Los Angeles Charges 20 - Atlanta Falcons 17
Q. Marcus, can you kind of walk me through the disconnect between production in the first quarter versus the second quarter?
MARCUS MARIOTA: Really, it just starts with me. I gotta do a better job of giving our guys opportunities to make plays. I thought our guys were winning on the back end. Just didn't make some of the throws.
Q. When you kind of look at I mean four quarters of work and Arthur Smith talked about this. He talked about feeling kind of like a roller coaster, kind of up and down quarter by quarter. What's it going to take for this offense to kind of see some consistency through all four quarters?
MARCUS MARIOTA: Really, I think it just comes down to just executing in one plays. I think we lose track. Sometimes we lose steam a little bit. It's kind of the ebb and flow of the game. You go out there, you score ten points quick. Well, then the other side they go and have a drive. You just kind of get in a little lull a little bit. And that's just kind of the nature of the beast, and I think that's part of being a young team. So just being able to kind of keep our heads in it, stay present and do our best and just always kind of stay on edge, making sure that we're prepared and ready to go.
Q. It felt like you could really feel Cordarrelle Patterson's return in this offense. What was he for you guys in this game?
MARCUS MARIOTA: Again, he's a great player, somebody that does kind of everything, right? It was nice to get him the ball early in the pass game and then however many ways we can get him in the run game it's going to help us out. He's just a great player. He's the type of player that you just gotta feed him and allow him to do what he does, but it's nice to have him back.
Q. When it comes to the couple of misses on Kyle Pitts deep, in those situations, kind of walk me through especially that last one. Was it something that you all had drummed up or was it something that you kind of felt like in the moment I'm going to go to him because he's open?
MARCUS MARIOTA: Yeah. Actually, I thought our coaches did a great job of creating adjustment on the sideline. We were getting some other boxes, but they were playing some solid defense, some two-high safeties. We thought Kyle might have a chance to run through this. Initially the ball was supposed to go to CP. They kind of all collapsed on him and Kyle just made a great play and got through there. I just gotta give him a chance, give him a better ball.
Q. These are all games that come down to score usually, and I believe there were four three-and-outs on offense. When it really comes down to one possession, how important kind of when you look at it are the grand scheme of being productive in am will every single possession because you know it's going to kind of come down to the end?
MARCUS MARIOTA: Yeah, you have to. And really, when it comes down to it, we just gotta be better on third down. They had some things on defense. Got some free hitters and that's on me. I gotta do a better job of protections. But when it comes down to it, this game is always going to be won and lost on third down. And when you're not converting these third downs and on the flip side they're getting these long drives, you know, and they make the plays when they need to, unfortunately you're going to find yourself on the losing end.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports