EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Here’s what Falcons coach Arthur Smith had to say after the 24-16 loss to the Jets on Monday night at MetLife Stadium:
OPENING STATEMENT: “Sorry y’all had to sit through that second half. OK, fire away.”
On the penalties (13 for 121): “That’s right. Obviously, I have to look at the tape. Especially on some of the in-between penalties. The ones that really drive me nuts are any of the procedure stuff. Then we have to look at the tape and make sure that we play with good fundamentals and technique. Just see, you know, I got to look in and see what happened to Ade (Ogundeji) on that one on that third down. So, stuff to coach off of. See what we can do better.”
On penalties slowing down Desmond Ridder’s drives in the second quarter: “They are critical. A lot of lessons learned, and I got high expectations for Desmond. So, we’re gonna be hard on Desmond because he’s a good player, and he can take that kind of coaching. He understands we’re not waiting on him as a rookie. Like, we’re trying to speed him up. So, he made some good throws. There’s some things he’s got to clean up, especially in the operation.”
On the 52-yard gain by Marcus Mariota and Kyle Pitts: “I’m pleased with Marcus. It looked like he got in a good rhythm. We tried to simulate … the only drive that I thought wasn’t very good was the one we tried to simulate a two-minute situation. Kind of backed up and it wasn’t real clean there. But other than that, I thought it was really clean when he was in there. He got us into the offense. Got us into a rhythm.”
On the first-team offense: “I think those guys will continue to work. We got a big day Wednesday. It’s about our progress. We’re not gonna live and die with ... day-to-day narratives. I’ve said that many times, and it’s about our progress, and I think they’re coming along. And we know we got a lot of work to do before we kick off (the) first (week against) New Orleans.”
On the penalty on the 1-yard line: “I’ll keep that behind closed doors, but there’s an expectation. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot down there. It’s (a) pretty good way to put it.”
On the play of Tyler Allgeier: “It’s really easy. We let those guys compete. (Qadree Ollison) got some early carries. Tyler got some early carries. We got a good competition going there. That was really what I thought.”
On what he liked most about the performance: “I thought early on, I mean, the guys were ready to go. That was encouraging. I thought we had a productive week up here. What’s frustrating with some of the stuff that happened in the second half. That’s why I apologize to you guys who had to watch some of that. But we’ll get better. You find out a lot about young guys. I mean, some of the guys, you know, you live with the first-time mistakes. It’s when you, if you got people that repeat the same ones over and over. That’s tough. It can be frustrating. So, we’ll get it cleaned up. … Our guys’ effort was there. But there’s things, certainly there’s (things) young guys will learn from.”
On the joint practices and the game: “We came up here, like I said, they have a different scheme. We got to go against a different kind of front. They’re jetting up the field, and I thought our guys for the most part held up pretty well and pass protection.”
On the goal being improving for the rest of the week: “Absolutely. Excited to have Jacksonville in there. You know, I think the world of Doug Pederson and his staff. We will get good work, and I’m excited to get back to Atlanta.”
The Bow Tie Chronicles
About the Author
