Los Angeles Charges 17 - Atlanta Falcons 13
RAHEEM MORRIS: Yep. Appreciate the team's efforts. Appreciate everything the guys did today. You just can't go out and turn the football over four times and expect to win a football game. There will be a lot of things to go back and correct. There will be a lot of things to go back do. We gotta find ways to win games like that. We gotta find ways to win those in spite of or regardless of what happens. Appreciate the growth mindset from a lot of the guys that happened. We just can't win football games that way.
Q. Yeah, coach, could you speak to the interceptions and what may have led to them today?
RAHEEM MORRIS: We gotta go look at tape, obviously, but we gotta make better decisions in some cases. We can't turn the ball over. We gotta throw the ball to the back of the end zone at the end of the game and try to win that thing, try to fit it into a tight window. It is what it is, man. We can't have those things happen regardless of what it was or what the reasons are. We won't make any excuses for them. That happened today. That guy has carried us all season. He's done such a marvelous job it's hard to throw that guy under the bus what he's done for us and what he's done for this organization. So we'll bounce back. We'll bring him back and we'll get ready to go.
Q. Your progress in the pass rush today. What led to that?
RAHEEM MORRIS: You know, I won't go gloating about the pass rush today. We gotta go look at it and see what we did well, what we did better, watch the guys, but just give the guys credit. They got the sacks; they rushed the passer and was able to create some things for us on defense. We'll be able to watch the tape, find out what went really well. Hopefully it's repeatable and we'll go out there and find a way to get those results again.
Q. I think you just answered this at the end of your last answer. But we'll stick with Kirk at quarterback?
RAHEEM MORRIS: Yeah, we don't have any issues with that, man. I don't think that's going to be the issue around here. You know, that guy has carried us. That guy has got us to the point where we're 6 and 6 and we're first place in the division, still got everything in front of us, despite what happened today. It's up to us to bounce back and find a way to win football games and there's no better man than 18 to go do that for us.
Q. Kyle Pitts played fewer snaps than normal today, didn't have any catches. Are you pleased with what you're getting from him?
RAHEEM MORRIS: You know, he's done a really good job all season based on what his total production is for what's going on in the big picture. He has a lot of receivers and compare him to his peers, he's done such a good job. We got so many people that we gotta get the ball to. Sometimes those days happen. I would like to see Kyle get more production. I would like to see him have more opportunities, and whether it's us getting it to him or him doing a better job, we'll figure those things out as we go.
Q. Raheem, did you think about making a switch late in the game?
RAHEEM MORRIS: No.
Q. Defensively, they got after the ball. What did you see out of the defense?
RAHEEM MORRIS: They did a nice job. I think they're one of the topped rank defense in the National Football League. They got really good football players. They got really good pass rush. They're coached really well. Derwin James is one of the best players, I don't even know what they call him, stars, safety, dime, whatever you want to call it in the National Football League. He showed up today, made a bunch of big-time plays. Those guys are a very good football team, well coached. Lot of hats off to those guys.
Q. Coach, what do you say to fans who think this is kind of like déjà vu, the second year in a row --
RAHEEM MORRIS: I wasn't here last year.
Q. I know, but --
RAHEEM MORRIS: Yeah, we're not dealing with that. We're going to come out here and fight, find ways to get better, come out next week, try to get us a win, go find a way to win versus Minnesota.
Q. Do you feel like you have to address your -- to that point, do you feel like you have to address your team's confidence and do something differently or just buckle down on what you're doing?
RAHEEM MORRIS: I don't necessarily worry about our team's confidence. I think our team comes out every single week with the ability to go out there and have reasons and ways to win the football game. When you have ability and a way to win a football game and you know what it takes to go out there and do it and you don't do it, it's really clear, you know, what your purpose was at the day. We didn't get that done. And we gotta go get our purpose done. We got it done in a couple phases. This wasn't a debacle. This wasn't one of those things that we had before the bye. This is one of those situations we gotta get that one phase of our game fixed, and I know we can do it.
Q. Coach, anything you wanted to see on red zone execution today? You kind of talked about that last week --
RAHEEM MORRIS: No question. The beautiful thing about it -- I'm sorry to cut you off, but the beautiful thing about it was I loved the fact that we didn't get the penalties that set us back. It was turnovers today that really set us back in that situation, and that was some of the things you gotta be able to go in and punch those things in. You can't kick field goals in this league and win football games. You gotta score touchdowns. You gotta be able to go out there and force your will on your opponent. They moved the ball very nicely up and down the field, and once we get in those situations, we gotta score points.
We'll have an emphasis on our red zone offense for sure, but go out there and detail our passing game up even more to make things come to life for us, whether it's Kyle Pitts, whether it's Drake London, whether it's Mooney, whether it's Ray Ray, whether it's Bijan, whether it's Tyler and any other weapons that we have currently in Atlanta that we can go out there and utilize in order to score touchdowns.
Q. Going off of that, coach, why do you think some of these offensive drives have stalled as of late, because it seems to be something that's reoccurring, especially today?
RAHEEM MORRIS: Definitely gotta execute. Looking at the last three weeks -- fair question -- you gotta go out there and execute better. The previous reasons were penalties, you know, stopping us from getting to the one-yard lines and things of that nature. Today it was lack of execution of some of our core concepts that we wanted to get done or some of our new concepts that we put in versus these guys. And, again, I don't want to take credit from what the Chargers were able to do on the defensive side of the ball and the things that they were able to accomplish. They played better than us today on defense and their offense, especially in the red zone, and a lot of hats off to those guys.
Q. You mentioned Kirk getting here this morning. He's your quarterback moving forward, but he was just off. And you might not consider making a change (indiscernible)?
RAHEEM MORRIS: Kirk was brought here to put us in a playoff position, put us in a position to go out there and find a way to get in the playoffs, get a home playoff game, win this division in the south, and everything is still right in front of us. We got so much confidence in our young man that we drafted, and we're still sticking with our plan. Kirk is here to develop and then grow and to make us go and find a way to get wins, and that's his job and he will continue to do that for us, and I got no doubt in my mind that he's going to bounce back and ready to go particularly versus his former team.
Q. Coach, your kicker today missed the first one and saw his body language after that miss but he bounced back.
RAHEEM MORRIS: I did not see his body language. I saw the miss. I saw the results. I don't get caught up in the emotional roller coaster of those things. I know he came back and kicked one that he's gotta make. We gotta make all those things, particularly in the range that he's able to make those things, and he knows that. We know that. That's something we gotta make sure we address and do the right thing.
Q. Following up on Zack's question, what would you like to or even need to see from Kirk in a response to this game?
RAHEEM MORRIS: Yeah, don't turn the ball over. It's really simple. He did everything right, except turn the ball over today. You look at your stats, you can look at yards, you can look at receptions. You can do all those things today. You turn the ball over today, you're going to be in trouble. Execution in the red zone. All those things can go for us.
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