Featuring postgame quotes from the following:

Head Coach Raheem Morris

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Drives that could have been touchdowns. Those killed us. Coming out in the second half, you can't give up the kickoff return. You can't allow those guys to answer with a nice drive by our offense and then fumble the ball in their territory, and then those guys were able to get the ball and really go down and score on us at will at that point, kind of took it away from us, and we lost the football game. With that, I'll open it up for questions.

You had been feeling so good about the way this team was holding together. Does that second half change the way you feel about it?
No. That was within the confines of the game. The kickoff return was a back breaker. The fumble was a back breaker. Those things happened back-to-back. In combination of those things, that's a game-like thing. That's an individual moment, a one-game type of thing. These guys will come back ready to fight on Thursday. Couldn't be nothing better than a quick week, short week, ready to deal.

How, at this point, can you fix the special teams problems?
We've got to go figure it out. We got to put more people out there, change it up, who's going, who's running down, who's covering, who's doing all the things that we ask those guys to do. You can't give up a blocked field goal. You can't do any of those things. So, it's not just one person to point at. It's just not one thing to point at. You've got to go figure it out and look at it on tape and try to come up with answers.

Defensively, the way they moved the ball in the second half, were those breakdowns by you all or do you feel like your defense just sort of got overwhelmed considering the special teams and the offense?
They did a nice job, and they forced us into a situation of the two-score game, and you've got to play some man, and those guys did a nice job of beating man coverage. They were able to run away from a couple plays, made a couple plays down there in the stretch. They were able to run the football really well. There's always going to be some correctable things on tape that we'll go back and look at tonight. Got the quick week, so we'll look at it all tonight, and we'll get it corrected tonight. We'll be able to move on pretty quickly tomorrow because we've got to go get ready for Tampa.

You talk about a quick week. I was going to ask you, what did you see that you can remember right now that you can take into Tampa on Thursday?
Yeah. You can't give up back-breaking plays that allow your team to self-destruct when you're playing a really tight football game like that. That first half, that was what the team should look like. If you can find a way not to have those penalties, you score some of those touchdowns, you're in plus territory, you've got a great opportunity to win this football game, or at least give yourself a chance to win the football game, and when you come out in the second half and you give up the kickoff return and you're able to turn the football over, you give yourself no chance.

Coach, you talked about some of those momentum-shifting plays that happened, the kickoff return and the fumble. As a coach when you're seeing that and you're recognizing that, is there anything you can do? Is there like a call you can make? Is there something you can say like where you sense the shift and you can try to get it back into your favor?
There's no magic call. You've got to go out there and play. The guys have got to go back there and recapture the moment. Somebody's got to go make a play, whether it's on defense, whether it's on special teams or whether it was on offense. Somebody's got to go make a game-changing play, and that didn't happen. Those guys went out and made plays on us and hats off to the Seahawks.

End of the first half, under two minutes to go, it looked like Darnell reestablished himself when he get what appeared to be a touchdown, would have given you guys momentum going into the half. It wasn't reviewed. Do you have any explanation why? Should it have been reviewed by the NFL, because it did appear he did come back in play.
I don't know that. I do know I gave my explanation. My explanation was I thought there should have been a call on the play. Potentially, if you get the call on the play, you can re-establish yourself, catch the ball, it should have been a touchdown. They explained to me they didn't see it that way, whatever the case may be. So, it's not a touchdown. It is what it is. You go with what the officials say at that moment. We'll figure out what the right decision was moving forward.

Do you feel it was a momentum-turning play?
No. The momentum-turning play was the kickoff return at the half. I felt great about what was happening up until that point. You always want to have those extra points, have those extra things, those extra moments, but that wasn't the case.

You had been hesitant to sort of do anything dramatically different given the way – given so many close losses. Does a loss like this change your approach? Do you feel like you need to do something to change your approach in some dramatic fashion?
You always look at yourself first. We always look at each other inward first, and I always do that every single game. It's like the dramatic things that you guys are looking for, I don't know what those things are, but you always got to look inward, you've always got to figure out what's best for the football team and try to figure out a way to win this football game, and the things that we had sought out to try to win this football game, we did not get accomplished. We had to get turnovers on defense. We had to maintain the ball, we had to stay on track, which we were not able to do, and on special teams we had to make it more about us, and we did not do any of those things. So, when those things happen, the game got out of hand.

Coach, third-down offense, again, was a bit of a struggle at this point, or today. What can you do at this point in the season?
You've got to make a catch. When Kirk [Cousins] puts it in position for a guy to make a catch on third down, you've got to make those catches. We had a couple of missed ops from a number of people. Had a couple really good looks at it. Obviously, they made some plays as well on their defense, a couple of plays that they made as well. But when you have an opportunity to move the chains and really get it going, you've got to get those things going, particularly in the third and one. We went for it on fourth down, but you've got to be able to move the chains that way, got to be able to do those things, and then some of those second half third downs were kind of ridiculous the situation that we put ourselves in, and you can't allow those things to happen.

