QB Matt Ryan
Opening Statement:
“Arizona deserves a lot of credit. They came out and out-executed us and credit to them. I wish them luck the rest of the way.”
On if he hit a “rookie wall” or had any injuries late in the season that caused him to not play as well:
“I felt fine. I felt the same as I have all year.”
On what happened when he threw his first interception:
“It was a different look than what we’ve seen during the year. They brought in a dime defense and substituted for the Mike linebacker they had. A DB in at the linebacker position. I just made a poor throw. Poor read. You can’t do that, especially in games like this. But after that, I thought we bounced back from it and made some plays. We put ourselves in good position heading into halftime, but ultimately didn’t make enough plays to come away with the win. In that sense, it’s frustrating.”
On if the fumble in the third quarter was a key play to changing the momentum:
“I don’t know if you can pinpoint it to one play. We had opportunities to make plays out there today and we didn’t take advantage of it. I think we still had chances later on throughout the game.”
On the Cardinals defense:
“I thought they played physical up front. I thought their guys did a good job up front, they played tough. Their linebackers scraped and made some plays. Credit to them, they played a very good game defensively.”
On if the atmosphere had any affect on him early in the game:
“There was a lot of hype this week leading up to the game, but once you get out there playing, it’s kind of just the same as it is all year. You have to find the rhythm of the game and get a feel for it. I thought we did. I thought we caught the rhythm of the game pretty well. Ultimately, we just didn’t make enough plays to win. In the future, we’re going to have to make those type of plays.”
On why the offense was hot in the first and third quarters, but not in the second and fourth:
“No. No reasoning for that. We just caught a rhythm at different times. You’d like to be hot the entire game.”
On how long it took him to feel comfortable in the game:
“Pretty quickly. The interception isn’t good, but as soon as you get out there and you get hit, make a couple of throws, a couple completions after that, you’re good. I just felt like any other game.”
On if the first interception had to do with nerves:
“I don’t think it had anything to do with nerves. Poor throw. Poor decision. The guy made a nice play. In games like this, hopefully we’re in them in the future, you can’t make those kinds of mistakes.”
On if he’ll look back at this season and remember the 11 wins or the feeling after this loss:
“I think you have to do both. I think you have to remember what we did as a team this year and we did some things well. We made some strides as a team as the year went on and got better. But you have to use this as motivation. We don’t want to be here, losing in the first round of the playoffs in the future. What we want to do is continue to advance in the playoffs and give ourselves a chance to win. I think everybody will use it as motivation for next season.”
WR Brian Finneran
On what went wrong in the game from the receivers’ standpoint:
“We weren’t able to pull in balls that we normally pull in. Just a number of things we didn’t do right.”
On what the team can do next year:
“We definitely have a good foundation here with what (Head Coach Mike Smith) Smitty has brought to us and with Matt (Ryan) and having Roddy (White) locked up for awhile. We have some good pieces and Mike Turner. We have a good football team in place and we just have to build on it a little bit, get a few pieces here and there and see if we can’t improve in 2009.”
DE John Abraham
On the performance of Cardinals QB Kurt Warner:
“He’s been doing that all year. He’s been hit a lot, but he gets the ball out. We hit him a couple of times, but he did a good job getting the ball out. I know I hit him one time and thought I had him wrapped up, but he threw the ball where nobody was at. That’s what he does and he did a good job today doing it.”
On if the Cardinals rushing attack slowed down the pass rush:
“It didn’t slow us down at all, he just did a good job getting the ball out. He knew when to throw it and he had great receivers catching the ball.”
On the third and 16 play at the end of the game that the Cardinals converted:
“They completed the ball. We just didn’t make the plays that we should have made. We had some good opportunities to get the ball back and some good opportunities to stop them, but we kept letting them go. They were just the better team today. All things said they won the game and we have to just get ready for next year.”
On if he was affected by injury today:
“If I’m on the field. If I’m out there, you have to play like you’re 100% even if you’re not. You have to push it like you’re 100% and that’s what I tried to do.”
