The Atlanta Falcons lost 31-27 to the Los Angeles Rams Sunday, falling to 0-2 on the season. Despite trailing by 25 points in the second half, the Falcons were in scoring position with a chance to take the lead late in the fourth quarter.
It was another tough loss made tougher by the fact that Atlanta was in position to pull off the upset late in the game. In his postgame press conference, head coach Arthur Smith said he was proud of the way his team fought back against the Rams Sunday.
Smith on continuing to grow
“Obviously, it wasn’t perfect and we need to break through,” said Smith. “But the one thing about our guys — no matter what has happened — we had a chance the last play to go win in. And we’ll continue to grow.
And certainly, you go through these things… It’s painful to lose like that in a one-possession [game], but we had the right mindset. We’ll grow and we’ll get better and we got a lot of football ahead of us. And we got another big challenge next week but these guys, they fight, they’re resilient.”
Smith on Kyle Pitts getting just three targets
“Kyle’s a huge part of our offense, and I know, the thing is, you’ve got to take it with context — we’re trying to win and he has a huge impact on the game,” said Smith.
“It’s not fantasy football, we’re just trying to win. And we’ll continue to look at everything and try to get better.”
On Marcus Mariota's performance
“Some of the stuff wasn’t necessarily his fault,” said Smith of Mariota. “He made enough plays, he gave us a chance. He had two touchdown passes today. The one interception, I mean, the way that ball bounced — it bounced off CP — and then the one at the end, you know, kinda went over the top.
You had a chance on that, and there’s things that we’ll look at and clean up, but he’s operating pretty well for us right now.”
On stopping Matthew Stafford
“Stafford does a good job,” said Smith. “He made some really nice throws and you try to pick your poison. You come after him, he can make you pay. If you keep it in front of him, they bled it out.”
