Here’s the Falcons had to say after the 20-17 loss in a disgruntled locker room.
JULIO JONES, wide receiver
On moving past the loss: "We know that we have to continue to keep working. Just get back to work. We have to look at the film and see what we could have done better. Things like that. We had the lead in the first half. We have to find a way to finish games."
On the offense slowing down: "Just in-game adjustments from half to half. From the first half we were very successful in running the ball and then we came out in the second half they tried to take the run game away. Basically, they tried to make us one dimensional and make us throw the ball."
On what was not working: "They were sending pressures and every thing and they were just trying to keep everything in front of them. We had three yard gains and quick throws, getting the ball out of Matt's hands. Things like that. We just have to do a better job of that when we know that it's going to come when the running game is successful like it was today. We have to find ways to get the ball down the field."
On putting things back together: "Hats off to them today, they were the better team. But it's own us. This is a player-lead team. We have to find a way to win games and finished games. The coaches did their job.They put us in great situations. As players, we have to just go out there and finish games."
On offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian being up stairs: "Like I said, the running started out good for us. They were trying to take the receivers and the passing game away early. In the second half, they just switched it up on us. They just keep everything in front of them. They rushed four and blitzed here and there to get some pressure. They were just dropping seven guys and six guys and keeping evertthing in front of them and just trying to make tackles."
On Miami's comeback: "It's not frustrating. We just have to continue to keep working. We are not frustrated here. We are not going to get divided players to coaches and things like that or player to player. We are just doing our jobs. We just have to find a way to finish games, that's it."
VIC BEASLEY, defensive end
On how he played: "It went good for me. I wasn't at my best a little bit of the game, but I guess that kind of the kinks that I have to work out and improve on coming back."
On playing with emotion: "Man, I thought we came out on fire. We got off to hot start and that fire kind of ran out there in the second half."
On moving on from tough loss: "You just move on. If you don't you get blasted from the past."
On the second half collapse: "Shoot, they played better than we did. They made better calls. Their players played al little better than we did I guess. I felt like we came out on fired, but we didn't finished like we wanted to."
On if he was surprised: "I'm not surprised. We lost the game."
TERRON WARD, running back
Did the punt hit you on the hand?: "It didn't hit nobody. It was a missed communication. It didn't hit nobody."
On a tough one for the punt team: "We expect perfection on that team. We expect perfection. Anything like that is never good especially at that point in the game. They've got momentum and we have to come up….it was just a miscommunication."
RICARDO ALLEN, free safety
On blowing the lead just like in the Super Bowl: "That correlation doesn't matter. If you have a lead and you lose it stings no matter what. Yes, that happened to us last year, but that correlation is just brought on by the media. We have to finished. We have to battle through all of it. He came to us and told us that it's almost 80 percent, at the end of the game over the first six weeks of the season, six points of less in the last 25 seconds. When you show that to a team, that's your way of saying that we have to tighten it up and we've got to finished. We are going to be fighting until the end no matter how good we are and we are a pretty good team. We have to be ready to fight. At the end of the game when it's 14-17 we were flat. We were winning. That's what I don't understand. We have to keep driving. That's what we have to do. We have to stay positive. We are up. I don't care what they are doing. We show be jumping up and down and doing back flips. We you are up you should have the momentum because you are winning at that point in time. You go out and play ball, sometimes if feel because the other people were making plays, we have slow it down and keep grinding. We have to bounce back from that stuff."
On halftime adjustments: "The only think I kept saying was 'don't pull off.' Let's shut them out. Let's be dominate. I know if we could do in the first half, I know for sure that we could do in the second half. It was the same stuff. They ran the same play. It's easy to be mediocre in this league and juw5 win a game. Sometimes when you pull of the pedal, teams in this league are good. Teams are good in this league. It's doesn't matter who they have at quarterback, no matter what they are doing on their side, no matter what their record is. Any given Sunday it can happen in this league."
On the run defense: "They ran the ball. I haven't watched the film yet. They ran the ball. They executed really good. They have a strong offensive line and we knew that for sure. We just have to tackle. You have to get into your spot and make your plays. We are a defense that has gap for gap. You've got to sit in your gap and make your plays when it comes to you."
On if they doubted themselves: "No. Never comes in."
GRADY JARRETT, defensive tackle
On the run defense: "We definitely have to look at the film. That's definitely something that we have to address. That was definitely something under our standard, the way we played the run as a whole. We just have to go back back to the drawing board."
On the late hit: "I was just going full speed ahead. I was cutting it close. It's unfortunate that it happened. I hurt my team. I have to find a way to pull off. But in the moment. It looked fair to me. I never intend to do (anything) dirty. That's just how it went down. It was unfortunate."
On bouncing back: "We just have to go back to work. Do what we do. At the end of the day. We have to put this one behind us. We just have to keep getting better."
RYAN SCHRAEDER, offensive tackle
On the game: "It was a tough game."
On how he played: "I did OK. I had some issues in pass protection with Cameron Wake, but nothing that can't get corrected."
DEVONTA FREEMAN, running back
On the differences between the first and second half: “I just think that we as a whole need to do a better job at finishing. That’s it, just finish better.”
On his frustration with the loss:
"It's based on how you look at it. We can learn from our mistakes. Of course, a loss is frustrating, but we can learn from it. We have something that we can look at and grow from, so that is always a good thing."
On the team being in panic mode:
"Nobody is panicking, we just know we have to go back to work starting tomorrow. Then on Wednesday, we need to put the work in and then execute in the next game."
MARVIN HALL, wide receiver
On catching a touchdown for the first reception of his career:
"It felt good, I always want to make a play for my team and for the brotherhood."
On whether he thought it was a touchdown the moment the ball was thrown:
"I always think it's money anytime the ball is in the air."
On his first touchdown catch coming in a loss being bittersweet:
"Oh most definitely, we always want to come out with the win. We weren't able to do that, but we're going to get back to the drawing board then come out next week and do what we have to do."
ALEX MACK, center
On what changed in the second half:
"We just weren't consistent enough, from an offensive standpoint at least. I don't think we moved the ball as well in the second half. They ate up a lot of the clock in the third quarter, so when you have those chances you have to make the most of them."
On whether adjustments by the Dolphins led to more pressure on Matt Ryan:
"I don't think so. There were a couple of things here and there that we can get corrected and do better."
On the Falcons inability to get late scores for two consecutive weeks:
"They aren't the ideal opportunities, but like I said we just have to come out and play better."
JAKE MATTHEWS, left tackle
On the mood of the Falcons locker room following this loss:
"I know that guys are upset, I'm upset, but we have a really good group of guys so we're going to go back to work and be ready next week."
On whether the team came in too relaxed following a bye week:
"No, I don't think so. Like I said, we had our chances in the first half and we took advantage of them. In the second half, we didn't."
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