Cooper Rush, Jack Strand, & more speak after Atlanta Falcons' Week 2 loss | Press Conference

Cooper, just to start with what you think went wrong today. >> Uh yeah, we just turned it over. You turn it over in this league. Um games can get away from you and that's kind of what happened. Um so wasn't our day on that end. Credit to them. They played really well and uh on to Green Bay. >> How frustrating is an afternoon like this? >> Yeah, it's frustrating. We're competitors. No one likes to go do that. No one likes to lose. Um but you know, this like I said, it's the NFL. It's um it's what happens some days and it's always about you know on the next week you're going to watch it clean up some stuff and move on to Green Bay. >> How do you handle the negativity from the home crowd when you're trying to stay positive and keep things together? >> I mean you just I mean you play quarterback it's just what happens you know it comes with territory and um >> you know you got to play better. It's how how it works and um we look forward to playing better. How's it feel when things like just go wrong right from the start? I mean, you want you want to get into a groove. >> Yeah, it was tough tough start. Yeah, unfortunate there. Uh get down half a step sooner. Um want that one back. Just hang on the ball. Um so yeah, tough start. Our defense in that first half battled their asses off and uh gave us a chance trying to get stuff going. Um you know, they played really well early on when we kept turning the ball over. >> Coach Defansky said he didn't want to speak for you in terms of your back. Did Did your back have an effect on today? No, I felt good today. Uh, we were rolling. Felt good. >> How do you pick up the pieces yourself individually in a team and try to react in just four or five days? >> Uh, yeah. I mean, a week like this, um, you know, it's hard playing, you know, in four days, but it's also kind of a blessing after a game like this, you just get to go out there and compete again in four days. Um, so we'll be chomping at the bit as a group on offense and defense and, uh, I'm excited for it. >> When the first play of the game, did you feel like you were down? Yeah, I was I mean I thought I was hoping I was down. Uh got to hang on to it either way. Um or just throw it throw it to Han in the flat there, but saw green grass. Just got to get down a little earlier. >> Who are you leaning on to get through this? >> Uh your teammates is uh what football is. It's a great group of guys. Um it's a long season. You know, every week there's ups and downs and right now we're a little down, but we're battling. Uh bunch of professionals in here. We know how to do it. >> And you feel they have their back. They have your back. Yeah, like I said, great group. It's a great team. Uh been here a short time, but I've noticed uh the type of locker room that's in here and it's a good group. >> What experience you have with Jack? You say you you say say anything to him on his way to the game or he's always going to go in? >> Yeah, one just congrats uh popping his chair in the NFL. It's pretty awesome. Undrafted guy. Um so yeah, I thought he handled himself really well. >> Do you get confidence from that that fourth quarter and having some good throws and some positive uh gains? Uh, I think it it's always a little confidence boost just to get in and kind of, you know, Yeah. Yeah. get into a game for the first time. It was kind of the same, you know, in the preseason getting in for the first time and now, uh, playing in a regular season game, getting in there and, you know, getting get my first taste of action. So, I think it's it's definitely a confidence boost now. I kind of Sorry, I kind of know like what to expect going forward, how it's going to feel. >> This game went on, you know, you feeling like this going to happen for you, you're going to get a chance to get in, but what are you thinking? >> Uh, I mean, the the, you know, the mindset always just has to be you got to you got to always be ready. if you're the backup, you're always one play away from going in. Um, you know, if something something happens, like even something as simple as that the if Cooper's helmet had popped off or something, I would had to go in for a play when he had to come out. So, you always got to be ready for that moment. Um, and I, you know, as as the game went on, I was just, you know, stayed stayed ready for when the moment came. >> How much is having uh, you know, some game tape to actually now evaluate moving forward, how much do you think that can help you grow from this experience? >> Oh, I think that can definitely help a lot. Um, I think having film of yourself to watch is always good. Like whether it's in practice, you know, watch and then like if you're not getting a lot of reps in practice, like getting individual drills and watching the film from that, like just seeing, you know, what your throwing motion looks like, what your feet look like, stuff like that, and how you can kind of make yourself better just from from watching yourself. And now watching uh myself from actual in-game reps, uh there's definitely going to be a lot to grow from, but I'm excited for it. >> Hey, Bejian, with all the talk of the quarterback position, how deflating was it for the first play to be turned over to Carolina? Oh, I mean it it was definitely just a play where we have to, you know, we turn it over. Uh so we we went to the sideline, we flushed