Panthers - 30, Falcons - 0
Q. (Question off microphone)?
RAHEEM MORRIS: Everything. They came out right from the beginning and got after us, obviously early with the headset going out and things of that nature, not being able to get things going in a rhythm.
But we won't make those excuses. We had plenty of time to come back. We weren't able to get those things going. That game got away from us fairly quickly, and we were not able to capture the moment.
Q. Your kicker had a couple of opportunities today. And how do you look at that situation moving forward?
RAHEEM MORRIS: He had two misses. Gotta go obviously evaluate those things when you move on and figure out what we have got going out there. Obviously he came out last week, went 5-for-5. This week went 0-for-2. We can't have those moments.
Q. What's happening with the interception (indiscernible)? Michael, a lot of his throws were off target today especially when he's throwing to his right. Did he have something going on mechanical you think you could shore up?
RAHEEM MORRIS: No, I just think he missed his throws today. We won't make excuses, have any excuses about mechanical or that nature. We did not play well on any phase. And he did not play well as well. We didn't play well around him. We've got to play better across the board.
Q. Why your decision to put Kirk in?
RAHEEM MORRIS: The game was out of hand. You move on, keep him out of harm's way. Keep our guys out of harm's way. Take a couple guys out. We had to take some of those wideouts out. We had to get a young back in, get all those things going. The game's out of hand; they got us.
Q. (Indiscernible) chance to continue this week?
RAHEEM MORRIS: No.
Q. Kickoff return, (indiscernible) start squibbing?
RAHEEM MORRIS: Great job by those guys. That knuckle ball kick, we knew about it, we talked about it, we trained for it. And we didn't handle the situation well at all.
What a great job by their kicker. What a great weapon that is by those guys. They took advantage of it all day. Something that we knew about. Something that we talked about. Something that we brought to the forefront, and we were not able to capitalize with our returners back there today, collecting those balls at the 10, getting those funny style kicks, being able to utilize those things on the field. And that's pretty disappoint.
Q. Can you explain what happened with the headset?
RAHEEM MORRIS: Went out early, and Mike couldn't get the calls. We couldn't get the calls in there, obviously. We told the referees. They were able to get it fixed at some point whether it was the third series or fourth series, whatever the case may be. We were able to get those things fixed.
But we make no excuses. That thing was not the reason why the game was, the outcome. We take all the credit. We got outcoached, we got outplayed, we got beat as a team. A lot of credit to the Panthers.
Q. Michael's obviously a young quarterback. Probably his worst game yet as a pro. How do you keep his confidence after the performance last (indiscernible)?
RAHEEM MORRIS: I don't worry about Mike's confidence performance. Gotta go back and practice, go back to the drawing board, go back and do the things you're capable of doing, which we've seen him being able to do throughout the last two years, and let him go out there and do it. We'll go to practice this week. It will be a critical week for us ahead with another really tough opponent coming in.
Q. You talked about riding an emotional roller coaster. Were your guys prepared?
RAHEEM MORRIS: We were. I felt like we had two great days of practice. Obviously the results didn't show that. You'd have to say no, when you look at the overall aspects of the game. That emotional win we had, you ride that emotional roller coaster. Today we hit an all-time low. We tried to prepare them as best we could for the environment; not good enough.
Q. You were worried about a young team last week handling success. Do you have similar worries this week for handling a team like this?
RAHEEM MORRIS: No, you've got to go out and coach the guys. Gotta go out, put it in the forefront of their minds, talk about it, have to be very clear in your messaging. You have to let these guys know that those can't be the things we do. We have to go out and execute and capable of executing. We did not do that today.
Q. I understand you had that issue. But were the calls coming in quickly enough? That was an issue week one. Did you feel like you were getting calls in quickly enough?
RAHEEM MORRIS: You can't get them quickly enough when you don't have the information. Just didn't get the information, weren't able to get the calls out.
We got to get a better system to be able to get those things in if something like that happens again. We have to be ready for those things at all costs. We won't make that an issue.
That was early in the game. I think the score was 10-0. That score ended way past 10-0. That's not the issue in the game. We won't make those excuses.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports