A good team doesn’t make excuses. A good team wants to find deficiencies, not brush them off, and improve upon them.
On Sunday, the Broncos were outclassed by the Falcons, and they know it. From the line of scrimmage on up through the secondary and at quarterback, Denver was not prepared to battle Atlanta.
It’s no surprise they lost. The better question is can they rebound, and they believe they can.
Following the game, the Broncos spoke to the media, and they owned up to their failures. They gave the Falcons credit and admitted they needed to improve.
Here’s what they had to say:
Gary Kubiak on what happened
“We battled, we just didn’t play very well. You have to give Atlanta a lot of credit. They came into our place, played with a lot of poise and made a lot of big plays against us. They did a great job once they got us down. Give them credit. They’re a really good football team. We have to have a short memory here and get back to work.”
Chris Harris Jr. on the play of Atlanta’s running backs
“It’s the same thing we’ve been getting last year. The Patriots ran it; a lot of teams that have receiving running backs always try to test our linebackers. They’ll be ready. Of course they know that they didn’t play their best game, but I trust those guys. I love ‘B-Marsh’ [ILB Brandon Marshall] and [ILB] Todd [Davis]. I love how they’ve been playing this year so we all expect those guys to bounce back.”
Von Miller on the Falcons’ rushing attack
“Coming into the game, I said that [Atlanta RB] Devonta Freeman was pretty good. You would just look at the film and tell that he is one of the premiere backs in the league. They were blocking pretty good. They were pulling their tackles and tight ends. We couldn’t really get our feet up under us. When we finally did get our feet under us, it was too late.”
Shane Ray on what the Falcons did effectively
“They had a good scheme. They did some things to get one-on-ones with our linebackers, and they were able to come out on top today. It’s nothing that concerns us. We’re going to go back to the drawing board and get better.”
Emmanuel Sanders on what went wrong on offense
“They were playing good defense. Sometimes you guys [the media] point the finger at us offensively, but they had a great scheme. They were playing straight Cover-3, and we just couldn’t find the windows.”
Aqib Talib on why the game plan didn’t work
“There’s no science to it. You line up two NFL professionals, somebody’s going to win. They just won more times than we did.”
T.J. Ward on whether other teams will be able to replicate what Atlanta did
“Not every team has their personnel. You’ve got two good backs in Atlanta. Detroit has two good quick backs, but every team doesn’t have those type of backs. They’ve got good personnel that match up against us well, we didn’t play our best and they won the game. We’ll be back next week. We’ve got San Diego down there Thursday night. America will see us on national TV again and hopefully, no, not hopefully, we will bounce back stronger.”
