Jacksonville Jaguars at Atlanta Falcons
Preseason Game 3
August 27, 2022
HEAD COACH ARTHUR SMITH
Opening Statement:
“I appreciate their effort the entire spring, summer, camp. We’ve got some tough decisions ahead of us, but I’m always thankful for those guys’ efforts. These guys have worked extremely hard, and this was a good way to cap the preseason for us. Preseason or not, it’s good to get a win at home.”
On QB Desmond Ridder’s performance:
“That’s why you need to play these guys. There’s no way to develop. You can simulate things in practice. You teach them lessons, but sometimes the best thing to do is to go out there and play and work through it. You’re going to find out a lot about people. First play of the game, we had one guy in front go the wrong way, and he let one mistake become two, trying to play hero ball. You can live to the next down. So, he understood that. He didn’t pout. Comes out the next try, and I thought he was very solid. Then we didn’t have — we lost a couple of situational things on third down or didn’t handle overcoming a backed up on a penalty. Then the last one, I wanted to launch one before the half, he had to move in the pocket. He had to reset because I thought we had a chance with Frankie. Frankie had a good move on that. Thought we’d give him a chance. End of the half, who cares? There’s a lot of guys, they care more about social media, stats, whatever it is, and Desmond is a real football player. You got to come out and keep swinging and keep things in perspective. You can put the second one on me, moving, trying to get the play before the half, see if we can launch one. I was proud of these guys. We won a game in all three phases. Pinion punted well. Obviously, Q. Bell, defense handled sudden change and made them kick field goals, and we were able to score touchdowns in the red zone. That’s the name of the game.”
On ILB Dorian Etheridge’s injury update:
“We have to see. Any time someone gets carted off, it looks bad. Not to be evasive, but we won’t know until the doctor’s looked at him, and we’re very hopeful, but we’ll have to see.”
On his takeaways from the running backs:
“Yeah, they ran hard, but it takes all 11 of us in the run game. Quarterback to get us in the right look. We put a lot on the quarterback. That’s why I’m pushing Des so hard. A lot more than just calling runs we ask our guys to do. I thought the line, the receivers, they blocked. It’s fun as a play caller, you’re able to get a lead, and you get these guys in a flow, and there’s nothing I enjoy more. Maybe I’m messed up in the head because I was a lineman, but that’s pretty to me when you’re in the fourth quarter and you got a lead and watching these guys come off the ball and churning off two-yard runs to eight, to nine. Huntley popped a big one, but it takes all 11 to run the football for us.”
On what’s on the agenda for the coaching staff over the upcoming week:
“Well, it’s our football staff. That’s what we call ourselves, a football staff. We’re a team. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. Again, there’s a lot more transactions, the way this thing’s going to go. A lot more mechanisms now that you can use. You’re just going to have to let it play out because you’re able to get more guys on the practice squad, different mechanisms. What may look like the roster on Wednesday may look a little bit different on Thursday and so on.”
On the interior defensive line’s performance:
“It was exciting. A lot of it too, it’s not just the sacks, but it’s when you’re running certain pressure packages or games, everyone being coordinated on the same page, so you don’t open rush lanes, or you don’t lose contain. Guys get the ball out. Even Troy, he was upset with himself, he needs to make that play. But guys kept finishing, effort, and he was still able to get the ball out. He threw it up, and Nate Landman was able to pick it off.”
On whether he has the trust of his players:
“I do.”
On how important it is to establish a winning culture at home:
“Very important. I can’t sit there and live in the past and get anxious, what we’re trying to build is something real and it’ll happen organically. We’ve got to do our part, I love our fans they come out here and they’re passionate, and the city loves the falcons. We’ve got to get people to come in here so we can be like a big party on Sundays, but we’ve got to do our part and it’ll happen organically. We’ll build a winning culture and do things the right way because this place, I promise you, will be rocking when we get this thing rolling.”
On how beneficial is was to play QB Desmond Ridder up until the fourth quarter:
“It’s huge. That was our strategy going in. I feel about as good as you can to execute the strategy in the preseason. What we wanted to accomplish, playing everybody, joint practices, the competition that we had, and there’s a reason why. Feleipe, I let him pick the ball up once. I thought he threw a pretty good ball there at the end. But you can’t get enough reps. We’re trying to develop these quarterbacks and get Marcus going again. They took a ton of reps, those two guys. We were able to use the preseason the right way. I was pleased, it wasn’t perfect, but he got better every time he went out there.”
