Washington 34 - Atlanta 30
MATT RYAN: Getting into the end zone. Those plays are kind of a flip of the coin. You try and put it in a spot where your guys can make a play on it. Thought our guys got down there. They did a great job of getting in position. That's just part of the game. Sometimes it doesn't bounce your way. But there's a lot of other things throughout that game that could have put us in position to not be there.
Q. (Failure to run the clock out).
MATT RYAN: Yeah. If we want to be the kind of football team we want to be and the type of offense we'd like to be, I think, you know, you get in those situations, you want to be able to move the football, burn clock and get some first downs, and in that football game we didn't do it. That part is disappointing and we've gotta improve there.
Q. Where do you all go from here? That's a tough loss. How do you try to put things together and get ready to go to London and play the Jets?
MATT RYAN: That's part of being a professional. You've gotta get back to work tomorrow, have the mindset to improve, make the corrections from today's game, and you know, apply those towards getting better next week in practice and finding a way to go to London and get the job done. It's a long haul. There's no doubt about that. But the improvement needs to happen. We have to have the right mindset. I think for the most part that's been good all year. Sometimes in these type of games it can be difficult to get in there with the right energy and those kind of things. That's on us as players to make sure we go in tomorrow with the right frame of mind.
Q. Do you think you got a little too conservative there the last few drives?
MATT RYAN: I think we gotta make plays. When your number is called, whether it be in the run or pass game, we've gotta execute. And we gotta go out there and get the job done as players. And so I think there's opportunities to do that. And we've gotta do better as players.
Q. What did you think of Heinicke?
MATT RYAN: I thought he did a good job. I thought he did a good job today.
Q. What was your take on the roughing the passer penalty?
MATT RYAN: The one on me?
Q. Yeah.
MATT RYAN: I'll take it. (Laughs).
Q. Said it was contact to the head and neck area, but we couldn't see that in the camera angles up top. Did you get hit in the head or neck area?
MATT RYAN: It's a jumbled mess out there when you're playing. Right? And you get hit hard. It felt like I did.
Q. I don't know if frustrating is the word maybe to use but you've been in the league long enough. You can't win with dropped passes on offense, dropped passes on defense, missed tackles. It's the little things over the course of the games add up.
MATT RYAN: For sure. I really think it's -- you're exactly right. It's the small things that add up over time that end up costing you. And so and that's kind of what I alluded to earlier to one of the previous questions is you gotta realize okay there are plays to be made out there. We can all do a better job. And you can't start pointing the fingers in other directions. When we watch this film tomorrow you gotta take an honest evaluation of yourself, what you can do better within the scheme and try and improve and make sure that we're doing everything Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to correct those things. And doing it with the right energy and attitude. And I do think it's difficult sometimes after losses. The easy thing to do is say, awe, man, I just feel bad. Well, the really good pros that I've been around are the ones that take a look at it and are honest with themselves. And I think we need to all be that way tomorrow.
Q. From your perspective on Calvin Ridley, there were some balls he missed today. Normally he catches those. From your perspective, what kind of happened on those plays when he didn't catch what typically is makeable for him?
MATT RYAN: I have to see it, you know. It's hard to explain. I don't see a lot of those things when we're playing. There's a lot of traffic and stuff flying in front of your face. So you have to watch the film and take a look at it. I know he makes a lot of plays, too, and does some great things for us. So I'll have to take a look at it on the film. But I don't really see those things on the field. So I can't really answer it.
Q. And then on Patterson, you didn't see as much in those last few drives. He was just tremendous today. What can you say about him in terms of being there for you guys?
MATT RYAN: He's been great for us the first four weeks. I think he's played extremely well. Made plays for us in the run game, made plays for us in the pass game. In the return game he's done a great job. So I think he impacts the game in so many different ways. I'm really glad that we have him. I love playing with him. He's a bit of a throwback in terms of football players. He's tough. He does a lot of different things and goes out there and competes very well. I've certainly been impressed with him. I've always admired him from afar, but now playing with him and seeing what he does every day and how he works, I think he does a great job.
Q. You've mentioned mindset a couple of times in here. Are you concerned about where this group is right now?
MATT RYAN: I'm not concerned. I just think that having been around long enough, you want to get in front of things. And you want to be proactive as opposed to being reactive. And I think from a leadership position and a veteran guy in the locker room, that's what I want to be, proactive, you know, and let those guys know tomorrow we gotta get to work. We gotta fix the things that we can fix and be better next week. We got 13 games to go. So a lot can happen during that time. I think the effort's been great. I think the attention to detail is something we can improve at.
Q. What do you do tomorrow morning to point that back in the right direction, the direction you want to see?
MATT RYAN: For me it's always making a list of as we go through the game things we did well, things I did well and taking a look at things I didn't do well and putting a plan together for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of maybe I need to get my drops in better position, my hips at better positions at the top of drops. Maybe I need to be a little bit more patient in my progressions, right? Not move on too fast. I try and make notes like that every week and then go to the practice field and work on it. And I really don't know any other way to do it other than that.
Q. Talking about Patterson before. When a guy is having a game like he's having, do you kind of try to make sure you know where he is on every play, kind of like heat checking it?
MATT RYAN: Not really. As a quarterback you trust the calls coming in, and you try and take a look at what the defense is doing and trust the guys we have out on the field that are going to go make plays and win their matchups. In a couple of situations today they gave us the looks and he had chances to make the explosive plays. But I don't. I really -- I try and play the game, play the calls that are coming in and go where the coverage dictates.
Q. When he's playing like that, though, are you surprised that he's not in at all on those last two series when you guys are trying to first sock the game away and then trying to come from behind like that, considering the roll that he was on?
MATT RYAN: I mean you don't think of those things. You get the call that's coming in. You trust the guys that are on the field. We got a lot of good players. He's not the only good player we have. We have a lot of good players. We got a lot of good backs, too. I think Mike Davis does a great job for us. I love our guys! And I trust all of our guys when they're in there that when their number is called, they're going to make plays, and for the most part guys did today. We just gotta clean some things up and do things a little bit better.
Q. I know there's obviously a lot of variables in this game but you walk away thinking just getting one more first down and you win this game.
MATT RYAN: Yeah. Yeah. I think that's one of those things you talk about, you know, whether it's on the third-to-last drive or the second-to-last drive or any of those, you know, where you come away with it a little bit different when the result isn't what you want. You know, you play that back in your head. But you gotta be able to move on. You gotta be able to flush it out of your system. And I think the best teams, and certainly the best teams I've been on are the ones that, good or bad, you know, are able to do that. And so that's kind of what I've been talking about with some of our young guys. You gotta have that mindset to be able to honestly evaluate it and then move on. Certainly tonight all of us feel that way. We would like to have made a play or two that would have change the outcome.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports