Panthers Head Coach John Fox
On injuries:
Jordan Gross with a concussion; Maake Kemoeatu went out with an elbow; Jeff Otah with an ankle; minor injury with Jake Delhomme, bruised quad that he managed through the game
On being 3-1 for first quarter of season:
That’s our goal. This was an important one. It’s a division game, a conference game, similar records. We expected a fight and we knew it would be. It’s always important when you get a win, especially the first one.
On the passing game:
Sometimes it works better than other times. That kind of opened up our running game once we got a couple play action passes in there early in the game. Muhsin and Steve both did an outstanding job with some pretty tight coverage. Jake did a nice job placing the ball on those plays.
On the Falcons:
I thought they’ve improved. I know Mike Smith personally. He’s a good coach. I think their personnel people are sharp people. They have good players. I think getting a quarterback was key. He’s a fine young player. He has a lot of abilities. They have a good tandem of backs.
On the game:
We are all a bit alike more than people realize so all of these are dog fights. There are a few plays here and there that we made this week that we didn’t make last week. We still had more penalties than I’d like to look at, but we managed to overcome them. For that reason I think we got a little bit better.
On Jake Delhomme's play:
I thought Jake did well. He put some balls in some spots. Guys made some good catches. We didn’t turn it over. We didn’t throw interceptions. Overall I think we did pretty well.
On what the game meant to Delhomme:
Anytime something is taken away from someone that they love, they appreciate it a little bit more the next go around. I don’t think that’s any different for Jake. He’s always had a strong passion for the game before his injury. I thought he played well. Last year, I thought he was off to a great start. Anytime you stay out of the game for a year, I don’t care who you are or what sport you’re in, I think it takes a minute to get back used to it. I think he’ll continue to improve as we move forward.
On Muhsin Muhammad:
Moose was a productive player while he was here. Obviously he wasn’t productive for us while he wasn’t here. I think he’s kind of stepped back up where he left off. He’s been the same guy which is a good thing.
On Julius Peppers:
Julius has gotten pressure every week. I think lots of times people put too much stock in sacks. You can play really well. It’s just like a cornerback getting interceptions. If a corner is really good, they won’t even throw it at him. I don’t think it’s a good evaluation of a defensive end. Julius has played very well in all four games.
On the defense:
Our defense has been pretty steady all four games. Again, I don’t look at statistics much but I think we’ve gotten better every game. I think they’ve kept us in games. That’s what defense is all about, taking the ball away from the offense and giving our offense a chance to score points. We’ve even scored a little bit and set up scores, so I think it’s good team defense and I thought it was a good team defense today.
On Travelle Wharton
Travelle is a good football player. That is why he starts for us. We took a guy in the first round at tackle and we were able to move Travelle inside. He’s a guy we thought highly of in the free agency process. That’s why we kept him. Flexibility is important as we found out through experience. You need guys who can swing and play different positions and I thought that was beneficial today.
On Jordan Gross’ injury:
It was really scary. Typically players and coaches think the worst. We were all scared for Jordan. We are happy that everything turned out the way it did.
Quarterback Jake Delhomme
On his injury:
I got kneed in the quad on the first third down of the game, the one I completed to Steve on their sideline. As the game went on, it got tight. We wrapped it at half. Maybe we wrapped it a little too tight. It just got tight on me. I couldn’t bend it a whole lot.
On the run game:
It was nice. It gave us opportunities to throw the football and our guys made plays. That was the biggest thing. We missed some stuff out there. I missed some throws in the second half. I didn’t push off like I needed to push off. We made some plays. We had some good protection and that was key. Losing Jordan (Gross) early on, he’s the rock of that o-line. I don’t think there’s any doubt. Travelle slid right in. Geoff Hangartner slid right in. Jeremy Bridges comes in when Otah goes out. It was a big win.
On Mushin Muhammad:
I don’t know how many passes he and Steve caught. I’m sure it was a close balance between those two. They work well together. It’s nice having those two. Moose has certainly excelled physically and made some great plays today.
On being 3-1:
You break down your season in quarters. You’d love to go 3-1 in each quarter and be 12-4. You know you’ll get your foot in the door. It’s nice. We’re 2-0 at home. This is the first division game. It’s nice to be 3-1. That is a great start. We weren’t feeling too good last week after that performance in Minnesota. We came back to work. Now we’ve got Kansas City coming in. Larry Johnson ran for 198 yards and they beat the Broncos by 14.