it, and we made sure that we got back on the field and that didn't happen again. Um but, you know, I know that we're about to get in the groove and then, you know, just a something like that happens like but it's our job to make sure that nobody's down on themselves, make sure nobody is, you know, poor me. Uh because that's the last thing that we want. That's the last thing that, you know, we want the guys to feel. Um, so yeah, we went to the sideline, we flushed it, we all were supporting the defense and just made sure that we got back on the field with the right mindset. >> For the second time in as many weeks, you're not finding out who the starting quarterback is until the Friday of game week. Um, a is that, you know, equating to the process of the struggles and, you know, when that position is not succeeding, does it trickle down to the rest of the team's performance? >> Um, you know, man, that's a hard question. Um, that's one of those things where my job, our job is to have the best output for whoever is going that throughout that week. Obviously, I know this this league is a, you know, the quarterback position is is what helps teams, what drives teams. Um, but for us, man, like if we go into the mindset like, man, who's going to be the quarterback? Who's going to like then we're not doing our job effectively. Um, but you know, man, I'm I'mma continue to just keep on trying to fight as much as I can. Uh, control what we can control and, uh, whenever that announcement happens or whatever happens, like then we'll adjust and we'll we'll get right to it. >> Short week on a road trip. Blessing or curse? >> A blessing. Bless the night football, man. That's that's I love I love those those kind of games. Um, you know, that's prime time. So, like we get to go out there and, you know, have fun have fun playing and we have to re regroup, get back to it. um and go to go to the Packers and you know put on the show, man. But you know, I think it's it's a blessing for us. >> Ask Cooper who he's going to lean on to get through these tough times. He said his teammates. What would you say to him and try to keep his spirits up? >> Yeah, just don't don't look at the outside stuff, outside noise. Uh just stay with the teammates, stay with the team, stay with your family, and uh you know, continue to get better with the you know, watching the film and seeing you know, we all we all made mistakes. Um, so keeping ourselves hard on those mistakes and then, you know, getting ready to go for for the next opponent. But, you know, that's what I'll say to him. Just make sure that, you know, don't listen, no outside noise. Just just keep it in and we're going to support you to the best of, >> you know, our ability cuz that's what we're here to do and we're brothers, man. So, like make sure that you are >> What's it like in the locker room with I mean, in the hoto with Cooper and Jack, like are they confident like when they're calling plays? Like what's it like with them? >> Yeah, man. They're confident. They're, you know, they've been doing it their whole lives. Um, you know, their their confidence is there. They call the play, you know, e efficiently. They do it well. So, you know, I know I know some things happen throughout the game, but they're they're calling plays uh really well, and we're we're understanding it, but we just got to go execute it the right way. >> You were talking about >> most important thing for this offense moving forward to focus on >> ourselves and making sure that we are, you know, executing every situation, going through every situation. Um, and just the little things like those little things, those those little penalties that we can clean up. Um, you know, it all plays an effect throughout this game. So, you know, for us to, you know, watch that film and really tell ourselves like we can't we can't ever put that on film again. Um, it's never going to win you a game. It's it's it's only going to lose this game. So, now it's just us. We can't feel bad for ourselves cuz really nobody else is going to nobody else cares. Um, they don't feel bad for us. Right. So, it's really on us as an offensive unit, as a team, uh, to to not put that on on the field again. And I I believe we'll do it because, you know, we're just confident guys that love each other from the coaches down. And that's what that's what we're going to do. >> But John, you mentioned the outside. You mentioned the outside noise. What What is going through your mind when y'all are taking the field and you hear a home crowd booming? >> Yeah. Yeah. It's you can't focus on it, you know? I love our I love our f I love our fans, man, like a lot. um every single one of them. Um but you know, if if we let oursel focus on the blues and stuff like that, then you know that'll creep in our mind and and that'll make us have a bad performance. So um you know, I know that's that's just what come comes with this game and for us like it's our job for them to not boot um again. So you know, I know I know the the emotion that comes with this and the emotion is high right now um for them. So, you know, it's just our job to go out there and execute. So, you got to hear that again. >> When you're a leader, how do you how do you stop this from, you know, snowballing potentially? >> Uh, connection in the locker room. That's the biggest thing. and not pointing fingers. And that's how you don't allow things like that to snowball. And you have belief in one