100%CardsFan
100% embarrassed
FALCONS 6, CARDINALS 3
Falcons Head Coach Jim Mora on the game, overall:
"I think we need to compliment the Arizona Cardinals and the job they did, especially on defense. That was an inspired effort by a team that's a real credit to Dennis Green and his staff and the things they have going on there. I think it's important to recognize that before we ever talk about how we played. Obviously we have some things we need to get corrected on offense. The Cardinals did some things to take away some of the things we had success with, especially last week. So, my hat is off to Dennis and his staff."
Mora on his team's defense:
"I would like to compliment our defense. I'm not sure that I've seen such an outstanding defensive performance in all of my years. I know that sounds overstated, but to cause four turnovers like we did in the red zone really says something about the character of those guys and their will to hang in and make a play."
Mora on the play of the offense:
"I am not telling anyone anything they don't know by saying that we struggled on offense. Number seven struggled. Warrick Dunn struggled hanging onto the football. We just struggled on offense. That's a credit to Arizona, but it's also something we have to address and get cleaned up - and I promise you we will."
Mora on why he went for it on fourth down late in the fourth quarter:
"I think logic would say you kick the field goal there and go up 9-3 and make them score a touchdown. That's something they hadn't been able to do all day. I just felt the way we responded there at the end that it was just time to make a statement, not only to team, but to our fans and to the NFL. We are going to go for it. We've had a lot of success so far on fourth downs."
Quarterback Michael Vick on the Arizona defense:
“As far as schemes are concerned, I think they had a great scheme. They dropped guys back and didn’t allow us to do certain things on offense as far as running the ball, which is a big part of our offense. We just have to make adjustments and we made adjustments at halftime. We came out after halftime and I thought we did a pretty good job of moving the ball. I made a mistake with the fumble and we had some turnovers, but that’s football. That’s the way the game is played and it’s all about how you come back from it.”
Vick on if the offense seems more spread out than it did last year:
“Yes, we are spreading the ball out. I give credit to Greg Knapp our offensive coordinator. He’s done a great job of spreading the ball around, getting guys involved and taking a lot of pressure off me so I don’t have to do as much. And you need that as an offensive unit. And I think, if he continues to do that, we’ll win plenty more ballgames this year.”
Vick on what Arizona was doing to contain his running or if that was by design:
“They just dropped back in zone. They tried to keep me contained. They widened their ends out. They passed guys off downfield as receivers were running their routes and they just did some good things on defense and things we didn’t expect them to do. And I know Dennis Green said he had the plan to stop us, but we didn’t expect that. If it was to happen again, we would have a great, great plan to counter off and make some big plays off of the things they were trying to do to counteract the things we were trying to do. They just played a great game. They played a great game defensively. I think they came here to play. You’ve got to take your hat off to them.”
Vick on if it was frustrating not being able to move the ball in the second half until his big run:
“It was frustrating. But the thing I kept telling our offensive unit is we’ve got to make a play. We’ve got to make a big play. Regardless of who it is: if it’s an offensive tackle, if it’s a fullback, if it’s me…we’ve got to make a play. And I think all the guys took into that and I didn’t know it was going to be me, but I was ready to make that play if the opportunity came about. And it was a great call by Greg [Knapp] and it worked; it won us the game.”
Vick on what was going through his mind on his 58-yard run:
“I was just thinking about getting the first down and getting out of bounds and running the clock out. Then, as I came out, I started thinking about the type of game I was having and I said to myself: ‘I need to score a touchdown or do something to put some more points on the board to put the game out of reach,’ because they were playing a great game. And, you give an offense enough chances in this league to come back and eventually they’re going to score. We all are professionals. So it was all about getting down as far as we could just in case we wanted to take a shot at the end zone and putting the game out of reach.”
Vick on the play of the Atlanta defense:
“I was watching the defense and those guys played a great game. It was the best defensive game I’ve ever seen as a quarterback with the Atlanta Falcons. You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Ed Donatell and Jim Mora for putting that scheme together. If we continue to play like that and our offense will get better, and I know we will, then the sky’s the limit for the Atlanta Falcons.”
Defensive tackle Rod Coleman on answering Arizona’s defensive effort:
“Of course. They create a fumble, we’ve got to go out and create a turnover. Every time we got a turnover, we were trying to score.”
Coleman on if he’s ever made a more athletic play than his sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery:
“If I was a little more athletic, I could have scooped and scored with it. Every time I go after the quarterback, I try to hit the ball out and create a turnover.”
