Head Coach Mike Smith
(Opening statement)
“I’d like to start off by saying that as a team I thought that we started out entirely too slow both on offense and defense. Our third down efficiency wasn’t what we needed to have both on offense and defense. We were one out of eight and they were six out of 10. When you don’t get off the field on third down, you’re usually going to pay for that. So I thought that was something that we have to improve on. We want to start fast, that’s the way we want to approach this game and we did not start like we needed to start. We’ll go home, we’ll take a good look at the tape, this will be a learning experience. As I told the players in there, this is a 16 game season, it’s a marathon. We’re going to get back to work tomorrow, watch that tape and move forward to get ready for Kansas City in the Georgia Dome.”
(On their young players)
“I think that Matt [Ryan] saw a whole bunch of different things today. My hats off to Coach Kiffin and his staff in devising their game plan. But I thought that it’s always going to be for all of our young players, not just Matt, but all of our young players, Sam [Baker], Chevis [Jackson], Thomas DeCoud, Harry Douglas, all of our guys it’s going to be a learning experience. This is just their second game as National Football League players so it’s going to be a learning experience every time they go out there on the field.
(On the Buccaneer defense)
“The thing that they did is loaded the box. They forced us to have looks that we had to make checks to get out of the run game when they load the box. As we’ve said often times, that defense can dictate the offense and we have to be able to counter punch. And that, I think is the most important thing is that we have to be able to counter punch and that’s where the coaching comes in.”
(On DT Grady Jackson)
“Grady at about 3 o’clock this morning, Grady’s knee blew up. When we woke up this morning it was a decision that we had to make at game time. We went out and took a look at it. It was unexpected of course, but that was the decision that we made on Grady.”
(On the play on first and goal when the score was 17-6)
“Well it depends on what the look is. It was a run, pass option and if the look was there we were going to throw the football and if the look was where we could run it, we were going to run it.”
(On their field position)
“We want to play penalty free football, especially on special teams. The special teams penalties are not just five yard penalties, they’re tack on penalties. It can change the field position immensely and we were not able to get out of that hole in the first half of the football game. We were playing on a long field offensively and it’s very difficult to operate in those situations.”
(On the game)
“I thought our guys did a nice job. I was a little ticked off because I thought the score should have been closer than it was. But that again, it’s a bias opinion. I thought we had opportunities to stop them on third down, when they score on third down and 17 and then they convert on a third down and 10 on the opening drive you think percentage wise that you would have an opportunity to get off the field.”
(On the confusion with the penalty calls in the fourth quarter)
“Well I don’t want to get too far involved in it because I don’t want the Commissioner coming to talk to me about the officiating. But obviously he didn’t have it right and I wanted to make sure and voice my opinion to them and just get a quick clarification on what was said. After we had a chance to talk, I think that the crew did a great job at unwinding what happened and got the right call.”
(On Sam Baker’s injury)
“He just got his bell rung and the doctors felt like it was in his best interest and our best interest to keep him out. We’ll evaluate that as the week goes on. I really haven’t had an opportunity to talk to some of the guys that got banged up. But it was a very physical football game, my hats off to Coach Gruden and his staff. They played better today.”
MORE FROM THE FALCONS-BUCS GAME:
- GAME CENTER: Stats and more in the NFL.com Game Center
- GAME RECAP: Falcons fall to Bucs, 24-9
- GAME NOTES: Official game notes from Raymond James Stadium
- TRANSCRIPTS: Head Coach Mike Smith | Falcons | Buccaneers
- VIDEO: Head Coach Mike Smith | Matt Ryan
- HIGHLIGHTS: Game highlights from NFL Network
- BLOG: News and thoughts from Managing Editor J. Michael Moore
- MESSAGE BOARDS: Talk about the game with other fans on FalconsLIFE
