Here’s what Falcons coach Raheem Morris had to say after the 17-13 loss to the Chargers on Sunday:
Opening statement: “I appreciate everything the guys did today. You just can’t go out and turn the football over four times and expect to win the football game. We have a lot of things to go back and correct. We have to find ways to win games like that. We have to find ways to win those regardless of what happens. I appreciate the growth mindset of a lot of the guys. We just can’t win football games that way.”
On the four interceptions and what led to them: “You have to look at tape obviously, but we’ve got to make better decisions. We can’t turn the ball over. We have to throw the ball out of the back of the end zone. At the end the game, we were trying to win that thing, tried to fit it into a tight window. It is what it is. We can’t have those things happen regardless of what I was or what the reasons are. We won’t make any excuses for them. That happened today. That guy has carried us all season. He’s don’t such a marvelous job, it’s hard to throw that guy on the under the bus. Right, (after) what he’s done for us. What he’s done for the organization. We’ll bounce back. We’ll bring him back and we’ll get ready to go.”
On the improve pass rush: “I won’t go into the pass rush today. We’ll go look at it and see what went well. We did better. I watched the guys. Give the guys credit. They got the sacks rushing the passer. They were able to create some things for us on defense. I will watch the tape, find out what we did really well and hopefully, it’s repeatable.”
On if he was going to stick with Kirk Cousins: “Yes, we have no questions with that. That’s not going to be the issue around here. That guy has carried us. That guy has got us to the point where we are 6-6 and in first place in the division. We’ve got everything in front of us despite what happened today. It’s up to us to bounce back and find a way to win football games. There isn’t a better man that 18 to go do that for us.”
On Kyle Pitts production: “He’s done a really good job all season based on what his total production is for what’s going on in the big picture... we’ve got so many people that we’ve got to get the ball to. I would like to see Kyle get more production. I would like to see him have more opportunities. Whether if that is us getting it to him or him doing a better job, we’ll figure those things out as we go.”
On if he thought about making a QB switch late in the game: “No.”
On how the Chargers defense attacked: “They did a nice job. They are one of the top run defenses in the National Football League. They’ve got really good football players. They’ve got really good pass rusher. They are coached really well. Derwin James is one of the best players... I don’t even know what they call him, star, safety, dime. Whatever you want to call him in the National Football League. He showed up today and made a bunch of big-time plays. Those guys are a very good football team, well-coached.”
On what he would say to fans, de ja vu, second year in a row…..: “I wasn’t here last year…I’m not dealing with that. We are going to come out here and fight. Find ways to get better. Come out here next week, try to get us a win. Find ways to get us a win verses Minnesota.” On whether he feels he needs to address the team’s confidence or just buckle down on what the team is already doing: “I don’t necessarily worry about our team’s confidence. I think our team comes out every single week with the ability to go out there and have reasons and ways to win the football game. When you have ability and a way to win a football game and you know what it takes to go out there and do it and you don’t do it, it’s really clear what your purpose was that day. We didn’t get that done. We’ve got to go get our purpose done. We got it done in a couple phases. This wasn’t a debacle. This wasn’t one of those things that we had before the bye. This is one of those situations where we’ve got to get that one phase of our game
fixed, and I know we can do it.”
On whether he was pleased with what he saw today as far as improvement in the red zone: “No question. The beautiful thing about it was I loved the fact that we didn’t get the penalties that set us back. It was turnovers today that really set us back in that situation, and that was some of the things you’ve got to be able to go in and punch those things in. You can’t kick field goals in this league and win football games. You’ve got to score touchdowns. You’ve got to be able to go out there and force your will on your opponent. They moved the ball very nicely up and down the field. Once we get in those situations, we’ve got to score points. We’ll have an emphasis on our red zone offense for sure, but go out there and detail our passing game up even more to make things come to life for us, whether it’s Kyle Pitts, whether it’s Drake London, whether it’s [Darnell] Mooney, whether it’s Ray-Ray [McCloud III], whether it’s Bijan [Robinson], whether it’s Tyler [Allgeier] and any other weapons that we have currently in Atlanta that we can go out there and utilize in order to score touchdowns.”
On his thoughts on the offensive drives stalling recently: “Definitely got to execute. Looking at the last three weeks, you’ve got to go out there and execute better. The previous reasons were penalties stopping us from getting to the 1-yard lines and things of that nature. Today, it was lack of execution of some of our core concepts that we wanted to get done or some of our new concepts that we put in versus these guys. And again, I don’t want to take credit from what the Chargers were able to do on the defensive side of the ball and the things that they were able to accomplish. They played better than us today on defense and their offense, especially in the red zone. A lot of hats off to those guys.”
On whether he was considering a switch at quarterback late in the fourth quarter: “Kirk [Cousins] was brought here to put us in a playoff position, to put us in a position to go out there and find a way to get in the playoffs, get a home playoff game, win this division in the South. Everything is still right in front of us. We’ve got so much confidence in our young man that we drafted, and we’re still sticking with our plan. Kirk is here to develop and then grow and to make us go and find a way to get wins, and that’s his job. He will continue to do that for us, and I got no doubt in my mind that he’s going to bounce back and ready to go, particularly versus his former team.”
On K Younghoe Koo’s body language after the missed field goal and his ability to bounce back: “I did not see his body language. I saw the miss. I saw the results. I don’t get caught up in the emotional roller coaster of those things. I know he came back and kicked one that he’s got to make. We’ve got to make all those things, particularly in the range that he’s able to make those things. He knows that. We know that. That’s something we’ve got to make sure we address and do the right thing.”
On what he needs to see from QB Kirk Cousins in a response to his play today: “Don’t turn the ball over. It’s really simple. He did everything right, except turn the ball over today. You look at your stats, you can look at yards, you can look at receptions. You can do all those things today. If you turn the ball over today, you’re going to be in trouble. Execution in the red zone. All those things.”
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