Here’s what Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins had to say after the 18-10 season-opening loss to the Steelers on Sunday:
Opening Statement: Disappointing to lose, certainly. It always is. Need to play better. That’s the bottom line. I thought our defense played very well. I thought our special teams played very well, and we didn’t complement that enough on offense. You start with the turnovers, and then some untimely penalties where we had a drive going and then it got kind of setback. We did some positive things, had a strong first drive, but just didn’t sustain enough drives, and it felt like a lot of that or some of that was self-inflicted. So now we have to flush it and understand that it’s a loss. It’s disappointing, but you have to move forward and treat every game as its own entity. That’s where you go really after a win or a loss. That’s where your mind has to go. I can take any questions you have.
On the disconnect between the first half and second half production: “I haven’t really gone back and thought through it all quite yet, so I don’t have a great answer for you, but I would argue that, first and foremost, just those drives stalled. I think we had the fumble snap was one drive that I thought we were moving the football well. We had a great chance, had great field position. Then that ended that drive. Then we had the third down conversion to Kyle Pitts, but we had a penalty that then set us back. That kind of nullified that play. Had another completion to Bijan [Robinson] on a series where he got us a first down, thought we were moving, and then they called that one back with a penalty that then put us in long yardage. I felt like we had the chances to get going, and it just was a flag or the turnover, whatever it may have been, to kind of wipe out the opportunity. Then we ended up in a lot of third and longs. When we were third and manageable, it was a pretty productive situation for us, but the minute it was third and really long, it was much harder.”
On what he saw on the two interceptions and the impact of OLB TJ Watt: “I was really trying to avoid the sack on the first one and throw it away. I knew Drake was breaking in there. I did see color, but I was trying to basically put it out there, way out in front of him, but the safety was there and made a good play. In hindsight, I’ll have to go back and watch it to really give you a good answer, but either just throw it away lower or you take the sack, whatever it’s got to be to avoid the outcome there. Then the second one, just couldn’t get anything on the ball. That’s where, again, I’ll go back and watch it and be critical and say, hey, you know, maybe you eat it, or you progress or you dirt it, whatever you have to do to avoid the critical error of the interception.”
On what he needs to do to prepare to play better against Philadelphia: “Your preparation I think is pretty much similar, but you’ve got to -- we have to avoid critical errors. We always say that, but we have to do it. I think if we do that and keep ourselves in manageable down in distances, I think today showed it, you know, we can be a productive offense. But when we hurt ourselves, it’s tough to overcome.”
On whether he was surprised by the performance of the offense on Sunday: “I was disappointed. Certainly disappointed. You always go out there with an expectation that you are going to play at a high level. We didn’t play up to our standards today.”
On how he felt in the pocket and whether he was comfortable: “I have to go back and watch it to give you a better answer. I think at times I was working through progressions and was -- like the touchdown was basically just working all the way across the field, getting to really number four, number five in the progression. A couple of other times kind of working across, getting to Bijan late in the progression. So, at times clicked through it, and then other times just was trying to play fast and didn’t get the outcome we wanted.”
On what his approach will be this week and whether it is any different given the teams offseason investments: “I think you always come in new week. Win or loss, you come in, Hey, new week. We have to have some great energy. We have to be ready to go. We have to work hard. First of all, Monday you have to go back and watch it and be critical and say, How can we be better and what can we do? I haven’t done that yet to be able to give you better answers. That’s really where it starts. Then, yeah, when you have things that happened that you didn’t like, you have to say, ‘Okay, how do we prevent those from happening again,’ and be strategic with those answers and that’s the process of every week.”
On whether he feels like playing in the preseason would have helped the team today: “I think it’s hard to say. I think the key is that we’re healthy for Week 1, and that was really the focus. There’s never excuses. You have to be ready to go when your number is called regardless. That was certainly no different today.”
On his postgame ritual and whether he watches the game right after: “I’ll watch it pretty quick here to try to start to unpack what took place. Probably send a couple of voice memos to coaches just to kind of give some thoughts that I have, off the cuff, after I watch it. Maybe they converse back, and we just kind of start to begin that analysis. But it’s a process that will go through tomorrow. I never really sleep great after games regardless, win or loss. You just have to move forward now, and that’s the mental, physical, emotional toughness of playing in the NFL you’ve got to have. You have to move forward and play your best football next week regardless of what happened today.”
On RG Chris Lindstrom saying the offensive line needs to play better and what he thinks that group can do better: “It’s a great group. They just battled all day, and they were great in the huddle, getting to the line of scrimmage. Chris has such great awareness, Drew [Dalman] does too, of the play clock and situations and just really smart. Until I watch the film, I really can’t answer that question. I think that they’re battling their butts off. I’m grateful to be able to play with them. It’s a great group that I think we’ll be able to do a lot of good things up ahead. Again, if we don’t stub our toe or kind of hurt ourselves on some of these drives, I think we saw what we can be, but it’s got to be every play.”
On the snap that hit TE Ross Dwelley that led to a fumble: “The timing was off. It’s my fault, sending the motion and asking for the ball, and the timing was off. So, it’s something that you have to bat 1.000, and you can’t have a mistake, and we paid for it today.”
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