Buffalo Bills Interim Head Coach Perry Fewell
Opening Statement:
"We'll start out and address injuries. The only one of the game was Jonathan Scott and it was his ankle."
Q: How do you feel Brian Brohm played today?
A: "For a guy that came in three to four weeks ago, and was thrust into a starting position, I thought he handled himself okay. He was put in a tough position. He tried to answer the challenge. I think he's got a future with more reps and more work. He has some promise there."
Q: Throughout the game there wasn't much chance to throw downfield. Were you hoping for more opportunities to do so or did you plan to play a short ball?
A: "With a young quarterback like that you expect pressure. You would expect for them to not let the guy throw the ball downfield. We thought that if he got the ball out quick it would give him a chance to have success."
Q: When the ball for Terrell Owens was intercepted, do you think that there was something he could have done to make that play a little better?A: "I thought he [Brian Brohm] could have thrown it more outside because the defensive back had the inside position on Terrell. It would have been tough for Terrell, I thought from the sidelines, to go over the defensive back and get it. He was expecting it more outside."
Q: It was hard to get your running game going. Can you talk about the Falcons loading the box?
A: "Obviously, if you have a young quarterback like that, they are going to load the box because the thing that we could do well would be to run the football. They loaded the box. They tried to confuse the blocking scheme if they could and they made it really tough for us to run the ball successfully. They tried to get us to throw the football because, again, we have a young quarterback that was making his first NFL start."
Q: What was your reaction on the sideline when Jonathan Scott went out?
A: "Well, Andre Ramsey has been working at tackle. With our injury situation you have to become numb to the fact that a guy goes out and the next guy has to step up and play. That is what we have to prepare for. We have to say, 'hey, you are only one play away'. That is really true in the National Football League. We had a guy who has been working on that spot and he knew the assignments. I'd like to look at the tape and tell you about his performance but I think he fought out there."
Q: You are down with injuries and Brohm was making his first start. You lose by 28 points. As a head coach, are you really disappointed by that performance today?
A: "Whether it's three points or one point, I am disappointed because we lost today. I thought our guys fought, but we just didn't have enough fire power. We just didn't have enough to make the game what we wanted to make it. I thought we came out, we battled in the first half and we had a couple turnovers that led to points. They got the momentum going and we could never get momentum. Every time we would make a play we would hurt ourselves. With the blocked field goal, we ran it back for a touchdown but they said we were down by contact. That takes points off the board for us. We are trying to generate momentum. We have a good kickoff return and they call holding. Again, that takes some points off the board. We kept hurting ourselves again today with our opportunity to score points."
Q: Can you just talk about the performance from Aaron Schobel?
A: "That's just Aaron Schobel. The guy gives the best he has each and every time he lines up. He is a football player. That guy can play football and we love guys like that."
Q: Can you talk about your decisions to punt on fourth down at the 37 and also your decision to go for a field goal when you were down by 27?
A: "First of all, I went for the field goal because I wanted to get points on the board. I was not going to leave here without points on the board. I thought that if maybe we could get some points then we could back them up with some more points. I was trying to get some more momentum in that situation. As for punting on the 37, I just didn't feel like that was good range for him. We said if it is outside that landmark then we would make a different decision and wouldn't try to kick that field goal and give them field position. I made the decision to punt it and I was hoping to try to get it down inside the ten. I was trying to play field position football."
Wide Receiver Lee Evans
On Brohm's performance
"I think he did well. He adjusted to some of the things that he was doing to us. I think he got the ball out and made some good reads. He did what we asked him to do. He made some good throws. I think he did very well."
On not having time to run deeper routes
"We knew that we had to focus on getting the ball out of his (Brohm) hand and getting him into some type of rhythm. That's what we tried to do. We didn't really get a whole lot going early. As the game progressed I think he got a bit more comfortable."
On Atlanta stopping the running game
"That was something that we set out to do which was to control the game on the ground. A lineman went down and we had to bring another one in and it didn't work quite like we would've liked it to."
How tiring was the game
"It's tough. For a number of different reason. Guys still playing hard and trying to win. It's a tough situation right now."
On the longest pass play being only 13 yards
"They did a good job of trying to bring pressure and they tried to bring more than we could block. They did a good job of getting after us."
Defensive Tackle Marcus Stroud
Q: You guys have been out of playoff contention now for some time, but were competitive today.
A: "Well, that's what we came here to do: compete. It's the name of the game no matter what the score. We just came up on the short end of the stick today."
Q: You've got Indy next week, maybe an unbeaten team. Plenty to play for.
