Mike Smith will send his Atlanta Falcons (5-3) against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday at noon in the Georgia Dome and although his team has played efficiently and well, the Birds are a l-point underdog to the Saints.
The first-year coach had a conference call with the local media on Wednesday and the following are some slices from the question-and-answer session:
Q: This is not a bad start to your coaching career, Has it been a surprise to you?
A: I believe that our players have played very efficiently in these first right games. Our start gives us some confirmation that we are doing things the right way. I think our players deserve a lot of credit because they have worked hard and understand our system and how we're going to do business. I think they've done a great job to this point.
Q: What do you think has enabled Matt Ryan to play the way he has in his first year so far?
A: Matt is a very talented player. He has the skills to be an outstanding quarterback in this league. There are a number of intangibles that Matt possesses that have sped up his maturation process through the first eight games. I want to caution that it's just eight games for the season. Matt is a guy that is a film rat. He spends a lot of time on his day off in the office watching tape. He understands the sequencing of the week in the NFL that you have to move on after that game on Sunday. You put it to rest on Monday and move on to the next game. There's a lot of nuances and differences from week to week in what he's going to face and he has done a nice job along with our coaching staff. We've put him in some situations he's been able to handle very efficiently.
Q: Is there a present player or a player in the past who Matt reminds you of?
A: Not really. Matt has an outstanding work ethic and has all the attributes that you are looking for.strong guy and he has a sense of getting the ball out of his hands, very similar to Drew Bree's. Drew has a very good understanding of the scheme that Sean Payton runs, gets the ball out of his hand. I think he's been only sacked seven times this year, and I think the good quarterbacks that are playing well are the guys that have a good understanding of the game.
Q:Many of the veterans on this team have gone through some tumultuous situations the past few years. Have you talked about how different things have been this season? Do you sense a change in atmosphere?
A: As a staff and as a team, we've never spoken or I've never addressed the team about what has happened in the past. What happened in '07 happened and we've started with a clean slate and I think that's been the sense all around the building. We came in and we were going to be very systematic in how we approached the offseason in terms of making changes with the roster, going through free agency and the draft. I think Thomas Dimitroff and his staff did a great job of identifying players. We were able to add a couple of free agents that are really contributing to our team and then think in the draft we did a great job. I'm a very communicative coach. Our coaching staff is that way. We want to have open communication because when I think you have open communication when you can define everyone's role and everyone understands what their role is and there's no griping. It's black and white at that point.
Q: How important was the addition of Michael Turner been to your team?
A: Michael has been very, very integral in what we want to do (rushed for 139 yards vs. Oakland last week). In fact, We knew our philosophy was going to be that we were going to want to run the ball and be able to run in this league. It's a cliche to say you have to run and be able to run the ball and stop the run, but it really to me is a the core of what successful teams are able to do and Michael has a lot of traits that we were looking for. He was a guy that can run between the tackles, but also has enough speed to take it the distance. Over the last three years, prior to this season, Michael was guy who had three touchdown runs of more than 75 yards, so with what we wanted to do with Mike Mularkey (offensive coordinator) is very in the philosophy the same in terms of what I like to do. We needed to do that and get a running back. Michael is a very young, five years in the league, and had only 251 carries, bot not a whole lot of wear and tear on his body and as we did our due diligence, we felt he gave us our best opportunity to set a running back in place.
Q: What do you think of the NFC South so far in terms of the style of play, the division and how i compares with other divisions?
A: From top to bottom, it is a very competitive division. The records on the teams indicate that. Week end and week out when our division goes out and plays against other teams in the NFL, it's going to be a battle. I think geographically the way the teams are located. makes for great rivalries. I've had the opportunity to go down and play TampaBay and Carolina and you see the fans getting energized. Falcons fans make the trip to Carolina and Tampa and I'm sure there will be some Saints fans that make the trip up here to Atlanta this week. I think it's very competitive and I think it's a difficult division that plays very good offense and defense.
Q: Do you have any sense halfway halfway through of how many wins it's going to take to get a playoff spot in this division and how many teams from this division could make the playoffs?
A: I can't even think about the past this week. We try to break the season into four quarters and that's the furthest time horizon that I look at. We're beginning to start the third quarter of our season, the Saints are up this week. We do know that of the next three games after this week, that two of the next three games will be at home and that's kind of how we break this down. I think it really too early to talk about anything like that.
Q: It seems like teams have keyed on Will Smith this season. With Charles Grant being out, is he the guy that you will have to key on more?
A: Yes. I think Will is an outstanding defensive end and you have to know where he is at all snaps. I've been very impressed with the job defensive coordinator Gay Gibbs and his staff have done with that defense, not only with Will but I think Jonathan Vilma has been a great addition to the defense. I think you've added Bobby McCray who I had at Jacksonville. Bobby had a ten sack year for us one season. We know he can rush the passer. I see where they've moving him around a little bit and getting him some rushes inside to create some mismatches. The linebacking crew with Scott Shanlee and Scott Fujita I think are good, hard=nosed football players. I think it's a good group from top to bottom.
Q: How much has the addition of Michael Turner aided in Matt Ryan's development?
A: I think not just for Matt, but for any quarterback, when you're able to run and force teams to add a defender to the front, whether he's playing on an eight-man front or adding a guy for depth to stop the run, it's going to be opportunities to take shots down the field because you're going to get a lot of one on one opportunities.
Hawks beat Hornets
"Atlanta was more aggressive, more physical," is the way Hornets coach Byron Scott summed his team lost their first game of the season 87-79 on Wednesday night at the Arena. "They took liberties against us and we took a step because we accepted it."
Time after time he Hawks weathered the Hornets' comeback blows.
"Never since I've been with the Hawks have I seen the defense the way they did tonight.": said Atlanta's Joe Johnson. "You can't ask for anything more than that. Our offense is going to come. We haven't been playing great offensively, but it's going to come.."
Johnson led all scorers with 24 points. seven rebounds and four assists.
Chris Paul scored 22 points and 11 assists while David West hit 15 points and James Posey 10. Paul's three-pointer capped a 10-0 run to close the third quarter when the Hornets took a 62-58 lead and appeared to be seizing control.
Paul had a huge game but he wasn't able to beat the Hornets by himself. Paul, who had three steals, has a steak in 86 straight games dating back to the 2006-07 season. Peja finished with eight points on 3-of-13 shooting, including 2-of-7 on three-point conversions. Paul has double digits in both points and assists in all four of the Hornets (3-1) games this season.
Hornets center Tyrus Chandler and Stojakovic returned to the starting lineup after both missed the Hornets' previous last Saturday with ankle sprains. Chandler scored he game's first basket, but the Hawks responded with an 8-0 run and led the rest of the half.
"We wanted to try to contain Paul, let him score a lot, but take a lot of those other guys out," said Johnson. "In the fourth quarter, we made a lot of big shots and got a lot of key defensive stops. That's winning basketball."
Atlanta is 3-0 for the first time in 11 years, thanks in part to reserve Fli Murray, a key free agent acquisition who came up bug shots when Johnson was double teamed.
Posey said it was something to watch Paul on TV, but to playing alongside him has been great. "It's going top be a fun ride," said the former Celtics' sixth man.
"I came to the Hornets to win a championship and that's what I intend on doing.
"Our goal is o improve and work on things. We definitely did that in training camp, but we have room to improve on everything. There's no such thing as a perfect game. I'm continuing to improve on being on the same page as my teammates. I'm the new guy so I need to work that much harder to be able to read my teammates, and I'm going to be on the court before they are."
The Hornets travel to Charlotte to play the Bobcats on Friday night before returning to the Arena to play the Miami Heat on Saturday night.
IF THE NFC SEASON ENDED TODAY, HERE ARE THE PLAYOFF PAIRINGS:
Mike Smith will send his Atlanta Falcons (5-3) against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday at noon in the Georgia Dome and although his team has played efficiently and well, the Birds are a l-point underdog to the Saints.
