GLENDALE, Ariz. – There's no sugarcoating how the Falcons felt in the locker room following the 34-33 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
Disappointed and frustrated were a few of the words used often.
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"We just have to make up our mind of who we're going to be at the end of the day," Julio Jones said. "It's not, 'You get down, OK we're going to fight back.' It's like when you wake up in the morning, you have to make that decision of who you're going to be. We control that."
After coming back from a 27-10 deficit in the third quarter, the Falcons tied the game up with 10:46 left to play in the fourth quarter. The Cardinals (2-3-1) and Falcons duked it out until the final minutes of the game.
Atlanta had a chance to tie the game up again with two minutes left to play after a Devonta Freeman 12-yard touchdown score, but Matt Bryant’s extra point attempt sailed wide left and the Falcons never got the ball back.
"I just hit it too high on the ball, that's why it goes left like that. I just missed it," Bryant said following the game. "The only thing that matters is how the game ends. I've gotten a lot of support, but it doesn't take away from the feelings of being depended on to go out there and do my job and come up short. It's disappointing for us to fight back the way we fought back and to not finish it off."
It seems as if the Falcons flipped the switch at the half, yet again.
After only scoring 10 points in the first half, Matt Ryan and Co. came out on fire in the second half.
Austin Hooper and Ryan were at the forefront of the comeback as the Cardinals had no answer for Hooper who finished the day with eight catches for 117 yards.
Hooper said coach Dan Quinn's message to his players at the half was to take their game to level they know they're capable of playing at.
It just wasn't enough at the end of the day.
"I'm not worried about me individually, we have to find a way to get it done better as a team," Hooper said. "Quinn challenged us to be better in the second half and we started moving the ball more efficiently. We started applying more tempo to get those big guys they have over there tired, but it doesn't matter if we score five points or 50 points, the goal is to score one more than the opponent. We definitely have to get better."
