ATLANTA FALCONS HEAD COACH MIKE SMITH
Opening statement:
"Obviously, we didn't get the outcome that we wanted in today's ballgame. I felt like we had a good plan. I felt like the guys went out there and tried to execute it. I just think we just never got in a rhythm. We kept ending up in third and ones and third and halves or fourth and one or fourth and half yards. Not being able to get in drives and I felt that was important in the ballgame. We didn't play to our standards. My hat's off to Tampa. They did. The second season is getting ready to start. Everybody is 0- 0. We're very excited about that as a football team. We'll watch this tape and learn from it just like we always do and start our preparation for Falcons-on-Falcons during our Bye week. As soon as we're informed of who are opponent is and when we are playing, we'll start our preparation then."
On considering taking the starters out:
"Absolutely not. We've said from the very beginning that we're going to play this game to win. I think we did that. We just didn't get it done today. We were low on DB's when we started the game. We only had seven dressed. We were getting low where we were going to have to change our packages, but absolutely not. We were going to continue to play to win this ballgame."
On clinching the number one seed last week causing guys to relax:
"I think you get sixteen opportunities. You want to go out and play your best. To go out there and not play your best and not try to win is counterintuitive to guys in that locker room and it's counterintuitive to us as football coaches. I know that there are different philosophies with that and it flips back and forth, but we're paid to go out and try and win football games. That's what we do. That's our job and that's the way we proceeded this week in our preparation and what we did here on game day."
ATLANTA FALCONS QUARTERBACK MATT RYAN
On what went wrong on offense today:
"Namely, I think third downs were hard for us today. We didn't do a very good job of converting on third downs. We were three of 14 on third downs. When we haven't played well offensively that has been one of the things that have crept in and been the main issue. We've done a good job of it this year but we did not do a good job of that today."
On the success at home:
"Our fans have been awesome. In the five years I've been here, it feels like every season they just get better and better. I think they're passionate about the team. We've played well at home which gives them something to cheer about, but it's also a place that we feel comfortable in and it gives us an advantage."
On what the team will work on during this Bye week:
"I think the biggest thing is to clean up some of the things that we didn't do well today. We want to keep the rhythm and keep the timing that we've had. We'll have a chance to make adjustments and self-scout a little bit and take a look at some of the things that we haven't done well this year and try and improve on those. We're going to practice quite a bit which is a good thing and we'll have some time to work on it on the field as well."