On what it means as a veteran to know how hard it is to get into the playoffs and that this could be his last chance:
“It’s not a good feeling. For me it’s not a good feeling. I’m 30 and I’ve been to the playoffs three times. It’s just tough. This game was so close, we could have won. It’s not like they demolished us. Too many mistakes on both sides of the ball, on defense and offense, but the special teams played their butt off. We just couldn’t pull it out at the end.”
LB Keith Brooking
On if he was surprised about how the Cardinals ran the ball early:
“Yeah, they got a couple of runs early, but I don’t think they established any run game. We played pretty damn solid on defense. We can make excuses all day, but those two (big) plays are part of the game, so we can’t do that. It was just really two big plays they got on us in the first half. They finally got a little run game going at the end of the game.”
On if the fumble return for a touchdown took the life out of the team in the third quarter:
“There’s nothing that takes the life out of this team. We fought hard all day. That’s the one thing I’m proud of is that we gave a tremendous effort. There’s nothing that takes the life out of this team. That happens to losers and we’re not losers. We obviously came up on the short end of the stick today, but I’m proud of how our guys fought.”
On if he’ll remember the team’s turnaround to 11-5 or the loss in the game:
“I feel the hurt right now. Losers look at things that way. As far as, yeah, we turned it around to 11-5 in the regular season, it’s not the way I look at things. I’ll remember the group of guys that are here and the way we came together.”
WR Roddy White
On the turnover in the third quarter:
“It happened. In this league, people make turnovers. The defensive lineman made a big play. We tried to get the ball back and it’s not like we didn’t try to tackle the guy. You just can’t turn the ball over, but sometimes the defense makes big plays against offense. That’s how it goes. Stuff like that happens. Defensive lineman made a great play, looked like he was offsides, but he jumped the snap count and came right there and got the ball.”
On the running game not complementing the passing game:
“Yeah it’s tough. You want to establish the run and play-action pass. I felt like they scored and made two big plays and it kind of threw us behind the eight-ball. We just had to go out there and that took Mike (Turner) out of the game. We got right back to it. Their defense played well today.”
RB Michael Turner
On if the Cardinals ganged up against the run:
“They just played great football, period. Their defense was fired up and flying around all day.”
On what the season meant for him personally stepping in as a feature back:
“It’s satisfying, going in there and stepping up and playing well at a high level. It still hurts to lose in the playoffs.”
On what the Cardinals did defensively to stop the run:
“I have to look at the tape of this. It seemed like they had guys everywhere. They crowded the line of scrimmage. They had a good game plan. They looked like they knew what play we were about to run.”
WR Michael Jenkins
On what the most frustrating part of the game was:
“It’s hard when you have turnovers. It’s hard to win. We’ve overcome throughout the year losing the turnover battle and still winning. But that’s real hard to do against playoff teams.”
On the team still being in the game despite losing the turnover battle:
“It just shows the character of this team. We never give up, we never say die. We’re going to fight to the end. We did a great job of that today, we just didn’t get the result that we wanted.”
On the team’s prospects for next year:
“Young football team. It was good for everybody on this team to get that playoff experience knowing how hard it is to get back here. Shows how much dedication and work we’re going to have to put in during the offseason to get back here.”
MORE FROM THE FALCONS-CARDINALS GAME:
- GAME CENTER: Stats and more in the NFL.com Game Center
- GAME BLOG: Review updates from the press box in the playoff game blog
- GAME NOTES: Track some of the milestones from the playoff game
- GAME STORY: Playoff loss in Arizona ends Falcon season
- GAMEDAY LIVE: Complete Falcons-Cardinals game coverage from AF.com
- J. MIKE'S MISSIVES: More news and comment from the AF.com Managing Editor
- VIDEO: Head Coach Mike Smith | Matt Ryan
- NFL NETWORK: Game Highlights | Matt Ryan Highlights | Michael Turner Highlights
- TRANSCRIPTS: Head Coach Mike Smith | Falcons | Cardinals
- INACTIVES: Inactives and starters from the Falcons-Cardinals game
- FORUMS: Talk about the game with other fans on FalconsLIFE
- PHOTOS: Images from the Falcons playoff game at University of Phoenix Stadium
