CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Here’s what Falcons coach Raheem Morris had to say after the 38-20 win over the Panthers on Sunday at Bank of America Stadium:
Opening Statement: “Big win, huge win, third in a row. Proud of the guys and how they played and the maturity of the team to get better and better every single week, for things not to go perfect but to come out on winning side of the ball game is always great and with that I’ll open up to questions.”
On the breakdown of the defense’s role in the second half: “Yeah, it was great. Went out there and got a couple stops. Held them to a couple three-point plays, I mean, three-point drives there, and really giving us a chance to get rolling on offense, allowing us to run the football. You know, getting the ball back a couple of particular times there with A.J. (Terrell) getting his first pick in a long time, having Clark (Phillips) go out there getting his first pick and end the game to seal that deal I think is really big for all of us. It’s all growing moments and then obviously we’ll talk about how do we get our pass rush better and all those things and we’ll do those things, and you have a chance to keep working at those things while you’re winning, and that’s always a good thing that we want to do.”
On the style of the offense: “I don’t know, man. We went out last week and they gave us a pass and we threw the ball a bunch. This week we got out and we got a chance to establish the run and we went out and did it. We did it with a nice one-two punch with Tyler (Allgeier) and Bijan (Robinson). The O-Line really took a lot of credit, took a lot of pride in that. Drake London, being that sixth O-lineman so to speak and what he’s able to do in the run game and all those guys going out there and blocking. I think we just kind of take what they are giving us right now. And the guys are going out there and doing it. We have got enough people in all areas. Terry (Fontenot) did a great job of just putting people around. I’m sure I’m going to look at the stat sheet, and you guys are going to ask me about somebody being more involved. That’s just always going to be the case when you’ve got that many good players. When you got Bijan, Tyler Allgeier, you got Kyle Pitts, you have (Darnell) Mooney, you got Drake London. Somebody is going to get left out in these type of wins and that’s the type of team we have and that’s the type of stuff I’m proud of.”
On the last touchdown drive and the offensive line: “I just think any time you score a touchdown in this league is big, but there’s nothing bigger than when you can run it down, control the football, eat up clock, score touchdowns, and then just walk away with a win. Those things are huge for us. Those things are huge for our development. That is huge for our football team. That is huge for where we want to go and what we want to be. I loved it.”
On Clark Phillips’ interception and not scoring: “That’s this football team. There’s a bunch of guys that’s going to give him a bunch of stuff on the sideline for not scoring but I tell you what man, that, is a young, heads-up play by a young man to end the football game right there and not put the defense back out there and allow so many yards to come up and be able to do those things and end the football game. You win games and that is a smart play by a young football player and I’m so proud of him.”
On winning three in a row against division opponents: “Any time you talk about playing in the south, that’s kind of what we set out. We talk about out-running the south and you have a chance to get three wins in the south in back-to-back fashion, that is always awesome and that’s what we want to be about. You know, you don’t want to put any extra credit on three wins in a row but why not just keep winning. Why not us? Somebody’s got to do it.”
On Allgeier’s running style and his impact on the second half: “He already wrote this story but Josh, he is heavy, he is a tough tackle. He can run through arms and he can run through people. He can force his will on his opponent at any given moment. You know, I tease him all the time, but he is certainly hard to tackle and he enjoys doing it and he likes doing it and he embraces his role.”
On how demoralizing is Allgeier’s run style late in games if your defense is tired: “That’s tough when you have to go out there and try to stop people from running the football and try to get your offense some more possessions and you can’t and you’ve got two running backs coming at you that look fresh and the O-Line coming off the ball with the way they come off the ball with the speed off the ball like we teach and we preach. You can’t give Ledford, (Shawn) Flaherty, Nick Jones enough credit for front behavior and how we went out there and played, our coaching staff, Zac (Robinson) for calling and for staying with it. All those guys man. Two different styles in how we win football games and that is impressive. You have to look at tape and cut ups and say, they can do anything they want to do. That’s impressive and that’s impressive by our offense.”
On the growth of the team and what they have learned from this win: “You know, I think you learn more from the other games, right, the one-possession games where you have to stay poised, you have to stay in the moment, and I think these guys this week getting the lead and staying in the moment and staying poised allowed us to finish the right way because you have to play until the last whistle and that’s what they did. The development and growth of this football team, I hate to even call them young because they are playing at such a mature level, and I love it. It’s the teaching that’s involved and support that’s involved. It’s everything all around the board. They did a nice job.”
On Kirk Cousins’ performance today: “I don’t know, I think when you go out there at quarterback, there’s always going to be throws you miss and throws you want back. I thought he managed the situation well and thought he played well. I’m not sure exactly what his stats say. You know how I feel about that. But I know he was able to go out there and get critical touchdowns. I believe we were somewhere close to 70 percent on third downs. Not counting the kneel downs and things of that nature but I was fired up with that performance on an offensive standpoint and I was fired up with the team all around. There are always things you want to go back and correct. There are always throws you want to go and have back for Kirk or for whoever. But the nature of the beast, man, we got some wins.”
On A.J. Terrell Jr.’s interception: “Anytime A.J. gets his hand on the ball and makes those kinds of plays, that’s what’s going to separate him from being one of the very good corners in the league to one of the elites. We feel like we’ve got one of the elites and that’s why we are fortunate to have him on our football team. We were fortunate enough to draft him and fortunate enough to be able to keep him. Fortunate to be able to roll him over and get him a new deal. You know it’s the right decision when the team reacts how they react the when we gave him that deal. He’s just showing improvement to us every single week. We gave him touch matchups against some of the best wide-outs in the world and he had another one today on Diontae Johnson and he went out and answered the bell and he was awesome for us.”
On the running game of Allgeier and Robinson: “We talked about it the whole year but to watch those guys pick up blitzes and put their face on big people and big men running through gaps, trying to hit Kirk and keep people off of him, that is impressive. To watch those guys take the hand off and take the fake to open our play action game, that’s impressive. Those guys have been big for us all year no matter what the stats say, no matter what we ask them to do, they do. They play together. They are each other’s biggest supporters and I’m so proud of them.”
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