Coleman on if he thinks he’s proven himself valuable to the Falcons thus far:
“I hope so. I’ve been trying to go out there and make things happen. Every time I’m out on the field, I try to knock the quarterback out or create a turnover and just do my part and try to help us win.”
Linebacker Chris Draft on if he thinks the Atlanta D was able to successfully confused Josh McCown:
“I don’t know if he was real confused. They were just worried that we were going to come in and blast him, so they were trying to get rid of the ball quick and when they didn’t get rid of the ball quick, we kept on getting sacks. He’s the kind of guy who runs with the ball a little loose and the first couple of games [this season], he was able to get the ball back. But this game, we made sure that we understood that we were going to get chances, but just knocking the ball out isn’t enough. You’ve got to knock the ball out and recover it. The four turnovers that we got, they were big. To pick which one was the biggest one, it’s going to be real hard. Rod knocked two balls out, Brady knocked one out and Cory knocked one out. They were all big and ended up being the plays, plus everything else, that helped us win the game.”
Draft on the effort of the defensive line:
“Rod just was killing whoever he was going against. He was handling him. P.K. [Patrick Kerney] was handling who he was going against. Brady [Smith] ran right by somebody. And basically we understood that McCown, he was going to move out of the pocket. And when he moved out of the pocket, he was going to try and set and wasn’t just going to be running and throwing on the move. So even when he got out of the pocket, we realized we were still going to have a little bit of time.”
Falcons DT Ed Jasper on the offensive struggles:
"Yeah, we struggled on offense, but you know what? So what, we won the other two phases of the game, and we won the game. Hey, that's all we care about. We'll get the offense fixed, you can believe that. Coach Mora, he ain't joking. He'll get them fixed."
Defensive end Patrick Kerney on an injury to his right knee:
“It’s just a knee bruise. It’s not big deal. I’ll just put some ice on it to take the swelling down and it’ll be just fine.”
Kerney on the Falcons defensive effort:
“It was great because so many people on our defense made huge plays. Cory Hall’s stips at the end, Rod Coleman’s strips. It was such a team effort. It was awesome. That’s the way we want to win.”
Kerney on if the final outcome was what he expected coming into the contest:
“They were known for stripping the ball. We had seen them do it to St. Louis on film. And we knew they were a physical, tough defense, so…you’re always hoping to win 50-0, but sometimes it doesn’t pan out that way. And when you get six points on the board, you’ve got to make them get less and that’s what our defense was able to do today.”
Kerney on the Falcons defense spending more time on the field this game than the two prior:
“That’s what we condition for. That’s what we get in shape for. That’s why we do the offseason training: to be able to last in the fourth quarter and make plays late in the game.”
Kerney on winning such a close game:
“It tells me we can win games in a lot of different ways: at home, on the road, low scoring…we’ve already shown a lot of different types of winning in the preseason and thus far. I love the group of guys we have here. Everybody’s on the same page and we’re just playing great team football right now.”
Kerney on being 3-0:
“So far, so good. And we’re going to have to get better for Carolina next week. They’re the defending NFC champions and if you be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. So that’s a heck of a team we’ve got to get ready to play next Sunday.”
Kerney on his own performance:
“It’s just a matter of coming hard every play and the fact of the matter is: all three of my sacks were coverage sacks. Those guys downfield…you look and when I’m hitting the quarterback, you look at those receivers and they’re locked down. And five of our sacks were straight coverage sacks. Those guys downfield were doing a great job and that’s great team football.”
Guard Kynan Forney on the win:
“Our defense did a great job for us. All I can say is that we won the game. It’s good to be 3-0, but we got out of this one by the skin of our teeth.”
Forney on the close win:
“I can’t remember ever seeing a game like this. We can’t have too many of them. I have to thank the defense because it stepped up and got the ball for us when we needed it. I feel like we still have a lot of work to do. The only thing we can do is see what we can learn from this and not let it happen again. We won’t win many games by only scoring six points. This shows that we can battle and come out with a win. When we have a chance to put someone away, we have to be able to close the door on them.”
Safety Bryan Scott on the Falcons creating turnovers and getting sacks:
“Definitely. The defensive line did a great job. They made our job easy. So many times, the quarterback was flushed to the left or the right and wasn’t able to get the ball off downfield and I really credit the defensive line for that.”
Scott on if he’s ever played in an uglier game:
“I’ve been playing this game a long time and I couldn’t tell you. I know it was sloppy, but bad things are going to happen; that’s the nature of this game. And as long as you can stay poised and stay focused, good things can start to happen.”
Cardinals Head Coach Dennis Green on the game:
"You can't really have words to describe your disappointment when you lose a game and fumble that many times in a game. If nothing else, it might have been a six, eight or seven field goal game. I've seen games like this. You have a hard time moving the ball, but get in position to kick field goals. They have a hard time moving the ball, but get in position to kick field goals. I think for the first time this season we were careless with the football. It's really disappointing, because we knew it was going to be a tough game. That team is full of hustle. They hustle a great deal on defense. Most of the plays they made weren't made right off the bat, but when something opened up. A guy who keeps going is able to make a play, strip the ball, knock a player down or make a sack. They're that kind of team."
Cardinals Head Coach Dennis Green on the job they did defensively:
"Defensively we played pretty well, but we had a few breakdowns. We're trying to be a fast defense. If you're able to keep Michael Vick corralled for a lot of the game, then you've got a chance."
Arizona quarterback Josh McCown on being taken out of the game:
“I understood the situation. I put the ball on the ground three times. The one towards the end of the first half, we got one back so it was kind of a wash. But when you put it down two times in the red zone when you have a chance to get points and win the game, you never know how coach will handle it and if that’s the way that he wants to handle it, that’s the way we have to go with it.”
McCown on when he was told of his benching:
“That we were making a change. Generally that’s how it goes. It’s understandable. You can’t put the ball on the ground. That’s the toughest thing. It’s on me. For the most part, we moved the ball well up and down the field. You have 52 guys who are playing hard and you go out and put the ball on the ground twice and you let people down. It hurts. It hurts bad.”
McCown on what happened on the last fumble:
“I should have gotten it out my hand. It’s that simple. I should have thrown the ball away.”
Arizona running back Emmitt Smith on his team’s offensive effort:
“Today we moved the ball. Obviously, we didn’t have a good day running the football, but we had a good day moving the ball in the air. That’s important; when you can’t do one, you have to do the next. And so we did do some things positive in the run game and kept us in good second and third down yardage situations, but the thing that killed us were turnovers. They red zone play killed us. We didn’t come away with any points.”
Smith on the ugly, turnover-laden game:
“It seems like I’ve been in one or two before in my life. We had quite a few turnovers. It was an ugly ball game. It was an ugly, ugly ball game. We made enough mistakes to lose and we didn’t play well enough to win.”
Falcons Head Coach Jim Mora on the game, overall:
"I think we need to compliment the Arizona Cardinals and the job they did, especially on defense. That was an inspired effort by a team that's a real credit to Dennis Green and his staff and the things they have going on there. I think it's important to recognize that before we ever talk about how we played. Obviously we have some things we need to get corrected on offense. The Cardinals did some things to take away some of the things we had success with, especially last week. So, my hat is off to Dennis and his staff."
Mora on his team's defense:
"I would like to compliment our defense. I'm not sure that I've seen such an outstanding defensive performance in all of my years. I know that sounds overstated, but to cause four turnovers like we did in the red zone really says something about the character of those guys and their will to hang in and make a play."
Mora on the play of the offense:
"I am not telling anyone anything they don't know by saying that we struggled on offense. Number seven struggled. Warrick Dunn struggled hanging onto the football. We just struggled on offense. That's a credit to Arizona, but it's also something we have to address and get cleaned up - and I promise you we will."
Mora on why he went for it on fourth down late in the fourth quarter:
"I think logic would say you kick the field goal there and go up 9-3 and make them score a touchdown. That's something they hadn't been able to do all day. I just felt the way we responded there at the end that it was just time to make a statement, not only to team, but to our fans and to the NFL. We are going to go for it. We've had a lot of success so far on fourth downs."
Quarterback Michael Vick on the Arizona defense:
“As far as schemes are concerned, I think they had a great scheme. They dropped guys back and didn’t allow us to do certain things on offense as far as running the ball, which is a big part of our offense. We just have to make adjustments and we made adjustments at halftime. We came out after halftime and I thought we did a pretty good job of moving the ball. I made a mistake with the fumble and we had some turnovers, but that’s football. That’s the way the game is played and it’s all about how you come back from it.”
Vick on if the offense seems more spread out than it did last year:
“Yes, we are spreading the ball out. I give credit to Greg Knapp our offensive coordinator. He’s done a great job of spreading the ball around, getting guys involved and taking a lot of pressure off me so I don’t have to do as much. And you need that as an offensive unit. And I think, if he continues to do that, we’ll win plenty more ballgames this year.”
