HEAD COACH BOBBY PETRINO
Opening Statement:
”That was a tough loss for us to take. There is no question about it. We had some guys that really played well and competed. As a team we pretty much did that. We had a good first half, but we didn’t get points when we needed to get points. That is continuing to be a problem for us and we need to get that corrected. In the fourth quarter, we have to be the team that is in control of the game. We have to be the team that can run the ball and be the team that can stop the run. Obviously, I thought we had guys that played hard. I thought the coaches got them prepared. We had a good game plan and that is why it is a hard loss to take.”
On the performance of QB Joey Harrington:
“Joey played well. He competed hard. He was in control of situations when they were blitzing and when they were not. He got the ball out of his hands when they did blitz. Sometimes we converted first downs and sometimes we did not, but it was very positive that he got the ball out of his hands and we did not have negative plays. I also felt like the receivers made some really good plays for him.”
On going back to WR Michael Jenkins after he dropped a pass:
“We have confidence in all of our receivers. We would like to make a perfect throw, but when it is not a perfect throw the receiver bails the quarterback out by making a great catch. Quarterbacks understand that there are going to be times when receivers drop a pass and the best thing to do is go right back to them. We wanted to make sure they knew we had confidence in them and the quarterback had confidence in them.”
CAROLINA PANTHERS HEAD COACH JOHN FOX
On the injuries to his team:
“With Jake (Delhomme), it is his elbow and Dan Morgan has a hamstring injury.”
On playing the Falcons on the road:
“Anytime you have a division game on the road it is a big game. We don’t look at records, we look at the tape. It is tough to win in this league and I don’t care who it is. Road wins are hard to come by. It was a hard-fought game and we’re glad we got the job done.”
On the play of RB DeShaun Foster:
“He was a guy that we relied on highly this week. We know what type of game it was going to be and I thought he really stepped up big time.”
On the penalty on Falcons QB DeAngelo Hall:
“I don’t get to see everything. I don’t really know what happened. We talk to our guys about keeping their composure.”
On the play of LB James Anderson:
“I thought that James did a good job. We worked this week in practice and he had not got a lot of work at the Mike Linebacker position. I thought that he did a good job.”
FALCONS QB JOEY HARRINGTON
Opening Statement:
”This is why we play the game because you never know how games can turn out. There were momentum changes, but we have to play through the stuff that isn’t the best of situations. It is going to happen to every team in some form or another where there is adversity. I’m going to throw some incompletions or maybe some interceptions, but it is our job as a team to pick each other up no matter the situation. We have to play through that stuff and we will work on it in the future.”
On the performance of WR Roddy White:
“Roddy played very well today and that’s something that I expect from him. He played hard and made some great catches. He is a big and strong receiver and he is the type of guy that you can get the ball to in a small space. He is going to fight for the extra yards. On his touchdown, he just ran a slant because Carolina’s defense was in zone coverage. I waited for him to get in the slot behind the defensive end, and he did the rest. He is an explosive guy, in which he can break a tackle and take it the distance.”
On the offensive performance:
“I thought we did very well. We improved on some things from the Minnesota and Jacksonville games. I think we need to do more because it is not good to be complacent. We needed to make a couple more plays today. When you lose the game, there are always things that can be worked on to get better. But, we will hard this week and prepare for our next game versus Houston.”
TE ALGE CRUMPLER
Opening Statement:
“It was good to get out there and produce for our offense since I’ve missed a bit of time this season. I want to make some plays for our team. It is important to show the emotion I have for this game and for our team.”
In comparison, rank Carolina’s team to Jacksonville and Minnesota:
“As far the personnel, they have some playmakers on their team like DE Julius Peppers and DT Kris Jenkins among others. But conversely, I think our defense played just as well as they did. We need to prepare for next week and get all of the little things corrected. I believe we will be fine as long as we play as one unit.”
LB MICHAEL BOLEY
On his team’s offensive execution in the first half:
”It was one of those games where we started off good the first half. We came out and did really well on both sides of the ball. In the second half, we had some things that didn’t go our way. We had some unfortunate unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and things like that can hurt a team late in the game. That’s what hurt us the most in the second half.”
S LAWYER MILLOY
On his thoughts on the game and DeAngelo Hall’s actions:
I would never blame it on one individual. I thought he had a great individual game plan. He’s an outstanding player. I think those were Steve Smith’s best couple of plays. Like I said, he did an outstanding job. That goes to show you, in this league you can’t beat yourself. Not only did we do it in that situation, but also on special teams. We had a lot of penalties and that didn’t help us out today.”
WR RODDY WHITE
Thoughts on the game:
“I think we did a pretty good job. We didn’t finish some plays. We could have caught some balls and stopped drives. We left some points out there. Overall, we did alright, but we left a lot of stuff out there. We could have got a lot more points.”
Thoughts on Joey Harrington’s game play:
“I thought Joey did an excellent job today. He got the ball out of his hands and we made some plays for him. We kept the sticks moving.
CB DEANGELO HALL
On his team’s offensive execution in the first half:
”On the first penalty, the ball was in the air and I felt like I was out of position. I didn’t want to give up the big play so I pulled him down and I think what happened right after that was we had a little cover 2 called. I had to jam the defender when they hiked the ball and they threw a flag. The referee told me it was unnecessary roughness. After the sack we were just jawing back and forth at each other and he threw another flag.”
On why they didn’t throw a flag on Smith:
“I have no clue. You’ll have to ask them that. I did the same quick jam on the other side of the field.”