On the team:
I think each year takes on a different theme. This is a new year. We have a lot of new faces. I think it’s a different type of attitude than we’ve had the last two years and it’s refreshing. Defense played great giving up nine points. They were put in tough situations on a couple of them. That was nice and we were able to give them a little breathing room in the second half.
On 2003 vs. 2008:
The only year we ever had Steve and Moose play together was 2003. Stephen Davis was here and we had a veteran veteran offensive line who really did some good things. Ricky Proehl was the third receiver. Jermaine Wiggins and Kris Mangum were veteran guys. We are still very young. DJ Hackett made some big plays for us. It is nice having those two running backs. We are trying to be consistent. Run the ball, establish the line of scrimmage and make plays in the passing game. Play action fakes work and they worked today.
On Jordan Gross:
You know I’ve never once seen him miss a practice. I’ve never once seen him miss a rep. I watched the play and I looked and he wasn’t moving. It’s a sickening feeling. You realize right then and there that this is much bigger than the game. We could hear him. He was coming to. You prayed that everything is fine. I’m looking at extremities and saying, ‘Move, move, move.’ I just wanted to see that. I didn’t get to speak with him. I saw him at half for a second and he seemed fine. We’ll see. You hate to see it. It’s a sickening feeling when you see something like that.
On Steve Smith giving the ball to Ken Lucas after the touchdown:
I knew he threw it into the stands and he was trying to get it back. He said he needed to do something with it. He had something in mind. I didn’t know that’s what he did. That’s pretty nice.
On if the injury limited him:
Second half, we would have liked to do a few different things trying to get on the edge a little. It limited it somewhat but I’m not making any excuses. I had some throws that I should have made and I didn’t make.
On chemestry with receivers:
I think it’s trust. I trust them. They trust me. It’s body language and watching them run certain routes. We rep a lot of things together. We talk about a lot of things. I’m not saying there will never be miscommunication. It’s going to happen. Steve and I miscommunicated today on one play and that bothers us. You want to make sure everybody is on the same page. It’s just nice having those two guys. You get comfortable with guys.
Fullback Brad Hoover
On Steve Smith:
Steve gives us that big vertical threat down the field. You talk about big, long touch down passes down the field ready to go to the house. Muhammad he does it all for us. He blocks, he catches, he does all the little things that I think complements Steve and makes our offense a whole lot better, with them as the one-two team.
On the running game:
Today it wasn’t pretty at times, but when we did need it we were able to make it work. That’s the thing. There are some days where they are going to get the best of you but as long as you can make it efficient. It may not be the best that we wanted or something we wanted to be able to do better to get more yards, but when it counted we were able to get the yards.
On concern over having two offensive linemen get hurt:
I don’t know how they are doing. I went in there to try and check on them but that is a concern. Both of them are vital parts of this offense and we really need them. We are hoping that both of them will be healthy and we’ll get them back this week.
On Being 3-1 so far this season:
We’ll take it and run to the bank with it. We would rather be 4-0. We had a shot last week but we didn’t play as well. You have to take these games one week at a time. We came out and played well enough to win. There is still a lot of improvement we just have to get that corrected.
Guard Travelle Wharton
On Jordan Gross:
I saw him [at halftime]. He wasn’t talking much but he was talking. We were checking on him to make sure he was alright. That was the main thing. Just checking on him. I’ll be giving him a call in a few minutes to just to see how he is doing. Definitely want to check on him to see if he is alright.
On if he thought Jordan Gross was knocked out and what he was thinking:
I believe so. He was laying there and that was a scary sight. I was hoping he would just hop up. Just move, hop up, take a moment. I didn’t know exactly what happened. I was just praying that he would hop up and move.
On the running game after losing Gross and Jeff Otah:
We are all in the same meeting rooms and we are out there practicing. During practice guys take reps doing this type of thing. One guy will be out and another will go in. That kind of prepared us. If anything happens, we know, any play can be your last. Just being prepared, it showed that everybody was ready today.
Linebacker Na’il Diggs
On stopping Michael Turner:
We just stuck to our fundamentals. We came out and made a point to not get exotic or anything else and really just tackle this guy. He’s a great after-the-hit runner and we knew that we basically had to get a lot of guys to the ball and get him down to the ground.
