . .
Falcons safety Thomas DeCoud (28) celebrates with teammates cornerback Brent Grimes (20) and safety William Moore (25) after intercepting a first quarter pass by Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman in the end zone. AP
TAMPA – Here’s what the Falcons were saying after the game.
WR JULIO JONES
ON THE LOSS: [The Buccaneers] were the better team today. We tried to pull it out; it’s just something that we need to continue to keep working on.
ON HIS FIRST CAREER 100-YARD GAME: I really did not know I had one hundred yards. They needed me to show up and I tried my best to do what was necessary.
ON THE MATCHUP WITH CB AQIB TALIB: He’s a good corner, physical and [has] great size as well. I’ll see him again, but he’s a great athlete.
CB DUNTA ROBINSON
ON THE DEFENSE: These young guys that I play with on the back end are getting better and better every week. So we’re just trying to go out there and win. Obviously, [today] it wasn’t good enough to win, which is the main thing. Everything we did really doesn’t matter, because we didn’t win the football game. Winning is the biggest thing. This was a disappointing loss for us.
ON STOPPING THE SCREEN: We understood that was one of our nemeses in our past two games. So we wanted to come out here and get those things stopped early. They did some things that we haven’t seen, which a team in your division is going to do. They’re going to give you a lot of new looks. For the most part, we knew what kind of offense they were going to come out there and run, and did they things that we thought they were going to do.
ON COREY PETERS OFFSIDES PENALTY: It’s tough, man, those guys are so anxious. It’s fouth-and-one, we’re out of timeouts. You can tell the guy not jump a million times, watch the ball a million times. But when all the quarterback has to get is six inches, those guys are looking to chop their man and make a play. We need to have more discipline then that; we can’t give them those opportunities. But, hey, we shouldn’t be in the fourth-and-inches, anyway.
S THOMAS DeCOUD
ON THE DEFENSE: We have to figure out what’s not going right and make sure we get it corrected. We are not playing up to our full potential right now.
ON HIS INTERCEPTION: They got down in our red-zone, [so] we needed to make a play to get the ball back to our offense [because] if they had scored on that drive it would have given them a lot of momentum. We were in a coverage where I could free up. [I] played the run and slid back into coverage and plucked the ball out of the air.
SS WILLIAM MOORE
ON TAMPA RB LeGARRETTE BLOUNT: He’s good on his feet. For his size, he can definitely move and you have to respect the kind of athlete he is. We never took that for granted [today].
ON THE DEFENSE: It’s discipline, you know. We had a couple of offside penalties and we just have to discipline ourselves. Josh is a big boy. We knew that, [and] they have a big back [Blount] that kept pushing the ball up the middle. We just have to get better.
–D. Orlando Ledbetter, The Atlanta Falcons beat blog
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59 comments Add your comment
Ivan
September 27th, 2011
11:25 am
eturn
September 26th, 2011
1:27 pm
Its tough being a Falcon fan, or any other Atl sports team. I was born and raised here.But there are two things wrong with the Falcons. Mike Mularkey and Brian V Gordy or what ever his name is. They have to be replaced. And as much as I try to support Matt Ryan… he just dont have the arm strength or the Wow factor. The Falcons are boring.
—
Actually, the toughest part of being a Falcons fan, is being associated with “fans” like you.
mark
September 27th, 2011
3:13 pm
ryan is getting killed out there its like a blitz video game he aint gonna make it alive this season baker has to step up i cant belive they didint notice baker was having issues
mark
September 27th, 2011
3:17 pm
and our play calling bfff its like madden video game no genius on the coordinator this one is on the offense they wait to the 4 th qtr to start playing?! thats bad man its a 4 quarter game not one!
talking head's) falcon's should of loss 6 more game's last year) 9- 7 / 8-8 @ best
September 27th, 2011
4:16 pm
Now u see what kind of team u have? luck’d out last year- 19th in power ranking’s. lol lol rise up- more like looking – up last place !!! lol lol lol
mark
September 27th, 2011
5:16 pm
we should have samuel l jackosn for all the falcons games maybe he and not mike smith can fire up sam baker
dan
September 27th, 2011
8:17 pm
The O-Line is a problem.
This offense is too talented to let ONE aspect, sink the entire team. Losing ONE guy shouldn’t make this big of a difference.
I think what this offense will have to do is find ways to compensate for the line’s inability to pass block with the running game, play action, and no huddle. The no huddle worked well vs. Philly, but the wet field limited it’s effectiveness somewhat in Tampa. Also, I felt the team went away from the running game a bit too early. Some of that was because the Bucs did a good job of holding Turner in check in the first half, but 11 carries for Turner isn’t going to get the job done for this offense. He needs to be averaging 20 a game, especially late in the game when the defense is tired.
Also, let’s be clear: The Birds have had the Bucs number the last couple of years. Tampa Bay is a good young football team, they were bound to beat us eventually. Is that an excuse for the team not playing well? No. But give credit where credit is due, the Bucs played harder AND smarter Sunday.
The way this team stands right now, I think they’re still a playoff caliber team. I believe in the nucleus of this team. I think guys like Gonzalez and Ryan have too much pride to let this thing bottom out at 5-11 or 6-10. This season kind of reminds me of 2009 when the schedule was tougher and the balls didn’t bounce our way like they did in 2008 and 2010. But that team finished strong, despite the injuries and being out of playoff contention. I believe this team will fight in a similar manner when the chips are down.
atlbeast
September 27th, 2011
9:43 pm
If I see 1 more zone blitz I’m going to blow chunks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
atlbeast
September 27th, 2011
9:47 pm
The zone blitz is like the prevent it let’s you catch the ball in front just enough for a first down 3rd and 11 ZB , 3rd and 8 ZB WHEN DO WE REALLY GET AFTER THE QUARTER BACK BECAUSE WE ARE BLITZ-ING THE HELL OUT OF THE ZONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DR. FALCON
September 28th, 2011
12:18 am
RODDY WHITE HAS MADE A LOT OF GREAT PLAYS FOR US, BUT, TO BE MENTIONED IN LARRY FITZGERALD’S CLASS OR ANDRE JOHNSON’S CLASS, HE HAS TO MAKE THOSE CLUTCH CATCHES!!! CORY PETER’S BONEHEADED PLAY DID NOT HELP EITHER!