Washington Commanders 24 - Atlanta Falcons 16
Q. Des, could you discuss the interception what Coach was saying as you were throwing it away. You all were discussing the possibilities? You were trying to tell him what was going on? What was the situation like?
DESMOND RIDDER: Which one?
Q. The one where you were on the five to --
DESMOND RIDDER: Yeah, that was just a miscommunication. Obviously it was third down -- the one in the back of the end zone? Yeah. It was third down. Obviously trying to make a play. Got a miscommunication between myself and Drake, obviously just try to give him a chance. Drake turned one way; I threw it the other. It's just a miscommunication. Obviously you look back at the end of it, you wish you would have -- because I was also hot in the pressure, so I was just trying to get it up. That's one we're going to go back, go learn from and figure out a way to be better.
Q. The operation at the end, delay of game or you had to call a timeout. He said you all hadn't had that problem. What was going on today?
DESMOND RIDDER: Yeah, like he said, at the end of the day, we just all gotta be better. Whether it's substitutions, whether it's reads, whether it's play call, whatever it may be, we just all have to be better.
Q. After the game last week, how do you feel about how things went today?
DESMOND RIDDER: Yeah, obviously that's tough right there to go out there and put up that showing. When you have plenty of opportunities to go down and put points on the board, plenty of opportunities when you're moving the ball and getting things going and coming up short, obviously that's tough for us, but I think what's great for this team is that game there's a lot of good things to learn from. There's a lot of things that went wrong in there that we have done right in the past, that we just did wrong out there. So there's a lot of things that us as an offense can go back and learn from, and I think it's only going to make us better.
Q. Was this a frustrating game? (Inaudible).
DESMOND RIDDER: Yeah, obviously it's frustrating anytime you lose. Like I said, there's a lot of points where we could have done better, we could have put points on the board, we could have done this, and we just didn't. Like I said, whatever it was, we have to go figure it out and be better.
Q. And the operational issues that happened at various points in the game, is that on players not getting in or out quick enough? Is that on coaches not getting plays in quickly? I'm just curious.
DESMOND RIDDER: Yeah. Like I said, that's on everybody. Whether it's substitution, whether it's getting out of the huddle, whether it's play call, whether it's getting lined up, whether it's making the right read with the ball, it's just on everyone. This isn't a one-man or a one-coach thing. It takes all 11, and really all 53-plus, 53 players and all the coaches on the coaching staff and everyone involved. We all have to be on our A game. We all have to be able to go out there and execute under any type of circumstance, any type of pressure, and that's just something we failed at today.
Q. And, lastly, do you recall what happened in the first (inaudible)?
DESMOND RIDDER: Like I said, the first one, guy just jumped it again. Second one was hot, just trying to give him a chance, and like I said, we'll learn from it.
Q. Your offense got off to passing start of the season. Is there anything that you noticed you guys kind of doing well early in this game?
DESMOND RIDDER: No. We just came out and jumped on them. We just went out there and executed. That's all we did. Like I said, that we didn't do from the first couple weeks was execution. We went out there, kept the ball moving, got the first first down, kept positive plays going. Missed the early one right there to Red right there on our sideline, was able to bounce back, keep it going, put points on the board. That's what we gotta do every week.
Q. How important is that first third down?
DESMOND RIDDER: It's huge. Like I said, the first third down is huge. First play is huge; getting that first first down is huge. So obviously to be out there, to go out there and convert the first third down is huge for us.
Q. Coach Smith made the comment today that there's no need to force the run 45 times a game when there's other ways to move the ball. That seemed to be -- earlier in your stint as a starter, that seemed to be the heavier emphasis on the run. Do you feel like they're trusting you more to put more on you in these last two games?
DESMOND RIDDER: Yeah. You gotta trust every single guy that's out there on the field, whether it's run or pass. Like I said and have said in previous weeks, whatever is working is working, whether we run the ball a hundred times and throw it once or throw it once and run it whatever it may be. Like I said, at the end of the day, no matter what it is, whatever is called, we have to be able to go out there and execute it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports