TAMPA, Fla. -- Here’s what the Falcons had to say after the 31-26 win over the Bucs on Sunday:
Jessie Bates, safety
On tight end Kyle Pitts: “To watch him keep developing from years past,” Bates said. “He was hurt a couple of times last year (as he was coming back from knee surgery). This year, when you have a leader like Kirk Cousins that can push Kyle Pitts, continue to put the belief in him. I think the sky is the limit for Kyle.”
More on Pitts: “Kyle is a unicorn. He’s been one from Day One when he got drafted. I think he showed that today. Just continuing to do that consistently, every single game, I think Kyle will be fine. It will be great for our team as well.”
On being in first place: “Kirk is a hell of a leader. He did a really good job of stepping up in a team meeting. (He said, ‘Hey, we have four weeks before our bye week we can really take over this middle part of our seasons and really be intentional about it. Where other teams are kind of looking forward to the bye week, they are either about the fold or are close to folding. Just having that mindset and being able to talk about it as a team has been huge. Kirk, his presence alone is just huge for us. We are right behind him.”
On how big of win this was for the Falcons: “Huge win obviously. When we win a divisional games it’s huge. We talked about out-running the south. This was another step of that. Being able to come in here. They are the defending NFC South champions. Being able to come in here and sweep them and take full control of this division has been huge for us.”
On what he told Richie Grant on the last play: “Just making sure we are detailed on the last play. You see this Hail Mary play happen thousands of times. Just not taking for granted this is the last play of the game and it’s going to decide if we win or lose. Just make sure that we were all on the same page. Just communicating, that’s what we do in the secondary.”
On if he the Bucs guy caught it: “I can’t even tell you until I watch the play. I just tried to jump as high as I can. I think I jumped out of the back of the end zone. We were back there.”
Richie Grant, safety
On starting again: “It’s always feels good being out there between the white lines. At the end of the day, we had one mission. Get the Dub (win). Control the South. We got it done as a team. It was a great team effort today.”
On the defense in second half: “Really, just playing our ball and honing in on the details. We knew what we can do. We watch a lot of film. It’s all about those details. If you can control how you are playing defense, the rest will take care of itself.”
On the adjustments at halftime: “We knew they always come out hot. They always come out hot. It was about slowing that down. We didn’t get the job done in the first half. At the end of the day, we had a great team win.”
Kaden Elliss, Inside linebacker
On the win: “Big time. This is the team that has won the division three times in a row. We took care of them twice this year. That’s what we had to do”
On the second-half defense: “Great job to our coaches. They are showing us what they are hitting us with and they are giving us some good adjustments. Mad props to (defensive coordinator) Jimmy (Lake) and the entire defensive staff for just getting us ready and showing us what is hurting us in the first half so that we can prepare. Making the corrections that we need to correct. Then you know, big time, it’s on the players. At the end of the day, guys just going out there and making plays. Guys are recognizing plays quicker. Just doing what we need to do. Another thing, too. Mad respect to our offense because teams start to feel that pressure. Our offense puts pressure on people. Our offense is good. They are hard to stop. Whether if they run the ball, or passing the ball. They are something special. I think teams start to feel that pressure and we are able to feed off of it.”
On the forced fumbles, interceptions: “Jessie had a punch out. Nate (Landman) had a punch out. Jessie had an interception. A.J. (Terrell) had an interception. Those are big-time. I always joke with Jessie and Nate. Anytime they get a punch-out for our team it seems like we win. It’s awesome.”
Nate Landman, Inside linebacker
On the win: “It’s huge. You got 2-0 against the Bucs in the division. Come here, steal a win on the road, it’s huge. Be undefeated in our division. It’s a testament to our team and what we are doing. It’s a great stepping-stone on to the next week.”
On him going in and out of the lineup (has a shoulder injury): “We’re all good here. "
On the Hail Mary: “We knew they were going to take a shot at the end zone. We just had to press those guys and make sure they ....it take a long time for them to get to the end zone. Then we have to box them out when the ball is coming. We knew the ball was going to be in the air. That’s why we had those DBs back there playing the ball for the jump ball.”
