Atlanta Falcons 27, Los Angeles Rams 24
KIRK COUSINS: Always gratifying to win. Great to do it in front of our fans. Thought they provided a great home atmosphere tonight. Fun to win on Monday Night Football. It was just great to see our team as a whole team win.
I thought our defense really made a major difference tonight. Special teams came up with some big plays, so really felt like we kind of leaned on one another and feels good to be walking out of here with a victory against a really good football team. Take any questions you have. She beat you to it. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. (Laughter)
Q. Kirk, can you evaluate your own performance just through the games that you've appeared in so far? And then also Bijan, can you describe the impact that he had tonight? Obviously a pretty big one.
KIRK COUSINS: Yeah, he's a special player. 2,200 yards from scrimmage this year is outstanding. I think I said this before, but Dalvin Cook had almost 2,000 one year and I didn't know that I'd get to see that again. So what he can do in both the run game and pass game is very unique. He's a great teammate. He's a great person. Bodes well for his future.
I think the key is we got to use him correctly and not overwork him because I think tonight we asked a lot of him and I want to make sure that he's fresh, you know, for what he's got ahead of him. But if you call his number, he's going to answer. He's not going to complain or tell you he's tired, so. Great player and he showed it again tonight.
Then as far as my performance, it's really not for me to say. I think you just go out and play the best you can. Try to enjoy it. Try to lead. Try to be a part of the group and do the best you can and let the chips fall where they may.
Q. Yeah, Kirk, could you discuss that first drive where you all exchanged a punch but then y'all put together 11 plays, converted on three third downs to get something started?
KIRK COUSINS: Yeah, I think did we go three-and-out to start? And then they went three-and-out or close to that and then punted us and we had a good drive. Yeah, it was big third down conversions. It was mix of run and pass, big third-and-goal to Bijan. Just kind of a complement of people and plays and it was fun to kind of use a variety of ways to attack their defense on that drive.
Q. And for the day, were they taking their receivers away or the rush was in your -- or didn't have time to get to them?
KIRK COUSINS: Yeah, it was a little bit of everything. I think we leaned on the run game a little more. It's not like we had 50 pass attempts, so that gives you less opportunities. I think if you don't convert a third and two, third and three, you miss out on another opp to maybe get them some touches. I don't know that we had really enough snaps and enough pass attempts to really get going. Would have loved to have gotten going more with those guys. And, yeah, it was just probably a combination of things. The rush was, at times, getting in there, but just didn't connect enough on a few.
Q. That last drive the field goal, you're running it, they know you're running it. Can you talk about how big it was for the line to create enough to get down there?
KIRK COUSINS: Yeah, those were hard yards and we were still kind of on the edge of field goal range where it wasn't an easy make but it felt like running the clock down was really important to not give them a chance to really go down and get points. Zane came up big, but, yeah, Tyler and Bijan both ran hard.
The group, not just the O-line but the tight ends and receivers blocked really hard on those plays to clear it open. I thought the third and one and a half, two-yard pitch play to Bijan was a big one to kind of get us in field goal range and get a new set of downs. That was key play.
Q. Kirk, you stood at that podium and said something about after it was clear you were going to be the quarterback for this team going forward at the end of the year here. The team had to be maniacale in kind of improving and getting back to the details of things. Can you talk a little bit about just how that has happened and how the team has come together really in these last several weeks?
KIRK COUSINS: Well, I think it's week-to-week too. I think even a win I can point to all these things we got to do better. We've had these games where, like, you go to Berlin and you feel like it's one play here and we can be winning that game or against Carolina at home here, even against Tampa here at home week one.
You have these games where you're like one play the other way and we come out victorious. Tonight you feel like it's one play against us and we don't. So that's pro football and you have to find these inches and that's where I say it's that maniacal approach starting in April and when show up in OTAs that you feel... it gives you your best chance to find those inches but you never know if it will make the difference or not.
We live, as pro athletes, with a constant tension knowing that. I drive to the stadium tonight and say it may come down to one play. So when you think about the hundred plays we have and all the checks and the reads and the decisions, you kind of drive to the stadium with this awareness of the tension that that creates and that it's a razor's edge margin and so you prepare with that and you try to kind of send that message to your teammates.
I think I've had maybe five, maybe six seasons in my career that I've missed the playoffs by one game and that game we missed by one play. So when you're missing the playoffs after one play after 1,200 snaps, it's a tough deal.
Q. Kirk, with everything that's happened this season, all the ups and downs, etc., what would a four-game win streak to close it and a sweep of the Saints kind of mean with all the things that have happened already?
KIRK COUSINS: Yeah, I think any time you can win a football game in this league it means a great deal and we'll enjoy this one. Then we've got a relatively short week to get back and try to finish strong. We've always said you want to start fast, you want to finish strong and we got to chance to at least finish strong next Sunday at home in front of our fans and our preparation through the week needs to reflect that.
Q. I just want to ask you, I know it's a little bit awkward because he's in the room but I want to ask you about Bijan. Stats aside, the way that he does it, the most yards after contact in a single game since ESPN started tracking that in 2009, do you catch yourself watching and, like, mouth agape as he's doing these things?
KIRK COUSINS: Well, I have a front row seat so I try to sell out my boot fake away that nobody's really buying (Laughter) and then I get a front row seat to watch it. I also know the physicality. I don't know that TV or sitting in row 40 really does justice to the physical nature of what he's having to do as well and the pounding that he takes. There's a toughness there to just get back up and also the exhaustion that it takes.
We asked a lot of him tonight and he just kept answering. Stayed in there, kept smiling. Yeah, it's a you to have a back who can make people miss, make plays and it'll make you right if you feel a pocket closing in, you throw him the football. You say, hey, he'll make me right and he's done that a lot over the last several weeks.
Q. The pass catching as well, something that has improved this year would you say?
KIRK COUSINS: Yeah, I don't know so much as improved. When I got here day one I watched him catch the football and it was like oh, he's a receiver as far as his hands. Late hands, tracks it really well. Very natural.
I just find myself a similar approach when I was with Dalvin Cook. Get the ball out of my hands and into his and better things happen. So that's kind of my mindset and we just got to, like I said, got to manage his workload sometimes because it's a lot of touches and a lot to ask of him.
Q. Kirk, you have been doing this for a long time. You've seen all the labels that quarterbacks can get. Why do you think that maybe the label game manager doesn't really have a negative connotation?
KIRK COUSINS: Oh, I don't know. I remember when I got to Michigan State, my quarterback coach said Kirk, what's the most important thing to do as a quarterback? And I stammered with my answer, I probably said seven things... leadership, accuracy, toughness. And he said it's managing the game.
What he meant was it's running the show, the operation. Getting in and out of the huddle, making the right checks, making the calls, giving your teammates a chance to be successful and the phrase is manage the game but it's a lot bigger than that.
I learned as a freshman at Michigan State just how important that was and that's the part of quarterbacking that I had to develop in at that time and it's something you'll always have to do as long as you play the position. Okay. Thanks, guys. We'll let the real star get up here.
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