Atlanta Falcons 27 - Chicago Bears 24
Q. How big of a win was this for the team after stopping a two-game losing streak?
MARCUS MARIOTA: Huge win. And it's nice to do it at home, in front of our fans. Like I said, at the end of the day when you're playing games like this and they're meaningful at the end of the year, the games will continue to get bigger and bigger. It's fun to be around these young guys to kind of help them understand what's going on, but we're excited about what's next.
Q. What was going on in the huddle and the four and two when Coach decided to go for it there with the game tied?
MARCUS MARIOTA: We just wanted to make a play. We were hoping for it. We appreciate the confidence from Art to allow us to do that, and CP made a great play.
Q. This was honestly probably one of the most balanced offensive attacks you guys have had this year. What do you think led to that in the course of this game?
MARCUS MARIOTA: Really, I think it started distributing the ball, letting our guys go make plays, kind of Lightning up the boxes a little bit. And as those things happened, being able to establish the run, control the line of scrimmage. You gotta give a lot of credit to our guys up front. I mean, really, they dominated, and to be able to do that and to be able to be balanced like that, it makes us tough to stop.
Q. When CP takes off for 100-plus yard kickoff return for a touchdown, what are you kind of thinking, you're like, well, I'm not going in any more?
MARCUS MARIOTA: Yeah, we were standing there saying great drive, great drive. Really cool, really special moment. It's cool to be a part of that, right? Be a part of history. And I knew when they kicked it to him, especially after what it happened with the fumble earlier, there was no way he was going to let that touch back. So, again, he's an incredible player. Still got the wheels, man, for being ten years in. Once he hit that second level, he was gone. It was fun to watch.
Q. Arthur Smith was talking at the end of the game about the role that MyCole Pruitt played in this game. What did you see from him and maybe how he's been an unsung guy throughout these four quarters?
MARCUS MARIOTA: He doesn't get a lot of credit, and he deserves a whole lot. Like not only does he block at the point of attack and do a lot of different things for us. Unfortunately, with Kyle going down, he had to step into a bigger role and had a huge play for us on one of those keepers. It's kind of fun for me. I've known MyCole since we were in Tennessee together, and I have complete faith and trust in him. And he's done a lot of the dirty jobs, and it's cool to see him have some success today.
Q. Marcus, congratulations on the win. The team just faces so many adversities. Can you speak a little bit about the resilience of the team?
MARCUS MARIOTA: Yeah, and it starts on top. We've got a really cool culture that's being built here. We've got a really cool, just mentality, and you know what, it's fun because these guys are younger and they're really embracing that type of mentality, because it's not easy. It's not easy to get everybody to buy in. And when things are going south and you're not winning games, you've got two-game losing streak, you know, it's so easy just to kind of dive and focus on your own individual things and not worry about what's going on with the team, but our guys have totally bought in. It's fun to be a part of, and really, like I'm excited for our guys.
Q. Speaking of adversity, you were coming off a couple pretty tough weeks yourself. I wondered what that was like to go through and how you handled the weekend?
MARCUS MARIOTA: Yeah. No, I mean, as a professional athlete, you would love for every week to be perfect and be throwing a bunch of touchdowns and a bunch of yards and be scoring a bunch of points. And it's never really that way. And I think the time that I had in Tennessee really kind of built me for situations like over the last couple weeks. And just kind of water off my back. I understand I gotta do my job, go back to work, do whatever I can to help this team win.
Q. Following that up, were you viewing this game as any sort of referendum on you in terms of whether you'd be the starting quarterback moving forward this season?
MARCUS MARIOTA: No, not at all. I think when you start to think about those types of things, you let outside noise kind of dictate how you play, eventually it's going to happen where you're not going to like what the situation is. So I just focus on what I can do. Really just controlling what I can control, going to work, always putting in the time and the effort, and when it comes to the game, coming loose and playing.
Q. Going back to the final drive that you had that ended with Younghoe's kick, it feels like there have been moments where that's what needed to happen in late in games, the fact that it was able to actually happen, you guys were actually able to put together a long, productive, methodical drive at that time, what did it mean for you guys in that moment?
MARCUS MARIOTA: Well, it's huge, right? Like you understand kind of the situations and the scenarios, and Art does a great job of explaining those types of things to us. You know, they can't score points if they don't have the ball. And I think unfortunately we haven't been able to convert some of those in late games. And to be able to do that today I think is a huge confidence booster for this offense, and I think it's something we can build off of moving forward.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports