FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Quarterback Joey Harrington will remain the team's No. 1 quarterback, Head Coach Bobby Petrino said Monday during his regular meeting with the press.
The coach took Harrington out of Sunday's 20-13 loss to Tennessee, replacing him with recently-signed veteran Byron Leftwich. Leftwich, a former first-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars, signed with the team Sept. 18 and had been acting as the team's third-string quarterback.
League rules allowed Leftwich, the emergency quarterback Sunday, into the game in the fourth quarter. He had the offense in the red zone twice with a chance to tie the game.
"I think it's in our best interest and gives us our best chance to succeed to stay with Joey," the coach said Monday. "I think he understands our offense. He knows what we want to do (and) how we want to execute. I think yesterday he took a lot of hits and, toward the end of the third quarter, I felt like he wasn't completing passes that he normally completes and that making the change might provide a spark for us and get us something going.
"I think it was the right thing to do. I think it did provide a little bit of a spark, we just weren't able to finish it off and get the ball in the end zone."
Petrino said Leftwich will move to No. 2 on the depth chart and would have been the backup quarterback against the Titans if not for Chris Redman's status as the team's backup holder. Redman held twice for punter Michael Koenen, who missed two long field goal tries Sunday.
Players were unavailable for comment Monday, but did discuss the issue after Sunday's game.
"Anytime you get pulled it is frustrating," Harrington said Sunday. "It is not something you enjoy. I have been through worse than this before. This was a frustrating game because offensively we didn’t help our defense out. There are no individual stories here. Individually I feel awful because I didn’t help out our defense today. They gave us so many opportunities and we didn’t take advantage of it. It is our job to hold up our end of the bargain."
The frustration of those missed opportunities, including five takeaways by the defense and special teams, stuck with Petrino through the short flight back to Atlanta and through Monday morning.
"It's a tough video to watch because you watch our defense play and you like what you see," Petrino said. "Offensively we're not close to what we need to be to win a game. There were a lot of missed opportunities and that's disturbing to me because I really felt like we were climbing the ladder and getting better each week... Then we took a big step back yesterday and basically got handled up front and they were the team that was more powerful and more aggressive."
The Falcons offense closed it's final seven possessions with two missed field goals, two punts, two interceptions and a turnover on downs. The unit also didn't convert a third down in the first half. The team also heads into practice this week still tweaking a running game that went a fifth straight week without cracking 100 yards. The Falcons rushed for 99 yards against the Titans' second-ranked run defense, but 49 of those game on a fake punt play to Artose Pinner.
But Petrino said the team's ultimate goal has not changed.
"There's one agenda here by the coaching staff and that's to win every week," he said. "Win the game that we're playing that week and that's it. That's what we're trying to do.
"I think (the players) have done a nice job of working hard. For the most part, everybody in the locker room has been good. We certainly don't want situations like this to happen and we're just going to keep going. One thing you can be sure of is we're going to keep working hard. We're going to keep practicing hard. We have to show up better obviously on offense than we did this week but our team has made improvement. Look at the defensive performance that we had. We just didn't get it done offensively."
INJURY UPDATE: Petrino wasn't optimistic about a speedy return of starting left tackle Wayne Gandy. Gandy, a team captain and 14-year veteran, injured his knee in the fourth quarter and was taken off the field on a cart.
Petrino said he and right tackle Todd Weiner underwent MRI exams Monday.
"It's discouraging," Petrino said. 'It's certainly something that would really hurt us because he's been a very good leader for our football team and he's done a really nice job of providing leadership for our offense. That will be a tough one if the news comes out negative."
Undrafted rookie Renardo Foster would replace Gandy in the lineup, as he did when the veteran left Week 2's game at Jacksonville with an injury.
Rookie linebacker Stephen Nicholas suffered a high ankle sprain against the Titans. Petrino said the injury looks like it could take "a couple weeks" to heal.
Defensive tackle Rod Coleman and tight end Dwayne Blakley returned to practice last week after extended stays on the injury report, but were inactive Sunday. Petrino said both were close to participating and should be ready when the team takes on the Giants next week on Monday Night Football.
"Rod practiced last week three times," the coach said. "We felt like there were a couple things we saw last week in practice that would say he's not 100 percent and ready to go. We did not want to take the chance of him not being in there 100 percent. He feels like he could have played and will definitely be ready by Monday."
MORE FROM THE FALCONS-TITANS GAME:
- GAMEDAY: All the coverage from the Titans-Falcons game
- STATS AND PLAY-BY-PLAY: NFL.com Game Center
- GAME NOTES: Updates and injury news from the LP Field press box
- INACTIVES: Inactives and starters from Week 5
- QUOTABLE: Thoughts on the game from Falcons players and coaches
- VIDEO: Head Coach Bobby Petrino
- VIDEO: Quarterback Joey Harrington
- VIDEO: Quarterback Byron Leftwich
- HIGHLIGHTS: Game highlights from NFL Network
