Here’s what the Falcons had to say after the 15-10 loss to the Eagles:
Julio Jones, wide receiver
On the final offensive play: "It was just a sprint out with a route to me. (We were) trying to take advantage of one-on-one down there."
On what happened with him going to the ground: "I don't know. But at the end of the day, I can make those plays. I ended up on the ground when I came out of my route. That's a tough call to make in that situation at the end of the game. That was it."
On the play calling at the end of the game: "I felt like everything went well. We just have to make them come to life. We are in this together. Whatever call is (sent) down we have to execute it and make it come to life."
On the difference in the second half: "I haven't watched film. I don't know yet. We weren't sustaining drives in the second half. I know that. It's hard to know because I didn't see the whole field when I was out there."
On the end of the season: "It's been a long season. I'm very proud of everyone on the team. They really fought and things like that. It's just really hard to tell you things we could have done better. I need to watch the film ... but the effort was definitely there. We were going out there and competing. Coming out here to Philly, no matter where we play at, we come out here and play one another."
On if a penalty should have been called on the last offensive play: "I ended up on the ground. In that situation, it's very difficult for an official to call that play."
On not running the ball after getting first-and-goal from the nine-yard line: "I don't remember. ... Obviously, I was just locking in. One play at a time. Just do my job and execution."
On if there was a lack of execution on those four plays: "I won't say that. I'm just saying it's hard to know. I don't know. I just have to watch film. I can't give you an answer right now why we didn't succeed down there. I have to see it."
On how tough the season was: "It was definitely not the outcome that we wanted. The good thing is that we are going to fight no matter where we are at. The situation, anything, we are going to fight for one another. That's the biggest thing. We have a great ball club here. We just have to get in there and watch film to see what we where we can get better."
On what happened to the offense this season: "They can talk about it. For us, we just have to make things come to life. That's it. We have to trust the process. Make it come to life. We have to score touchdowns and things like that."
On the offense never getting into a rhythm this year: "We are way better than we played this year. But that's just on us. We were just (not) executing, taking advantage of opportunities. We just have to keep working together. Everybody is always talking about last year. This year. This and that. You always have certain pieces that are introduce. This year we (had) new pieces. Everybody has to be on the same page and it takes time. You can't do it in one year. I'm very pleased with the way we played. The effort that we gave."
On offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian: "It was great. It was Sark's first year here with us. It was a great. It was a great experience. We just have to keep building off of it. At the end of the day, it was him learning us and us learning him. What we need to look for and things like that, taking advantage of opportunities. I mean it was just all of us. It was never on just Sark. Everybody was like, 'you have a new offensive coordinator. He needs to do this. He needs to do that.' He doesn't know. We all have to be on the same page. We are family here. We are going to fight for each other. We are going to play for each other. That's the thing that we know in-house, that's what we are going to do. That's the only thing you can do to move forward."
On what he learned about Sarkisian: "He's very aggressive. Sark is an aggressive guy. He's going to call plays for your and get the ball in your hands. He's a great coach. ..we have to keep working together."
Keanu Neal, strong safety
On the season ending: "It's tough. I never feels good to lose."
On the deflection play:. "I just didn't feel it hit my hands and it bounced off of my knee."
On the defense: "We did well. We just left some plays out there including the one that I missed the opportunity that I had. That's part of it. When your plays come, you've got to make them."
On the growth of the defense: "For sure, we definitely came a long way. We made huge strides. We have to just get ready for next year."
DeVondre Campbell, linebacker
On the defense: "We just played our style of ball. We didn't do nothing special. We stuck to our principles and out techniques."
On the end of the season: "It's the nature of the business that we are in. Sometimes you do everything that you can and you still lose."
Mohamed Sanu, wide reciever
On the season ending: "It's tough. You learn from stuff like this and I love my team. We fought hard all season, had ups and downs, but everybody left it all out there on the field and that's all we could ask for."
On the offense stalling: "It is what it is. I mean sometimes you can't get things going and then sometimes you can. It's football. They have a great defense over there and they made a lot more plays than we did."
Devonta Freeman, running back
On your initial thoughts of the game:
“It’s tough. Especially, we were not looking too far forward but we know we were one step closer getting to our destination. With it to end like this, I am just glad to be a part of this organization, be on a team full of guys that are going to fight.”
On what the team has to do to get to that destination:
“That is a great beginning especially with everything we stand for. Everything that is out there for us, we just have to come back next year and finish opportunities. I feel like it is important for us to finish strong and close things out.”
On the performance of the offense in the first half versus the second half:
“Just coming down and executing and taking it one play at a time.”
On how frustrating it is to come out in the second half and not being able to finish:
“It is always frustrating when you get a loss, period. It does not matter how it comes. If you are up 30, down 20 and come back, whatever it is, it’s frustrating. Especially, knowing in this life, there is no tomorrow.”
On whether they should have run the ball on 4th -and-two:
“Whatever is best. Whatever Coach calls, we need to execute and make plays.”
On how fans will play “Monday morning quarterback” and your thoughts on the play-calling once the team reached the Eagles nine-yard line on the final drive:
“I just know I do not control that. I just play my part, and play my role and try to bring as much energy and help the team as best I could.”
On the offensive struggles this season and the way the season ended:
“Like I said, in this life, there is no tomorrow for us. We go home and have to wait a long time, all the way to like August, September. All you can do now is go home and recoup and look forward to next season.”
Brian Poole, cornerback
On the message from the head coach after the game:
“Don’t forget this feeling.”
On whether the team had something special building towards the end of the season:
“No question, we definitely had opportunities to win the game but came up short.”
On the defense holding the Eagles to 10 points:
“I don’t really know. We lost the game.”
On whether he has seen anything like the play near the end of the first half that went off the knee of the defensive back:
“No, I have never seen anything like it.”
On whether the play off the knee is demoralizing allowing the Eagles to get a field goal as a result:
“No, I feel like we had opportunities in the game. We just came up short.”
On what opportunities he thought the team had:
“We had the ball at the end and had the opportunity and just didn’t get it done.”
On how tough the loss is:
“It is tough, definitely tough.”
On whether the field was an issue:
“We don’t make excuses. The field wasn’t an issue.”
On how Eagles QB Nick Foles played:
“He played well. He won the game.”
Desmond Trufant, cornerback
On how he felt the defense did overall:
“They got some yards but we held them to some field goals and that’s really a big thing when you can win in the red zone. You have to tip your hat to them because they won the game so you have to give them credit. I thought we played solid, but we still could’ve played better. It is what it is. Obviously we didn’t make enough plays to get the win so at the end of the day that’s really all that matters. ”
On if the loss hurts more being so close to winning the game and how tough this kind of a loss is for the team:
“It hurts but you know it’s not a loss to me, it’s a lesson. So I’m just going to learn from it and come back stronger. It’s tough, especially being so close. I can just be mad for so long. I just have to keep pushing, you know I made it out healthy and I’m blessed for that, but I just have to keep pushing.”
On how the defense played today and all year:
“Yeah definitely, we definitely made some strides as a unit and I was proud of that. But we can still take it even higher. We made it out healthy but we just have to keep growing together.”
On how frustrating it was for the defense when the Eagles offense put together long drives:
“Sometimes that happens but at the end of the day, we were holding them to field goals. I think they only had 15 points and only one touchdown. So that’s a win definitely for us just to hold them. Sometimes they’re going to make plays but the big thing is to win in the red zone and we did that.”