A: "I don't know about other guys, but me, I'm a fighter and a competitor. If you watch me play, that's what I do. I fight to the end no matter what the situation."
Q: You're from Georgia, and played at Georgia. What about playing for the Falcons some day?A: "It would be a dream come true, but at the same time, I'm dedicated to this Buffalo Bills team, and they've shown they're dedicated to me. And that means I leave it all out on the field."
Linebacker Paul Posluszny
Q: No one can question your competitiveness today.
A: "We didn't play smart enough or efficient enough to win this game. The idea today was to make some plays, and take some pressure off of the offense. We had a young quarterback in there. So the mindset today was let's take the pressure off him and put it on us. Defensively, we didn't do any of that."
Q: How tough is it to be in the hole after the second play of the game?
A: "Man, they just jumped on us right away. We were able to bounce back from that though. It was a shocker. But we were ready to get back out there. We just didn't play well enough to change the game. We weren't dominated, but they had their way with us."
Quarterback Brian Brohm
Q: Was it the plan to use the short passing game?
A: "We obviously didn't have a lot of time for me to get comfortable with the playbook, so we thought the best plan would be to use a lot of short passing routes and try to use the run game to nickel and dime it down the field."
Q: The screen game sort of disappeared in the second half after being used a lot in the first half?
A: "I was just running the plays that were being called. We were looking for plays that would work, but unfortunately there weren't very many of them."
Q: How did you think you performed in the game?
A: "I feel like I handled myself fine. Even though the results weren't good, I walk out of here with more confidence in myself. For me, it is a good place to build from."
Q: Not having good field position all game?
A: "The theme of the game for us seemed to be not making any big plays. They had more big plays than we did and we just couldn't seem to get big plays at any point in the game."
Q: The pressure of the Falcons defense?
A: "They did bring some pressure. They were bringing the Cover Two. They were trying to play the pass and the run. They definitely wanted to shut down our running game and we have two great running backs so that is understandable."
Q: Thoughts after starting left tackle Jonathan Scott went out?
A: "I knew that whoever was in there would give it there all and that is what this team has really been about this season. This team has had a lot of unfortunate injuries and I knew whoever came in would give it their all."
Bills Wide Receiver Terrell Owens
Q: How do you sum up this season?
A: "That's a good question. I don't know. I don't really have any answers. What I can say is that these guys have been working hard in practice and we are fighting during the games. We just aren't executing. It's been tough all year. I think Brohm did a good job managing the game as best he could. Obviously we could have made some more plays for him, but other than that at this point in the year it is what it is. We have one more game left so we just want to try and go out on a winning note."
Q: No big plays during the game as a team?
A: "It's hard to win games period if you are going three and out. I think there were some drives we had where we didn't capitalize on the long passes resulting in interceptions. But it's been that way all year. Again, there is fight in a lot of guys on this team. Where the answers lie, that's not for me to figure out."
Q: What happened on first half interception?
A: "It's tough to adjust to the ball when you are running full speed when you are expecting the ball to be out front. When the ball is kind of underthrown if you don't locate the ball initially, it is hard to adjust going full speed. Again it what was one of those times where it stopped a drive where we had some momentum. We just haven't been able to sustain drives when we get them going."
Q: Reaching 1,000 career catches?
A: "To me it's not a big deal. I just go out and play the game and all the records that I have set are just part of what I have been doing throughout my career. I don't play this game to set a record. It is what it is. I'm just blessed to play this game. I have been playing at a productive level and things happen. Again, I'm honored to be on the list, but I don't care about that. I would rather have had the win today than anything."
MORE FALCONS-BILLS COVERAGE:
GAMEDAY LIVE:Complete Falcons-Bills coverage from AF.com * GAME RECAP:John Manasso takes a look at some of the key moments * GAME CENTER:Stats and more from NFL.com * FIRST TAKE:Daver Archer chats with some of the key contributors * MULTIMEDIA:Highlights and more player interviews from Falcons-Bills * J. MIKE'S MISSIVES:Additional thoughts from the AF.com Managing Editor * THE BEAT BLOG:Quarter-by-quarter updates from AF.com's John Manasso * GAME NOTES:Official game notes from the Falcons-Bills game * TRANSCRIPTS:Postgame thoughts from Falcons players | Bills * INACTIVES:Game inactives and starters from Sunday afternoon * PHOTOS:Images from the Falcons 31-3 win over the Buffalo Bills * FORUMS:Talk about the game with other fans on FalconsLIFE