Just to clarify on the [WR Darnell] Mooney play, when you say you thought there should have been a call, you thought there should have been a call on the defender, either a P.I. or illegal contact?
Yeah, you'll call it whatever you want, illegal contact, you call it a P.I. at that moment, and then that play is going to be reviewed. All those things will happen, and we have the key conversation on what it should have been or what it could have been.

Raheem, this clinches the eighth-consecutive losing season for the Falcons. I know this predated your era. But do you have a message to the fanbase that has endured one losing season after another?
Our fanbase deserves a winner, and the only thing we can do is try to find a way to go win this Thursday football game. You can't make any promises that you can't keep at this moment. The only thing you can do is try to give them the best effort you can give them, potentially, on Thursday night.

The decision at fourth-and-one, you were down, I think, 18 maybe you kicked a field goal instead of going for it?
Yes. You'd like to kick the field goal there. Obviously, you've got a couple different choices there. You can try to go for it and get it, pick it up, get the score. You can absolutely kick the field goal, go down there, get a quick stop and get the ball back, and then you're right back in the game. Obviously, when you don't make the stop after the field goal kick, it doesn't matter what you did there. But trying to keep that thing a game. You want to kick it and make it a two-score game. You go out there and get a quick stop, start of the fourth quarter you've got a chance to go out there and really win that football game.

QB Kirk Cousins

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Difficult to stand here after a loss, disappointing to not have a better second half and be in the game there at the end. So, we find ourselves in a similar spot where we have to go back and talk about it, improve, correct and on a week where we don't have much time, try to put a better product on the field this coming Thursday night. That's where we find ourselves, and I'll take any questions you have.

I asked Coach Morris the same thing - it's a short week. So, what did you see today that you can kind of take into Tampa and probably use for the better?

Yeah, I'll have a better answer for you tomorrow after watching the film. I think you're always reminded of just how it's a four-quarter game and you have to keep playing, and you never know which play is going to be the play that can make the difference. So, you just have to play with that sense of urgency at all times, and today it got away from us.

Raheem thought the second-half kickoff return for a touchdown was kind of a backbreaker. Did it feel that way on the field to you?

What I'll say is pro football, for me, has always been a test of kind of withstanding those types of moments, whether they're your own mistakes or a different phase of football you may not have as much control over. So, I've always kind of taken pride in saying who cares, like we've got to find our way back, and that's how you have comebacks and that's how you have rallies. I hear what he's saying, and certainly in a team sport, there are moments where you say, ah, that wasn't ideal, but you also feel like you've got to play your way back from that and you take pride in that, too, as a quarterback of how do we respond.

Was it discouraging in that sense that you all couldn't do that on sort of any of the three phases?

I think the disappointment standing before you now is not delivering, not coming through, whether it's winning 9 to 6 or, you know, 50 to 51 or whatever it may be. You want to deliver, one way or another. So, knowing that standing here we didn't is what hurts.

Interceptions, do you feel like those were overaggressive throws that maybe couldn't fit into the spots you thought you could and the ball gets tipped up or was there a theme there?

I think the first one, you know, Kyle did a good job of kind of trying to get me a quick surface to throw, and I tried to plug it on him, and the DB drove on it, and the ball got tipped up in the air, and it goes right to the other DB. So, in hindsight, if I could do it over again, knowing what I know now, I'd probably try to feel that corner driving it and progress back side. Then, the second one, checked to the screen. They kind of read out into the screen, and it was a bang-bang play there that, again, gets tipped up in the air, and they come away with it.

When you guys are having a season like this, is there anything that you can say or anybody on the team can say to kind of keep people motivated the rest of the way?

I think saying things has merit. I think doing things is probably more merit. So, it's more about how you practice, how you prepare, how you play on Thursday night is really what it comes down to. If words need to be said or you feel it might make a difference or move the needle, certainly we try to do that. But I think also just your habits, your actions, your attitude, your approach also is very important.

From an outsider's point of view, it seems like you guys have kind of a mellow team, so to speak. I guess that could be a positive. But, do you think that at this point that you need somebody that, for want of a better term, to pick up a chair and throw it across the room, kind of wake everybody up?

Could be. Could be. It's hard to say.

You were talking about pro football, about withstanding those things like that kickoff return in the second half. Does it feel like you guys have kind of struggled this season withstanding those things? It seems like every game you can kind of point to one or two turning points where they punched y'all in the mouth and you were not able to punch back.

In the games where that's happened, you would say, hey, it's happened a couple of times. I can also probably point to some games that came down to final drives. I think of Berlin where we kind of have this drive that we go down and think that may have won the game and then it doesn't. So, you kind of punch, counterpunch punch, punch, counterpunch; that's pro football, and it kind of comes down to who's able to throw the last punch with the clock. But, some games we've been able to do that and some games we've fought hard and counterpunched hard and it just didn't come down at the end to the final punch being the one that was able to be the knockout.