On whether he feels good about what he’s seen from QB Desmond Ridder:
“I feel good about what I’ve seen with Marcus and all the offensive players too.”
On ILB Deion Jones and CB Isaiah Oliver seeing game action for the first time this preseason:
“Those guys, they’re on different return to play. They’re not on the same timetable. That’s why their energy is different. I was really pleased with Isaiah. Sometimes it’s not just a physical hurdle, it’s a mental hurdle. Whether you guys may not realize it or nobody in the stands, but Dean called the same call that Zay blitzed on and got hurt against Washington. Sometimes you need to overcome it. When he called that, I wanted to see Zay go back. He basically had to face those fears to know the guy’s back. We’ll continue to assess, but I was very pleased with Isaiah today.”
On potential roster changes:
“Everything’s on the table, and it’s going to be around the league. We’ve got a great football staff, and we’ll go with every contingency plan and make sure we get the right guys through and keep — and turn over every stone we can to make sure we’ve got the best roster available.”
On the overall progression of the team:
“Yeah, I think this team, we’ve got a chip on our shoulder. We’ve got something to prove. So, I think we’ve been competitive from day one. Like I was saying, the periphery opponents can say what they want. They can rank us 40th roster and 42nd coaching staff out of 32. We don’t care. We’re going to go compete and do our best. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but to get ready to roll for September 11th, when New Orleans comes here.”
QUARTERBACK DESMOND RIDDER
On first career NFL start:
Obviously, off the bat wasn’t the hottest start you could have, but I felt it went well. We went out there, our goal was to go out there and execute, dominate the line of scrimmage, and that we did, and just keep the ball moving. We still had little issues here and there, when it comes to just getting the plays going and everything, but we’ll clean that up. And I think it went well.
On extending drives and converting on multiple third downs:
It’s just really keeping the ball moving forward any way possible to do that. Whether it’s running the ball, whether it’s throwing the ball, there’s a screen, it doesn’t matter, we want to keep the ball moving forward. So, in that situation, we were able to do that. We train to have those long drives and train to grind down the other team more than we’re tired, and that’s what we did.
On the first of his two interceptions:
No, those are both on me. I’m out there on the field but yeah, on the first one, I think we had something go wrong with the line, so I had a guy in my face. I still thought I could have made the throw. Throwing late over the middle probably isn’t the best option, and obviously, you know the first play of the game, we want to get things going. So, learning from that, next time just throwing it away is probably a better option. Things sometimes just build on top of build when things go wrong so once one thing goes wrong, our job as a quarterback is to not make it any worse than it already is. Obviously, that’s what I need to do better.
On how well OL Ryan Neuzil and the rest of the offensive line performed:
They did great, all five of them that were in there. We obviously have been with a lot of them since rookie minicamp, so it’s been great that we were all able to get out there, and they did a heck of a job. Those are my boys.
On what goes through his head when things don’t go his way:
Just play the next play. I think that’s been instilled in me since probably my high school days and maybe even younger, but mostly high school. As a quarterback, you’ve got to play the next play. No matter what happens on the next one, what happened on the drive before, the first half, it doesn’t matter. Go out there and play the next play. It’s a new play, and there’s new opportunities to be made.
On coach Arthur Smith’s comments about not coaching him as a rookie:
That makes me feel good because, one, I know he cares. He knows what player I can be, and you know he sees the potential that I have. He’s just trying to get everything out of me, and I love that as a coach. I don’t care whether it’s hard coaching, soft coaching, whatever it may be. Sometimes it is tough when he gives it to me, and that’s fine. I’m going to take it and kind of to your last question, but onto the next play. You remember these things and you remember these moments, but they’re all for the better of not only myself but the team as well.
On what ways he has grown as a player and quarterback over the course of his first preseason in the NFL:
I would definitely say my overall knowledge of the game, just when it comes situationally, and also just when it comes offensive scheme-wise. Just having the past three, or four months, whatever it may be, just consumed with knowledge, it’s been fun for me. I’m excited to continue this journey and keep continuing to learn.
On how he remains even-keeled after throwing an interception on his first pass in his first career NFL start:
I always say you got to be neutral through everything. So yes, it was my first preseason start, first game at home, first start at home. I stayed calm through warmups, through the beginning, through the end. So not making a big deal of what it may be, just making it another deal and what you’ve got to go handle, that’s what I kind of pride myself on is just kind of going to do the next thing.
