Matt Ryan, Dan Quinn react to Falcons’ victory over Redskins
After the Atlanta Falcons’ overtime victory over the Washington Redskins, a common theme with Matt Ryan and Dan Quinn was clear—toughness.
It was a scrappy performance by the Falcons, but they will take it. Once again, the belief and grit of this team was on show. Blowouts like last week are fun, but it’s these victories that build character on a football team.
“It was a really clear demonstration of our toughness, our grit and our mindset to finish today,” Coach Quinn said. “I’m so glad that came through. We want to give Washington a lot of credit, they played extremely tough and we knew this fight would go to the distance.”
“We’re always prepared to go as long as we have to. We’ve developed a lot of grit and toughness with our group and they just won’t stop backing off. That’s one of the things I love most about our team.”
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On Robert Alford:
“We knew it was a matter of time before we got our hands on a couple of footballs,” Quinn said.
On run game:
“That balance is really important. The fact we are able to run it and have success that way, it opens up the play-action and the keepers we like to feature. Having that balance is a really important part of what we like to do.”
On 5-0 start:
“Well I think for us it’s a real clear demonstration of how hard the guys want to play for one another. We try and stay in the present moment as often as we can so we’ll get right back at it tomorrow. I think it shows a lot of the character and toughness of the men in the room, and I know they want to keep battling for it.
“We feel like we’ve got a long way to go in terms of how good we will get.”
On Roddy White:
“Well he’s a really important part of what we’re doing, so it was great to see him have the catch down there at the end to keep things rolling for us. He’s a really important factor for us, has been for a long time and will continue to be. He’s as tough as they get and somebody you can totally count on, especially when the game is on the line.”
Tevin Coleman’s lack of touches:
“Not necessarily by design, it was really the hot hand. Free just kept battling, kept going for it, he felt fresh going through. Sometimes that’ll happen too. We’re excited about where Tevin is headed, although he didn’t get the touches we maybe thought going in, sometimes the game just works out that way.”
Matt Ryan on performance:
“We didn’t play as well as we would have liked to offensively,” Ryan said. “In the first half, we didn’t really get into a rhythm. I didn’t do a good enough job for us to keep the ball moving and to make plays. But I’m proud of the way we continued to battle in the second half and in the fourth quarter.”
On final drive:
“Our offensive line did a great job in terms of pass protection,” Ryan said. “Devonta [Freeman] did a nice job out of the backfield. Everybody was involved. Jacob Tamme made a really nice catch on a seam route that was low, and Roddy [White] comes up after we think we have the touchdown, comes up with a huge fourth down play that kept the game going. I was really fired up for him.
“There was no blink. Guys just continued to compete, and it was a good team win.”
Next: What we learned from Falcons win