One of the punches you appeared to throw was at the end of the first half when Mooney looked like he was shoved out, came back to establish himself. Was that deflating when it appeared to go one way and the league ruled the other way?

You try not to let anything deflate you. You try not to let anything get you too up either. You just try to keep playing, play steady. Knowing there was so much football left in the second half, you just try to keep playing and believe that if you do that, that you can be there at the end. But, you look back at the end of the game and you certainly say, yeah, that would have been a nice one to have there and just didn't go our way.

Would you be the guy to throw the chair across the room if need be?

You know, I don't know about chair throwing, but he's got me thinking a little bit. He's got me thinking a little bit. I've given some speeches in my day and done some pregame chants and that kind of a thing, and did it last year. It has its place. It has its place. It can also be forced and it can be really cringe, and so you've got to have emotional intelligence to know when it works and when it doesn't, and you've got to read the room a little bit. But, I understand what he's saying. He has a point, and there's moments where it matters.

G Chris Lindstrom

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That second half, how do you explain that? How do you flush it out of your system?

Obviously coming out, it's not the way you want to start, but I thought we did a good job, responding, moving down the field. Then unfortunately, turned the ball over. We played a great team. They capitalized on that. Then we weren't able to move it again, you get behind two scores, and you're just behind the clock. I think the mindset was there, it's just little mistakes.

Do you guys feel like you left some opportunities on the board in the first half?

I mean, I think so. I think we were fishing with it. Some penalties – one on third down in the first drive. I mean obviously it's a very talented defense, but I think we were having success moving the ball. Then a couple of mistakes got in the way.

Kirk [Cousins] was asked in his press conference if it was time for someone to light a fire under you all, throw something across the room, and he answered, 'Maybe so.' What is your take on that? Or do you feel like it's too late for that?

I think Kirk's perspective is his and I think he's seen a lot of football in his time. All I can say is I know we have guys who – obviously, the season hasn't gone our way. We're not going to the playoffs, and we have a responsibility for four games to try to go out there and win, and to finish the season the way we want. There's a lot of pride in our team and the organization and our approach to that. So, the mindset is just doing our job to be the best that we can in every single day with that. That's the approach I'm going to take for the next month is trying to be the best guard in the NFL to give us the best opportunities to win. And I think everybody has that mindset individually. I know it didn't go well. I know it's not what you guys want to hear, and it's not what the fans want to hear, but the mindset fighting for the next month will not change.

S Jessie Bates lll

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Emotional times after a tough loss. What are your thoughts right now?
We just haven't found a way to put quarters together. It's pretty disappointing.

Was there a time in this game where you felt like things flipped for the negative and things started spiraling?
Just the whole second half. I didn't think we played well.

We saw guys throwing helmets. The frustration seems to be there from the outside. How do you make sure this team sticks together and flushes it and gets ready for Tampa Bay?
Frustration is a good thing; people care. Just got to stay together. We're still fighting for our jobs, for each other's families and all that good stuff.

I know you haven't been here for the duration, but unfortunately this locks up an eighth straight losing season for this franchise. What's your message for the fans and moving forward like I said sticking together as a team?
It's frustrating. They should be frustrated as well. Got to figure it out.

DE James Pearce Jr.

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You guys have a short week this week. Does that make it a little easier to move on to the next game?

It's probably the best thing for us, to get back on the field and get right back at it. Be at the facility tomorrow in the morning, shake it off, and go get after Tampa Bay.

How difficult is it for you when you are having the season that you are, that these losses keep piling up? You have five straight games with a sack.

It's cool, it's just numbers. All we care about is wins and taking care of each other, locker to locker. That's all that matters.

Do you still feel like this team is close?

I feel like, as long as we stay together, stay on our path. That's all we can do.

T Jake Matthews

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You had things going well in the first half. How disappointing was it to see it unravel?
Especially after the way the first half went, thought we were in the game, doing some good things. Even the way the third quarter went – their special teams makes a big play and handled the ball well – I thought we'd go down there and tie it back up. Unfortunately, we turned it over and from there it just kind of unwinded. It's frustrating. It's not what we expect from ourselves and we have to get better.

Jake, it felt kind of like an avalanche at times. Was there any moment that you can identify that it all kind of got away?
I think that third quarter was just tough. It's hard to come back after that. They're a really good team for a reason. They played well today. It just felt like that first half, we were in and we got a shot. We wanted to keep that momentum going in the second half, but couldn't find a way.

The third down issues, they seemed to flare up again today. You had the one third-down conversion. How can you guys address that for the final four weeks of the season?
I think just – you've got to find a way to make a play. Step up and make it happen. Whatever it takes. I'll be interested to watch the film and see what those third downs look like and then come up with a plan. Definitely frustrated. Expect a lot more from ourselves.