On if that flag gave the Panthers momentum:
“Yeah I think it did. It allowed them to stay out there and make a few more plays. It ended up putting the game out of reach.”
RB WARRICK DUNN
On how he felt about the game:
“I think that we’re coming together. We’re showing signs that we can be an explosive offense. We just have to be able to score touchdowns. It’s a little bit frustrating because Joey (Harrington) played well out there today. The offensive line did a great job. It’s a little frustrating when you can’t come up with the win. I feel like the last few weeks, we’ve been just chugging along out there. Things are starting to happen, guys are started to understand what we’re doing. The passing game was good, and the run game was definitely effective today. The pieces are going to start to come together. We just have to make plays in the fourth quarter.”
On how Joey played today:
“Joey’s getting better overall. He’s understanding what we’re doing offensively, he didn’t hold on to the ball, he made some throws, he took some chances and he saw the field today. I think his confidence is going to grow and hopefully he can continue what he’s doing.”
RB JERIOUS NORWOOD
On how he felt about the game:
“I feel like we’re clicking a little better then the past week, but there are still some things we need to work on. We’ve got to continue to get better and work on our weaknesses.”
On how this game just slipped away:
“We had chances to make plays and we just didn’t make them. We have to be more focused and more positive about what we have to do.”
On the low sack count:
“Everybody plays a role. Coach Petrino has been on us the last couple of weeks and he wants us to pick the intensity up. We did that better this week.”
PANTHERS QB JAKE DELHOMME
On how his injury happened and when:
”Something didn’t feel right and I strained it. It didn’t happen that particular play, it happened the series before when I got sacked on third down. It was bothering me a little bit and I threw on the sidelines. I made a couple of throws on the next drive and it just didn’t feel good. I don’t know what it (the injury) is. I hope that everything is normal. We’ll see what it is.”
On how much pain he was in:
“I don’t know if my reaction showed it or not, but I just knew that something wasn’t right about it.”
Did you get an X-Ray for your elbow?
“No I did not. We will do that tomorrow.”
On the TD pass to Foster:
“It was a good play call. Keary Colbert did a good job of running the post and getting the safety out of there. DeShaun did a great job of going to the flat and wheeling it up. It was a good play call at the right time.”
PANTHERS QB DAVID CARR
On playing:
It was good to get out there and it was fun. It was 15 seconds of chaos (as Jake came off the field).”
Did you know that Jake was hurting from the previous series?
“No. He threw quite well today. When he came off it was quite a shock. I’ve had an arm injury and when the quarterback goes down it isn’t too much fun.”
On his thoughts when he went in:
“Run the play on the wristband. You don’t get a lot of reps in practice, so honestly when you’re not the starter that’s what happens. You just try to get a feel for the game. (Atlanta) has a good defense, but Keary (Colbert) and the boys made some plays for me.”
On his first pass:
“I thought that we had it. I’m glad that (Keary Colbert) was ready for it. We were close to hooking up, but he came back and made a play on the next one.”
PANTHERS CB KEN LUCAS
On the physical play between NFC South opponents:
“Hey man, any game against an NFC South opponent we take personal. It’s like a college rivalry. Everybody wants to beat everybody. It was a heck of a win for us today, even though it wasn’t a pretty win.”
On facing Joey Harrington:
“(Harrington) did a great job today. He minimized his mistakes. He did the best with what he saw today, and I was impressed. Film doesn’t lie, so we knew what to expect. We heard stuff, but he looked good out there. I tip my hat to him.”
On being 2-1 as opposed to 1-2:
“We can take this one and learn from it. We can look at the mistakes and make sure we don’t repeat them next week against Tampa Bay.”
PANTHERS DE JULIOUS PEPPERS
On winning against their NFC South rivals:
“Well, I’ll tell you, it was a hard-fought win. It was a division game. You can never expect a game against Atlanta to be easy, or a win on the road to be a piece of cake. This is the direction we need on this team, not the direction we seemed to be headed after last week (a loss to Houston).”
On turning it around after a surprising loss:
“Any time you can get in that win column, then it’s a good day. We needed to build upon something today. We need all of these wins, especially ones on the road, and especially ones in the division.”
On no sacks against Joey Harrington:
“Hey, he’s a good quarterback. Joey did a good job getting rid of the ball and not holding it. But we prepared week in and week out to face teams that get rid of the ball quickly. They know we have team speed on defense. We are used to it. We deal with it on a consistent basis.”
PANTHERS CB CHRIS GAMBLE
On his relative shut down corner play:
“I just played aggressively and waited to make a play on the ball. They just didn’t come my way much today and that’s OK. I’ll let Steve Smith and DeAngelo Hall get the attention. I’m just out there trying to make plays.”
On game planning for Joey Harrington:
“Harrington did a good job today. He ran through his keys, his progressions and he didn’t make turnovers. I wasn’t surprised. We knew he was good by looking at tape. But we had a good day as well.”
MORE FROM THE FALCONS-PANTHERS GAME:
- GAMEDAY: All the coverage from the Panthers-Falcons game
- STATS AND PLAY-BY-PLAY: NFL.com Game Center
- GAME NOTES: Updates and injury news from the Georgia Dome press box
- INACTIVES: Inactives from Week 3
- QUOTABLE: Thoughts on the game from Falcons players and coaches
- VIDEO: Head Coach Bobby Petrino
- VIDEO: Quarterback Joey Harrington
- VIDEO: Safety Lawyer Milloy
- VIDEO: Cornerback DeAngelo Hall
- VIDEO: Wide receiver Roddy White
- HIGHLIGHTS: Game highlights from NFL Network