On attitude:
We just work hard in practice and it’s really about attitude. We just made a point to come out as this was our first division game and we wanted to make a point to the rest of the league and get this first win down. It just feels good to come out and play good at home and play our first division team that way too.
On differences in Week 3 and 4:
It definitely feels good to come out and play as well as we did after a not-so-good performance last week. Minnesota’s a great team. I give them credit, they played well and made the plays that they needed to make and they also had an outstanding rushing attack too. We learned from our mistakes and came out this week with a new attitude and a new head on our shoulders and just played good fundamental football.
Defensive end Julius Peppers
On The season thus far:
It feels good, new year, new attitude. We have guys that love to play, and we love playing together, it makes a world of difference.
On one defensive touchdown in two home games:
We are doing good things, we are getting better and hopefully that will continue and we’re going to keep working towards it.
On stopping the league’s leading rusher under 100 yards:
That’s big. That’s something we talk about as players. We had LT the first week, Peterson, Turner, we had some good players. We take pride in holding players under 100 yards, and we have to keep going, keep it up.
On defensive performance after blocked punt:
It was great. We emphasize that too. When a sudden change in moments of the game, when the defense comes out and holds it gives us confidence and gives the offense a boost too.
On surprise of the offense not being able to get in the endzone:
We were not surprised but satisfied with the effort. We did some good things, and there are a lot of things we have to get better at. Overall we did a really good job.
Wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad
On approach to the game:
We just came in and executed our game plan and we did a good job of eliminating some of the penalties. We still had a few penalties today that kind of depleted the numbers a little bit, but for the most part we executed well.
On challenges of the game:
I just tried to go out and execute what the coaches put me up to. We all knew that there would be a challenge out there today. And the challenge was if they double-team Steve Smith, then other players have to step up. And that’s what I came back here for, to try to be a play-maker on the other side to give him relief and take some of the stress off of him. He’s a great athlete and he came up with some big plays today and we complemented each other well out there, as well as our running game. Jake did a great job of just finding us, and that’s what you get when you have some guys that have been together for a while and have made plays with each other. I’m just blessed to be able to come back and play at home again.
On things to work on:
I wish I would have blocked a little bit better today. I had some good blocks down the field, but there were a couple that I just kind of pushed the guy and he was able to run away from me and make a couple of tackles. Knowing my game plan and knowing the way that they play now, the next time we play I’m going to change my philosophy on how I’m going to do some of those things down the field.
On Jake Delhomme:
He did an awesome job and Jake [Delhomme] does a great job of preparing for games. He knows exactly where he wants to go with the football. He knows by coverage where he wants to go and who’s going to be open. In practice he does a great job of just executing and making sure that when we take the field on Sunday that he’s the guy that is the leader in the huddle and the most prepared. We feed off of his energy. He does a great job of being the leader and commander in chief on the field.
Center Ryan Kalil
On pulling out big win with all the adversity:
I think more than anything it’s a lot of heart. We really got after it this week. We took last week as motivation and definitely got after it and through the run game we were able to open up some guys down field and for some long passes.
On learning something from last week’s game:
Yes I think so because you look at our performance last week and it definitely wasn’t the team we knew we were. Obviously you can sit down and think of all the excuses of why it went by. I thought the one thing that helped us out tremendously this week was not having all of those penalties. Those penalties will put you in bad situations and that’s something we have been working on, to be more disciplined. And I thought we did a good job of cleaning it up. We still had a couple, but for the most part we were able to stay focused and get after it.
On Gross and Otah injuries:
Those guys are a big part of this offense and this offensive line. I know they will come back but in the mean time we definitely have to make sure to keep guys right, keep getting after it and work hard. We have that with the guys we have to plug in.
MORE FROM THE FALCONS-PANTHERS GAME:
- GAME RECAP: Falcons "drop" division game in Charlotte
- GAME NOTES: Official game notes from the Bank of America Stadium press box
- POSTGAME QUOTES: Smith | Falcons | Panthers
- GAME BLOG: Follow live updates from the press box
- GAME CENTER: News, stats and play-by-play from NFL.com
- FOLLOW THE BIRDS: On Twitter | Flickr
- INACTIVES: Gameday inactives and starters
- BOARDS: Talk about the team with other fans on FalconsLIFE
- J. MIKE'S MISSIVES: News and commentary from the Managing Editor
- VIDEO: Head Coach Mike Smith | Matt Ryan
- HIGHLIGHTS: Game highlights from NFL Network