Vick on what Arizona was doing to contain his running or if that was by design:
“They just dropped back in zone. They tried to keep me contained. They widened their ends out. They passed guys off downfield as receivers were running their routes and they just did some good things on defense and things we didn’t expect them to do. And I know Dennis Green said he had the plan to stop us, but we didn’t expect that. If it was to happen again, we would have a great, great plan to counter off and make some big plays off of the things they were trying to do to counteract the things we were trying to do. They just played a great game. They played a great game defensively. I think they came here to play. You’ve got to take your hat off to them.”
Vick on if it was frustrating not being able to move the ball in the second half until his big run:
“It was frustrating. But the thing I kept telling our offensive unit is we’ve got to make a play. We’ve got to make a big play. Regardless of who it is: if it’s an offensive tackle, if it’s a fullback, if it’s me…we’ve got to make a play. And I think all the guys took into that and I didn’t know it was going to be me, but I was ready to make that play if the opportunity came about. And it was a great call by Greg [Knapp] and it worked; it won us the game.”
Vick on what was going through his mind on his 58-yard run:
“I was just thinking about getting the first down and getting out of bounds and running the clock out. Then, as I came out, I started thinking about the type of game I was having and I said to myself: ‘I need to score a touchdown or do something to put some more points on the board to put the game out of reach,’ because they were playing a great game. And, you give an offense enough chances in this league to come back and eventually they’re going to score. We all are professionals. So it was all about getting down as far as we could just in case we wanted to take a shot at the end zone and putting the game out of reach.”
Vick on the play of the Atlanta defense:
“I was watching the defense and those guys played a great game. It was the best defensive game I’ve ever seen as a quarterback with the Atlanta Falcons. You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Ed Donatell and Jim Mora for putting that scheme together. If we continue to play like that and our offense will get better, and I know we will, then the sky’s the limit for the Atlanta Falcons.”
Defensive tackle Rod Coleman on answering Arizona’s defensive effort:
“Of course. They create a fumble, we’ve got to go out and create a turnover. Every time we got a turnover, we were trying to score.”
Coleman on if he’s ever made a more athletic play than his sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery:
“If I was a little more athletic, I could have scooped and scored with it. Every time I go after the quarterback, I try to hit the ball out and create a turnover.”
Coleman on if he thinks he’s proven himself valuable to the Falcons thus far:
“I hope so. I’ve been trying to go out there and make things happen. Every time I’m out on the field, I try to knock the quarterback out or create a turnover and just do my part and try to help us win.”
Linebacker Chris Draft on if he thinks the Atlanta D was able to successfully confused Josh McCown:
“I don’t know if he was real confused. They were just worried that we were going to come in and blast him, so they were trying to get rid of the ball quick and when they didn’t get rid of the ball quick, we kept on getting sacks. He’s the kind of guy who runs with the ball a little loose and the first couple of games [this season], he was able to get the ball back. But this game, we made sure that we understood that we were going to get chances, but just knocking the ball out isn’t enough. You’ve got to knock the ball out and recover it. The four turnovers that we got, they were big. To pick which one was the biggest one, it’s going to be real hard. Rod knocked two balls out, Brady knocked one out and Cory knocked one out. They were all big and ended up being the plays, plus everything else, that helped us win the game.”
Draft on the effort of the defensive line:
“Rod just was killing whoever he was going against. He was handling him. P.K. [Patrick Kerney] was handling who he was going against. Brady [Smith] ran right by somebody. And basically we understood that McCown, he was going to move out of the pocket. And when he moved out of the pocket, he was going to try and set and wasn’t just going to be running and throwing on the move. So even when he got out of the pocket, we realized we were still going to have a little bit of time.”
Falcons DT Ed Jasper on the offensive struggles:
"Yeah, we struggled on offense, but you know what? So what, we won the other two phases of the game, and we won the game. Hey, that's all we care about. We'll get the offense fixed, you can believe that. Coach Mora, he ain't joking. He'll get them fixed."
Defensive end Patrick Kerney on an injury to his right knee:
“It’s just a knee bruise. It’s not big deal. I’ll just put some ice on it to take the swelling down and it’ll be just fine.”
Kerney on the Falcons defensive effort:
“It was great because so many people on our defense made huge plays. Cory Hall’s stips at the end, Rod Coleman’s strips. It was such a team effort. It was awesome. That’s the way we want to win.”
Kerney on if the final outcome was what he expected coming into the contest:
“They were known for stripping the ball. We had seen them do it to St. Louis on film. And we knew they were a physical, tough defense, so…you’re always hoping to win 50-0, but sometimes it doesn’t pan out that way. And when you get six points on the board, you’ve got to make them get less and that’s what our defense was able to do today.”
Kerney on the Falcons defense spending more time on the field this game than the two prior:
“That’s what we condition for. That’s what we get in shape for. That’s why we do the offseason training: to be able to last in the fourth quarter and make plays late in the game.”
Kerney on winning such a close game:
“It tells me we can win games in a lot of different ways: at home, on the road, low scoring…we’ve already shown a lot of different types of winning in the preseason and thus far. I love the group of guys we have here. Everybody’s on the same page and we’re just playing great team football right now.”
Kerney on being 3-0:
“So far, so good. And we’re going to have to get better for Carolina next week. They’re the defending NFC champions and if you be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. So that’s a heck of a team we’ve got to get ready to play next Sunday.”
Kerney on his own performance:
“It’s just a matter of coming hard every play and the fact of the matter is: all three of my sacks were coverage sacks. Those guys downfield…you look and when I’m hitting the quarterback, you look at those receivers and they’re locked down. And five of our sacks were straight coverage sacks. Those guys downfield were doing a great job and that’s great team football.”
Guard Kynan Forney on the win:
“Our defense did a great job for us. All I can say is that we won the game. It’s good to be 3-0, but we got out of this one by the skin of our teeth.”
Forney on the close win:
“I can’t remember ever seeing a game like this. We can’t have too many of them. I have to thank the defense because it stepped up and got the ball for us when we needed it. I feel like we still have a lot of work to do. The only thing we can do is see what we can learn from this and not let it happen again. We won’t win many games by only scoring six points. This shows that we can battle and come out with a win. When we have a chance to put someone away, we have to be able to close the door on them.”
Safety Bryan Scott on the Falcons creating turnovers and getting sacks:
“Definitely. The defensive line did a great job. They made our job easy. So many times, the quarterback was flushed to the left or the right and wasn’t able to get the ball off downfield and I really credit the defensive line for that.”
Scott on if he’s ever played in an uglier game:
“I’ve been playing this game a long time and I couldn’t tell you. I know it was sloppy, but bad things are going to happen; that’s the nature of this game. And as long as you can stay poised and stay focused, good things can start to happen.”
Cardinals Head Coach Dennis Green on the game:
"You can't really have words to describe your disappointment when you lose a game and fumble that many times in a game. If nothing else, it might have been a six, eight or seven field goal game. I've seen games like this. You have a hard time moving the ball, but get in position to kick field goals. They have a hard time moving the ball, but get in position to kick field goals. I think for the first time this season we were careless with the football. It's really disappointing, because we knew it was going to be a tough game. That team is full of hustle. They hustle a great deal on defense. Most of the plays they made weren't made right off the bat, but when something opened up. A guy who keeps going is able to make a play, strip the ball, knock a player down or make a sack. They're that kind of team."
Cardinals Head Coach Dennis Green on the job they did defensively:
"Defensively we played pretty well, but we had a few breakdowns. We're trying to be a fast defense. If you're able to keep Michael Vick corralled for a lot of the game, then you've got a chance."
Arizona quarterback Josh McCown on being taken out of the game:
“I understood the situation. I put the ball on the ground three times. The one towards the end of the first half, we got one back so it was kind of a wash. But when you put it down two times in the red zone when you have a chance to get points and win the game, you never know how coach will handle it and if that’s the way that he wants to handle it, that’s the way we have to go with it.”
McCown on when he was told of his benching:
“That we were making a change. Generally that’s how it goes. It’s understandable. You can’t put the ball on the ground. That’s the toughest thing. It’s on me. For the most part, we moved the ball well up and down the field. You have 52 guys who are playing hard and you go out and put the ball on the ground twice and you let people down. It hurts. It hurts bad.”
McCown on what happened on the last fumble:
“I should have gotten it out my hand. It’s that simple. I should have thrown the ball away.”
Arizona running back Emmitt Smith on his team’s offensive effort:
“Today we moved the ball. Obviously, we didn’t have a good day running the football, but we had a good day moving the ball in the air. That’s important; when you can’t do one, you have to do the next. And so we did do some things positive in the run game and kept us in good second and third down yardage situations, but the thing that killed us were turnovers. They red zone play killed us. We didn’t come away with any points.”
Smith on the ugly, turnover-laden game:
“It seems like I’ve been in one or two before in my life. We had quite a few turnovers. It was an ugly ball game. It was an ugly, ugly ball game. We made enough mistakes to lose and we didn’t play well enough to win.”
