LONDON — Here’s what Falcons coach Arthur Smith said after the 27-20 win over the Jets:
Opening statement: (Thanks the league and the people of London.)
On the game Kyle Pitts had: “Kyle stepped up. Him and Patterson both. Like I said, we’ll continue to evolve offensively and he was good. He won his one-on-one matchups. He made some bigtime plays for us. Like I said, it’s a long game. Everybody wants the hot take after Week One. You have to see continual improvement. That’s why Kyle is here. We like the player that he is becoming and he’ll continue to improve.”
On the 39-yard play to Pitts: “He made the right decision. We are not going to sit here and play in our fears. So, we learned. I was (ticked) at myself from last week and the worst thing … I’ll make plenty of mistakes, but try not to make the same mistake twice. So, we are not going to live in our fears. We are going to be aggressive when we need to be … It was good blocking up front today. We didn’t gave up any sacks today against a really good front. ... We didn’t want to sit back and play two-yards and a cloud of dust. We’ll continue to improve. We have plenty of things to improve on. Kicking game and turnovers, but I’m really pleased with out team and our team’s effort.”
On the defense: “I thought our defensive played pretty well. We knocked them back in the run game. Made the plays when they needed to. Those late stats, check-downs and stuff, that’s what you have to do. That’s four-minute defense. You can pad the stats there. Our defense played, I thought, pretty well all day.”
On Cordarrelle Patterson: “He continues to help us move the ball in a number of ways. I thought today he stepped up big and made a number of plays running the ball, receiving. Good player who will hopefully help us to continue to improve on offense.”
On the play of the backups with Ridley out: “You’re going to deal with injuries. Things are going to come up during the NFL season. That ball is going to get kicked off on Sunday whether if we are playing in London, Barcelona, Atlanta. It doesn’t matter or New Orleans, we’ll be there and we’ll be ready to go. We expect the next guys to step up. Same thing happened, unfortunately, with Isaiah Oliver and we had a mid-week injury to Avery Williams … Darren Hall and Richie Grant did a heck of a job today. Played different roles. We just have to find a way. …We want our ethos to be, stand up in tough times and continue to evolve and improve.”
On Ryan’s latest milestone: “I love working with Matt Ryan. You don’t get many opportunities to work with players like that. You throw for 5,000 completions in this league. I believe he’s 1 of 7 to do that, that’s pretty damn special. He’s the leader of this football team. I can’t say enough good things about Matt.”
On the rookies, especially Ogudeji: “All of those guys. They continue to improve. We’ve got some really good veteran leadership. Guys who got here and are new to this team, it’s a great mix. It’s a great mix of guys. You’ve got some really good leaders on the back end in Erik Harris and Duron (Harmon) and Grady (Jarrett). They continue to help those young guys. That’s what you want to see. You want your leaders to be teachers too, and our guys do that. Lee Smith, Jake Matthews … that helps. That’s where the young guys get confidence. I’m really pleased Ade and obviously Jalen Mayfield. He continues to improve. When you play every snap when you’re an offensive linemen, that’s an under-rated position. Maybe I’m a little bias toward. ... I’m happy with him. Kyle (Pitts), Richie (Grant), all those guys. Darren Hall, Avery (Williams) and Dorian Etheridge. He’s a guy that plays on special teams and Feleipe (Franks). I’m really happy with our young guys.”
More on Richie Grant: “We made a plan for Richie as he was evolving. His number got called this week. We have a lot of confidence in him. He’s a good football player. It was naturally going to happen, but it got expedited because of the injuries and he stepped up. He’s another fearless guy that we liked. He’s another guys to build around.”
On Fabian Moreau’s neck injury: “He just got evaluated. Until we get back to Atlanta and our doctors evaluate him, I won’t comment on the injuries. I thought Fabian played a heck of a game. He’s another guy that’s here, that’s a veteran. Quiet. Professional.”
The Bow Tie Chronicles
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