Most of the Falcons' defenders scattered after giving up 592 yards, however defensive end Vic Beasley and free safety Ricardo Allen addressed the situation after the loss to the Texans.
The defense, which is being coordinated by head coach Dan Quinn this season, looked dazed and confused at times against the Texans as they were repeatedly gashed for big plays.
Quinn was left to think he may need to try to do less on defense.
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“It there are errors, what do you take out?” Quinn said. “If there is a communication error or an error in how we’re playing things, we’re not going to have those. We worked hard on our fundamentals to get that part right.”
Beasley believes the defense just needs to play better. It was the most points allowed by the Falcons since they gave up 56 to the Chiefs back in 2004.
“Our mind is right, we just have to execute,” said Beasley.
He knows the Falcons are in a tight spot after the loss.
“That’s going to play in our mind, having a 1-4 record,” Beasley said. “But at this point what can you do? You have to move on and try to do better the next time. I know it feels like it’s an ongoing process and I continue to say the same words, it’s the truth. You really have to try to continue to do better.”
Beasley, who nearly had a couple sacks on Watson, knew the unit didn’t have any sacks.
“When the opps come, we want to rush better,” Beasley said. “We want to get our numbers up. We want production. Stopping the run. Hoping teams can beat us with the pass. That’s what we want. We want to put them in passing situations so we can rush the passer, but we have to stop the run first.”
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He wasn’t proud of the nearly 600 yards the Texans amassed. They also had 31 first downs and were 10 of 13 on third downs for a 77% conversion rate.
“We have to go to drawing board,” Beasley said. “See what you did wrong. See what I did wrong. Hold yourself accountable. Try to do better next time. When you hold yourself accountable and try to do better next time, that’s all you can do.”
There hasn’t been any in-fighting.
“There is no reason to point figures,” Beasley said. “There is something that each and every individual can do better. There is something I can I do better. I can rush better. It’s something that each and every individual can do better. Once you point the finger at yourself, ask yourself what I can do better, that’s how you grow as a team.”
The Falcons gave up 426 yards passing to the Texans, who also had 166 yards rushing.
“Not good,” Allen said of the performance. “If it (doesn’t) got a ‘W’ behind it, it (isn’t) good… We started off faster. It just wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all.”
Allen had no reason for the multiple breakdowns throughout the game against the Texans.
“Accountability,” Allen said. “Everybody do their job. If we all do our job, you would hope that you’ll end up with W’s at the end of the day. So, we’ve just all got to be accountable for what we do, be accountable for our play, and play hard, man.”
The Falcons held the lead, 17-16, at halftime.
“It was still a game,” Allen said. “I think we were only up by what one? It was still a game. We knew that they were going to fight until the end. We weren’t thinking it was going to come out like that.”
The Texans bombarded the Falcons with big plays in the third quarter to take control of the game.
Watson found wide receiver Keke Coutee up the seam for a 51-yard gain. Later, Watson broke free for a 30-yard scramble.
“The explosives usually take place when you’re going through a game and those are the ones that just can’t be a part of it,” Quinn said. “One happened to be a zone, jumped offsides. Wasn’t anything matched up in any man-to-man concept. But that was, I thought, one of the catalysts that gave them some energy in the third quarter and certainly the scramble did as well.”
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