Bijan Robinson, running back
On the win: “It’s big. Obviously, getting division wins are huge. For us to do it twice against the Buccaneers, that’s a big accomplishment for us. Like we always say, enjoy it right now and put it away for tomorrow. For us, we haven’t (swept) them out like that in a little bit. So, for us to do that is a huge accomplishment.”
On getting the win, what’s the takeaway for the offense: “For us, just being resilient. It’s obviously, understanding that things can go either way. For them being the Buccaneers, they always give us a great game. We had to pull through on offense and continue to execute on offense the right way, do things the right way. There were some drives where we didn’t do it the way we wanted to, but us to do it when the moment was needed was the most important thing. Just a lot of respect for them for keeping us in the game, keeping themselves in the game and for us to finish it the right way.”
On the offense getting the chunk-plays for touchdowns: “It’s huge man. The defense will start backing off and then we can run the ball. Gash them on the run game. Then, you don’t know what to do. Stay back to (play the) pass or get gashed up. Or, if you want to stop the run, we are just running through lanes and making you miss, we’re just having fun with it. Playing complimentary football like that with the run and the pass, that’s a big thing for us. Obviously, Kirk threw for 500 the last time we played them. We were going to see if they gave us the same looks and we can do the same thing. But they changed it up a little bit and we had to execute what they gave us.”
On Kirk Cousins’ 13-yard run: “I didn’t expect it. I was like, ‘Kirk, don’t run. Don’t run. Don’t run.’ Then he started running and he looked good. It looked the DB didn’t know what to do. It was like if wanted to tackle him or not. But hey, as long as keeps progressing and doing something good.”
Kyle Pitts, tight end
On his performance today: “The second [touchdown] was a close one, but as a team, we were resilient and just put our heads down and wanted to take this… 1-0.”
On his thoughts during the review of his second touchdown: “Lord, have mercy. The tight end gods – they saved us today. Never get comfortable.”
On whether he played with extra energy for National Tight Ends Day: “Yeah, that was lovely. That was lovely.”
On his progression in the offense this season: “I just try to contribute any way I can in this offense. When the ball comes my way, I try to make the most of it.”
On the takeaways of the offense’s performance in the second half: “Just sticking together and finding a way to get the win.”
On how long it felt like the review took on his second touchdown: “It felt like almost 20 minutes. I was like, ‘Oh lord, this is not looking good,’ but like I said, the tight ends gods saved it, and we got the touchdown.”
More on the TD-almost fumble play: “I won’t ever let that happen again.”
On being in first place in the NFC South at this point in the season: “This is the first time (since) I’ve been here with us having [a division lead this late into the season]. So, it’s pretty cool for us just to be a new team with a new vision. We’re just taking it week-by-week.”
On coach Raheem Morris’ “out run the south” slogan: “Like how we are trying to do each week, just keep winning, especially in division games.”
On what the slogan means to him: “You’ve got to handle our division games and for us to be 4-0 is pretty good. We just have to take it week-by-week and win the next one.”
On how he was getting open on his TD catches: “(Laughs). I don’t know. Just winning my matchup.”
On if he’s improving each and every week: “Definitely, just as an offense in general. That was just my way of trying to contribute to this offense.”
On being bigger, stronger, faster: “It means a lot. I am that. I am that and I just want to showcase it this week.”
On tight end coach Kevin Kooger want him to play fast: “Definitely, just each week and trying to play faster.”
On the first two TD game of his NFL career: “That was pretty different. I haven’t had one of those since college. So, that was pretty cool and it was National Tight Ends day.”
On the difference from last year: “Yeah, definitely, having the kind of sore knee that I had last year. I was just...it was just a long year. But now, this is a new team. A new year. Back to myself. It’s pretty cool to see what we are doing.”
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