On whether he had a moment to reflect on accomplishing a childhood dream of starting a game in the NFL:
No, I have not. Right there at the end, we kind of just had a little group of silence, moment of silence, just to pray for injuries and everything. So, I did take a little time just to thank God that I’m here, made it with no injuries, and we’re onto tomorrow so I’m blessed for that.
On the offensive lines performance against the Jaguars:
I thought our offensive line did a great job today. I think we had a couple of false starts, whatever it may be, and miscommunication, that’s on me as well. So not all of that is on them. Other than that, they dominated the line of scrimmage. That’s how you win games is up front, both on the O-line and the D-line. Both sides of our ball dominated and special teams. So that’s where you win games. Everyone is on the same page to accomplish the mission, accomplish the goal. That’s what we came out here to do, and that’s what we did. The O-line did a great job. The boys love running behind them so it was great.
HEAD COACH DOUG PEDERSON
On the Jaguars’ wide receivers:
“Some of these guys have really taken advantage of their situations and opportunities and some of the veteran players showed up in the first half today and it was really good to see some of these young guys really taking advantage of the extended playtime”.
On whether Devin Lloyd finished the game healthy and how he played:
“He came out of the game perfectly fine. He’s strong and healthy. We wanted to get him at least (the) first quarter and he played almost the first half with 25 or 26 snaps and he did well from what I can see. We’ll watch the tape on the way home but he looked good he played fast and that was good to see”.
On whether Lloyd’s task is to be in condition for Week 1:
“I think so. I think we just need to find out where he is health wise when we get back and check him this week at practice”.
On whether that position is still open:
“I think it’s just a great situation to be in we have two young guys that can rotate, really three players, that can play two spots which is good. Both those young players have been really great for us. We want players, ascending players and were going to have to play some meaningful snaps obviously for a good season”.
On Jacksonville entering the regular season relatively healthy:
“I think we’re in a pretty good spot. We got a couple guys bouncing back fully and we’re trying to get them back healthy and back out there but other than that I feel like we’re really good coming out of camp and heading into the regular season”.
On whether the kicking situation has been settled:
“Well, I think it’s enough to get on tape, but I don’t think we can necessarily decide. I think we have to figure that out this week in practice and try to go from there and make that decision”.
On how he feels about the team going into the regular season:
“I feel good. I feel good about the starters. The way they’ve played the last couple of weeks and have really dominated while they were in there. These guys today got chances to solidify some of those backup spots that we’re looking for and really try and find some special teams’ guys that are willing to step up and play special teams and that’s what these games are all about. Who is willing to embrace that? Overall, I feel good about the starters and where they are and how they are focused and ready to get this thing going”.
On what the next 36-48 hours look like:
“It’s a chance to evaluate the whole thing. We’ve got a couple days here to do that. We’ll get in tomorrow and watch the tape with the players and make the corrections and all that. The players will be off on Monday and we have until Tuesday at 4 p.m. It’s always tough this time of year. I told the guys it’s a tough part of our business and a lot of guys today made a statement for a possible roster spot or practice squad spot and those are all things that we have time to evaluate here in the next couple of days.”
On the discussions about players between the coaches:
“It will work that way. We’ll have some really good dialogue with the staff, guys that have been coaching these players and at the end of the day it’s a body of work and who really put their best foot forward for us. Really too, we’re not just talking 53, we’re also talking 16 practice-squad players. We have some good young players that we definitely want to keep and develop so that’s something we have to evaluate.”
On how much things change as the regular season approaches:
“It’s a completely different animal. Obviously, game planning is everything and just these guys are getting all the work, all the ones are getting the work in practice. The young guys are going be doing a little [special] teams and running cards and we’ve had some experience with that during training camp. It’s a level of intensity that steps up a notch and we just have to focus one game at a time, one week at a time.”
On E.J. Perry:
“I think he did some good things. I did feel like maybe there were some things he tried to press a little bit. Tried to make something happen, which sometimes young players can do that especially a quarterback. Overall, he made some really good decisions, good throws, played tough, played physical, took some shots during the second half.”
On Perry playing the entire game:
“I think even with Atlanta playing well into the fourth quarter, that’s what they need to see and to see that from young guys, young quarterbacks and how they can handle some of the pressure and not playing with any of the starters and manage and get out of the hole, getting guys lined up and understand what that’s like to direct traffic, but i thought Atlanta played pretty well.”
