There was a lot to discuss after the Falcons’ loss on Sunday night.
The Falcons had plenty to say following Atlanta’s Sunday night loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Let’s get right into it with our Week 3 notes and quotes.
Falcons notes:
- The Falcons recorded 311 yards of total offense, 229 passing and 82 rushing. The Falcons scored a touchdown on their opening drive for the first time this season on a 70-yard, seven-play drive that ended with a 14-yard touchdown pass to WR Drake London.
- The defense recorded a takeaway in a second straight game when Justin Simmons picked off Patrick Mahomes in the end zone on Kansas City’s opening offensive drive.
- With his 230 passing yards on Sunday, Kirk Cousins is now tied with Dan Marino as the fourth-fastest player to reach 40,000 passing yards, which Cousins did in 153 games.
- With his first-quarter touchdown, Cousins passed Joe Montana to hit 19th all-time for passing touchdowns. He’s two touchdowns behind Vinny Testaverde at 18th. Among active players, Cousins ranks fourth, behind Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford and Russell Wilson.
- Drake London caught touchdowns in back-to-back games in Weeks 2 and 3, marking the first time he’s caught touchdowns in back-to-back games since Weeks 10 and 11 in 2022.
- Dee Alford recorded a career high in tackles with nine solo and three assists.
- Justin Simmons is the league’s interception leader since entering the NFL in 2016, and his pick of Patrick Mahomes on Sunday was his seventh against the Chiefs, his sixth against Mahomes, and it marked four consecutive games against the Chiefs (three with the Broncos) where he’s picked off Mahomes.
- Troy Anderson led the team in tackles with twelve total.
- Bijan Robinson’s 1-yard touchdown was his first rushing touchdown of the season.
- Younghoe Koo’s 54-yard field goal tied his longest field goal of his career.
Falcons quotes:
Head coach Raheem Morris:
On the blown DPI call on the Falcons’ final drive:
“I like my money. I like my money that Arthur Blank gives me. I’m smart enough to be aware enough to not talk about officials. They made the call, or they didn’t make the call. It is what it is. We had a chance to win the football game on the last play of the game.”
On going for a TD on fourth down instead of taking the points:
“I was in four-down territory for a while there. We were going out there to win this football game. We didn’t come here to tie. We didn’t come here to lose. We didn’t come here to hope we win. We didn’t come here to allow Patrick Mahomes to work his magic. We came here to win the football game on our terms and I lost it, so I’ll take that medicine all day.”
On the run game on the very last third and fourth-down plays:
“Obviously you don’t feel good about them now. They didn’t work, right? But you run one up the middle with Tyler Allgeier. You don’t get it, you get knocked back. You get no yards on that play. You get fourth down with Bijan [Robinson], and you get no yards on that play. So, you don’t like the call, you don’t like the results, but that was our plan, and we were decisive. We called them, we were very aggressive and we lost the football game.”
On the defensive performance:
“It’s hard to say you’re pleased with the play of your defense. Like, you don’t choose sides up here. You don’t pat people in the back for losses. We’re not here to do that. We played well enough to give ourself a chance to win the football game but there’s always things you can do better.”
QB Kirk Cousins:
On losing two starting OL:
“I thought Storm [Norton] did a very good job at right tackle. I thought Ryan [Neuzil] did a phenomenal job at center. There are so many moving parts with the center as far as protection calls, pistol snaps, gun snaps, under center snaps, handling cadence. I thought Ryan did a phenomenal job stepping in and handling a lot. It’ll be good to have a week’s work of work with him coming up to build that rapport further but Storm and him both I think stepped up in a major way.”
On the “lull” mid-game:
“I thought we had a good rhythm at the start of the game, a good rhythm at the end of the game as we were alluding to, there did seem to be a little bit of a lull in the middle of the game and for any number of reasons, kind of each play is its own entity.”
On how he feels about the offense three games in:
“I think we have a lot of pieces we need to be successful. I think we have to get better. I think we’ve left a lot of opportunities out on the field so far, but I think most offenses would say that around this league right now and I look forward to the challenge starting right away this week of just trying to be a better offense as we move forward because I do think that we can be.”
S Jessie Bates III:
On the Chiefs:
“That’s an offense that, they always find a way to win. Find a way to move the ball. I thought that we did a really good job for the most part of keeping some explosive plays off of us. I feel like they threw out everything that they had and I thought we did a really good job of responding. I think the runs got a little leaky tonight. Just got to clear up some of our third-down stuff and then we’ll be good. When you can force an offense like that to kick field goals in critical games like that we give our offense a chance to get back in the game.”
RB Bijan Robinson:
On losing two starting OL:
“Obviously, we’ve got to pray for Kaleb [McGary] and Drew [Dalman] because those are two main guys on our offense, and those are the guys that get us rolling. So, with them going down, it was a little bit tougher. But shoutout to Storm [Norton] and Neuz [Ryan Neuzil] for stepping up. Kansas City brought pressure, it seemed like, every play. I had to stay in and help most of the time in the second half to make sure Kirk [Cousins] wasn’t going to get sacked. It was definitely tough. They played an eight-man box, so for running it was definitely a lot tougher to find those creases, but I had to try and convert two or three on the runs, but it was tough.”
On the last fourth-down play call:
“We had a call go downhill. It looked like it was going to be different, so we changed the play. When we changed the play, we had to account for a couple of guys. No. 32 [Nick Bolton] came free right up the middle, so it was tough. When I get the ball, I have to try to make a decision right now. He came out and tried to switch and go and that was m
DL Grady Jarrett:
On the atmosphere in the stadium:
“Oh, man, that atmosphere was awesome. I just wanted the fans to continue to bring it because we’re going to get some wins. We’ve got to be better at home. We’ve got to protect our home field. There’s no excuses.”
On how much he’s looking forward to the next two division games:
“Looking forward to it for sure. The South is coming, and we’ve been running things. We’ve just got to do what we’ve got to do to put a good performance together. Know it’s going to be a dog fight every game.”