Here’s what the Falcons had to say after the 25-24 win over the Packers:
Bijan Robinson, Running back
On getting the team ball today: “First of all, I want to give honor to God. We played for Him and He got us all healthy and got us this win. To your question, I think it was huge. This was nothing but a team win. No individual took part in this, this was everybody that took part in what we just did today. I think it was a big win for us, knowing that we worked hard, and we were down in the game and understood that we had to fight back and try and get two scores. That’s what we did, and the defense closed it out and us on offense we tried to close it out as well. I think it was just a full team win for all of us and [Younghoe] Koo making those field goals, that was huge for this whole team.”
On the momentum shift in this game: “I think the fourth quarter. The way we started running the ball, we started bringing the defense backs up and getting some shots downfield to the receivers, and they just started getting confused on what personnel was going to be out there, what we were going to do, whether we were going to pass or run it, and then we just kept them on their toes. We just kept going downhill and tried to get as many yards as we could. In the fourth quarter, you felt them start to back off and not come as hard as they did in the first half.”
On expecting this strong of a start to the season: “For me, I think it’s just about working hard during the week. I try not to look ahead during the week. I try to look at everything one game at a time and understand that opportunities come for you in every single game that you play and you just have to prepare the right way and understand that this is what you do for your team, for yourself, for God, for me. For me, it’s just taking it one day at a time, one game a time, and hopefully we all do our jobs at a high level and then we have great games like we do today.”
On what he was thinking in the fourth-and-inches call: “Just get the first down. Don’t worry about anything else, but just get the first down so we can end the game. At first it was going by fast, so I was like, ‘We got to go, we got to get up there.’ Desmond [Ridder] said, ‘Hike,’ and gave me the ball and I just let the God given ability take over from there. I think it was a huge momentum change and it helped us a lot, obviously won the game. You just have to get the first down when you get called like that.”
Jessie Bates III, Safety
On the message that Head Coach Arthur Smith told them before the game: “We knew it was going to be a dogfight. Every week, coming off the win, a big win for us, having to reset at practice. You know, it was our first time as a team having some success and then coming back. Throughout the game, stuff wasn’t going our way. The team going down 12 in the fourth quarter - a lot of times in this league, you see a lot of teams lay down and just call it quits. But it says a lot about what we got in this locker room, about the coaches that we have, and like I said, this was our first time facing some adversity as a team, and I thought we responded good.”
On the change of culture inside the locker room: “I’ve been saying it since I first signed here, I wanted to be a part of something special, and we got special guys in here at every level. I always say it, ‘At every level, you’ve got leaders and people that have experience that want to be winners.’ This city deserves to be winners so we’re just excited to be a part of something special. The goal was to go 1-0 this week and we did that, so we get 24 hours to celebrate and we’ll be back on next week versus Detroit, where we’ll be on the road for the first time.
On his thoughts when the offense went for it on fourth and inches: “I wasn’t really surprised, honestly. Arthur is very aggressive when we get in those type of situations, but that’s what we do. In the second half, that’s when this team really steps up and relies on our training that we’ve been putting in for eight weeks now, or whatever it is. It starts with training camp. Like I said, it’s a great win and a great team win for us, and we’re going to celebrate tonight and move on.”
Kaden Elliss, Linebacker
On what helped the defense slow Green Bay down in the second half: “You know, props to them. They had some good calls, they had some players that can make some plays and you know, it’s the NFL. It’s never going to be perfect, you may get that shut out every now and then, but that’s very rare few and far between. We were able to manage and hold up against what they did and not allow too many points, and when it became time, we made some corrections. Congrats to our staff. They did some awesome stuff on the sideline to get us to go out and make a couple of adjustments, and we were able to stop them.”
On what it tells him about this team: “We’re fighters. You put in all the work [in the] offseason and everything going up in training camp, all of that. To go out and be able to finish a game and be able to execute like that at the end of the game shows you that there is some fight in this team. There’s still more to learn about this team, there’s still more growth to happen and that is going to continue to be vital all the way through our season continuing to grow week to week. But at the end of the day, right now, where we’re at, we’re fighters and we are going to continue to go out and give you everything we got.”
On what he’s telling the guys during big play moments at the end of the game to get the stop: “First thing, getting that call, because when that crowd gets loud, it’s hard to hear it all and it’s hard for them to hear me, so getting that call. And then, it’s just one of those things where sometimes it doesn’t have to be said, sometimes it’s [that] we know what we have to do right now, and then there’s other times where you got to make a reminder eye or what plays they like at a certain time. But at the end of the day, go out and make the play.”
Jake Matthews, Tackle
On his thoughts on how QB Desmond Ridder played: “I saw a leader who made some plays when opportunities came, and I thought he played great today. The way he led the huddle and called the plays, you could tell we were confident and on the same page. I have high praises for him.”
On his reaction to going for it on fourth-and-one: “I was excited. It would’ve been nicer if we ran the clock all the way down, but the defense went out there and did an amazing job. That’s what’s so great about this game and this team, we find ways to feed of each other. When one thing isn’t going well, someone else picks it up, and that’s what this game is all about.”
On the difference between this season and last: “Like you said, last year we were in a lot of games [that] we just couldn’t pull it out in the end. Learning from mistakes and just how much team effort goes into this to do that this year and take the next step, makes the team better.”
Jonnu Smith, Tight end
On his role week one compared to now: “It’s the flow of the game, you just got to stay in it man and we got so many guys on the side of the ball that can take over the game and just being able to elevate any time.”
On the troubles within the red zone: “We have to clean up, week two and that’s why I’m so glad to be a part of this group we’re never going to feel like we arrived, we’re going to keep fighting.”
On what helped the offense succeed down the stretch: “Any time you have good plays guys feed off that, and some other guys were able to feed off plays I made, that’s what the offense is about man, feeding off the momentum, executing when your numbers’ called and the dirty work that you make may not be on the stat sheet but it opened up another guy.”
The Bow Tie Chronicles
About the Author