another and belief that um we are going to turn the corner and also understanding and having the hard conversations um with yourself and you know with each other uh when we watch film that it wasn't good enough and uh understanding the why of that and um holding each other accountable and then in the same turning around and it's our job to go to work and to get it right cuz if you sit here and mole around about it then it's it's supposed to hurt. does hurt and it's not good enough, but then the same breath you have to go back to work. Um, and we have no other choice. >> Will getting Mike back help you think? Yeah, I mean I don't it's for us it's a preparation standpoint and it's part of the challenge of being in the NFL is that you know there's adversity that strikes teams and we need to be able to overcome it and so we need to be there to be the best for you know you know speaking as an offensive lineman is like our for any quarterback that's back there we need to be better for them and so pocket timing uh run game and just make sure that we're as clean as we can be to to do our part and so we'll have those conversations tomorrow on where we can improve. >> Do do you feel like the leaders on this team need to go to Mike and say we need you? Is that a fair conversation to have with another player? >> Uh absolutely not. Like um I think Mike is on his medical journey and I think you know somebody who's faced as much personal adver adversity as Mike and has had the challenges that he's had in his career. um he knows the timetable that he has for himself to be right and uh we want him to be out there and to feel confident in his knee and feel confident in himself. And so um when he's ready, we know that as his teammates like that he's doing everything in his power to be back. And I think uh to what Mark's point earlier was is just kind of to to what you were saying snowball is like we have belief and connection with each other. And so when you have the baseline of being a teammate, I think this is just my own personal opinion is like, you know, guys are pouring out to be there for one another. Um, and we have the belief that guys are doing that. So if guys are working as hard as they can, then you know their timetable is their timetable cuz you know they're pushing it. And so for us, we got to be at our best. >> When you hear frustration from the fans booing things like that, does that impact you guys? I mean, does that affect your psyche while you're in the game? I mean, yeah, it sucks, but for me, it's I understand their frustration. They're frustrated, you know, with us as players and um we're frustrated and it's our job. It's part of the deal of signing up and playing on Sundays that you have that responsibility, but in the same sense that um it doesn't impact our performance going out there like, you know, it's a not a great feeling, but in the same sense that we know we need to be better. Um, and you know, players just buying in and there was no fingerpointing. There's no jumping on guys and stuff like that. There's, you know, we have, you know, whatever. I don't know when it started, but it's like, you know, the NFL game is a long game and a lot of things can happen. And so there's belief and buy in and our job is to, you know, always keep striving at one possession at a time. Um, and so that's your mindset as a player. >> Vine, forgive me, I know you've probably been asked this. Is this a frustrating day defensively? I think the offense has f five turnovers, four turnovers. Is this just a tough day to be a defender? >> Um, obviously I feel like it's always tough, man. Our job is to stop the offense at the end of the day, no matter what circumstance it is. Um, we got to be better. We got to create turnovers ourselves and we didn't do that today. So, we'll be better. >> That first touchdown they scored, Humphrey got out to the left. So, kind of the all by himself. What, you know, what happened there? Was it like maybe to get David wasn't ready or >> uh I think it was a good pick route. I'm not exactly sure what happened. I got to watch the film, but I think it was a good pick route. Got to the flat. What the what goes through your guys' head when you're out there and you hear bullying from from from the home team. Does that bother you or motivate you? >> I'm be real. I don't blame them, man. Uh they came here to see us win games and we're not doing that right now. So, we got to step it up. And that's how I see it. I don't see that as them coming at us, you know? They want us to be better at the end of the day and we just got to be better for them. >> How often have you experienced that either college, high school, what have you, the hometown crowd going like that? >> Uh not in high school or college. At my last team though in the league, I will say I experienced that a little bit. >> Okay. >> For sure. >> This kind of motivates you a little bit or not? >> Oh, yeah. It always motivates me. I always strive to get better and um clearly we have a lot of talent in this building. So, we just got to we got to be better. >> Do you like the fact that you have a short week coming up after this one just to kind of flush it and keep it rolling? >> Um yeah. Uh I mean that's a great way to look at it. Um, you know, either way, we got to look ourselves in the mirror and see what we did wrong in this game and uh, you know, fix that uh, for for, you know, future references. But, um, yeah, it's always good to have a short week, so we can, you know, get back to work and and forget about this one. >> You played football for a long time. You've been in these scenarios before. What's the most important thing to remind those guys in the room after these two games happen? >> Like I said, we can't just, you know, we can't let a loss like this divide the locker room. We all got to stick together. Um, and remember, you know, that we we're all here for a purpose. And, uh, you know, like I said, we just got to get back to work. >> When you hear booze from the crowd, the home crowd, does that motivate? Does that impact you the psyche of this team? Like, what what is your reaction to that? >> As a ball player, bro, you got to let it go one way out the other. We still got a job to do. Um, you know, I get the frustration from the fans, but um, you know, we we still got to put our heads down and work. >> Yeah. How do you explain uh you know what was going on in their passing offense with Bryce Young today? >> Um you know they they just they kind of hit on all cylinders today. Um you know we the the game plan that we we put out for those guys uh didn't go as planned but um you know that's why we make adjustments and um you know the adjustment that we did make was a little too late. So um you know we just got to you know start way faster than we did today and um like I said we just got to put our heads down and work. That's all we can do right now. >> What were some of the issues today uh defensively in the against their pass game? >> Um yeah, I thought we handled it well. I thought we had a couple sudden changes in the first half. Um I think halftime scores 13 to zero. Um, so I really thought we had a chance even, you know, with, you know, defending at the 30 yard line. It was tough at times, but in those moments, I think as a defense, we got to be able to celebrate those moments for opportunity to to lift this team, to lift the stadium, get some type of momentum. So, um, it wasn't good enough today. >> How do How do you prevent a snowballing effect after a loss like this? >> Yeah, I mean, it's early. It's week two. Um, you know, nobody won a Super Bowl in two weeks. Ain't nobody um didn't make the playoffs in two weeks. So, uh, we got a lot in front of us. Um, but you just got to make sure you correct the mistakes. You can't just let it keep rolling over to the following week. Um, and what a great opportunity to go on Thursday night football and uh, show the world who this team really is. >> I believe it was after the interception that you were kind of delivering a message to the defense before going back out on the field. what what kind of was that moment and what were you saying to the group? >> Yeah, it's just a a sudden change um the stuff that we talk about, you know, those type of things happen in the game of football and um you know, the great teams, their their defense, they stand up and either they force field goals or um they create a turnover to get the ball back to the offense. So, um I feel like we didn't we did that a couple times. Um but there's a couple times where we got to we can't let him score seven and um I think that's where it got out of here. >> Loud booze a lot as well. Were you kind of surprised by that? How did you react to how you handle that as a team? >> Yeah. Um you know this city is prideful. Um I've been here for 4 years now. Um they want to win. You know what I'm saying? Uh this locker room understands that. Um this organization deserves to win. The city deserves to win. So, I understand the um the frustrations. >> How much pressure is on this defense at the moment? Do you feel like you feel like you just can't give up points? >> Um I mean, that should be our mentality whenever. Um is not to give up explosive plays and uh force teams to kick field goals and keep it tight. Um no matter what's going on on the offensive side, we got to stick together. And uh I think as a team, as a defense, special teams, when our offense isn't playing well, we got to make a play to give them some momentum to, you know, maybe have a short field or, um, go and, you know, have a positive play. So, uh, can't really control those type of things. >> What makes Bryce Young so difficult to slow down? >> Um, I just think they have a, you know, um, a great, you know, offensive mind coach coaches over there. Um they've been in the system for three years now, so uh they know what they want to do. Um they do a really good job of, you know, playing in Bryce's, uh strengths, playing in a lot of empty and uh making sure that he's not putting in um tough spots. So uh they got a really good team. Um they got it figured out over there and um we'll see. >> And then what happened on that downfield pass to Xavier Lette right before halftime? >> Yeah. Um, you know, just stuff that that happens in the game. Um, you know, we're in cover three and, uh, he threw a good ball and that's what it was. >> Coach Spansky's talked a lot about kind of turnover margin and the importance of putting that. Is there a greater emphasis for you guys on generating turnovers after not getting any today? >> Yeah. Um, yeah, it's hard when uh, when teams are up on you, there's a lot of it's hard to get the ball back. Um, you know, they play it safe. They run the ball, run a lot of bootlegs. The ball's not in the air a lot. So, um, we got to be able to create those early enough to put points on the board so we can have more opportunities at it.