Head coach Mike Smith on the play of the offensive line: "We gave up way too many sacks and way too many pressures on the quarterback. It wasn't necessarily mental. I think it was a technique thing. Again until we watch the tape I am not going to be able to tell you exactly what happened but it looked like it was more technique than mental errors. They did hit our quarterback too many times with some of their add-on blitzes. We have got to get that fixed."
Smith on kicker Matt Bryant not playing in the game: "We did not plan on kicking Matt (Bryant) this week. That was part of the plan. There were three guys that did not play in the game. Matt was one of them. We anticipate that Matt will be full speed, ready to go. We wanted to rest him. We wanted to look at (Jeremy) Shelley. I thought that he did a nice job, although, he did miss the one field goal. He came in and did a good job for us. I don't think we kicked the ball off as well as we needed to. Matt (Bosher) missed a couple of them that normally would've been seven, eight (yards) deep and we had some short kicks, but I thought that the coverage units did a nice job of compensating for those kicks."
Smith on the return of Tony Gonzalez and Sean Weatherspoon: "I thought that Tony did a nice job out there. I think Spoon was doing a nice job with the defense in terms of signals and getting us into the right defenses. The scoring drive there in the first half was way too quick. I believe it was five plays and 64 yards — that was way too quick. They completed three quick passes and had two runs, an explosive run of 19 yards, so that was way too quick for what we would like to do. We want to force people to take the ball the long way and not score that quickly."
Quarterback Matt Ryan on the play of Steven Jackson and Gonzalez: "Steven is a great player. I think he ran the ball really effectively tonight early on. We have seen the last couple of weeks that he has been extremely productive. He's a great teammate, a great worker, fun to be around and a really good leader. Tony is a guy that we know what he is capable of doing. He's been here for the last four years and coming into his fifth season with us. I'm excited about those two guys. They are going to be a lot of fun to play with and I think it will help our football team a lot."
Ryan on the next week of practice: "They are huge. I am a big believer in preparation. That is, to me, the formula for success. You have to prepare really well. We have an opportunity this week with three practices before we play Jacksonville again. During those three practices we have to get better. We have to go out there and we have to work. We have to sure up some of our timing and work on protections and do all of those things that we can do to become a better football team. So I think the mindset has to be that we have to have a great week of practice."
Offensive tackle Lamar Holmes on his night: "You know how you perform out there before you even watch the film. I know how I played tonight. I don't know exactly how I played, but I had some ups and I had some downs. That comes with the territory. Everything is not going to be perfect. It is what it is and you've got to learn to get better."
Quarterback Dominique Davis on learning from Ryan: "It feels great. Even from my freshman year in college, watching how he works and his preparation and his leadership. I just try to follow his same footsteps."
Tight end Tony Gonzalez on how it felt to return to action: "I felt good. Obviously, there's room for improvement—there always is, I've only been back four days, or whatever it is. I am improving my wind, I wasn't winded, but I can get better. I can explode off the line of scrimmage, everything can improve. I like where I'm at having missed most of camp, but we've got another week of practice and then we have to get ready for the Saints."
Gonzalez on his performance: "I was happy with it. Just that, 'he's still got it' I guess —mthat I can go out there and get open. It's football and I've been happy with my progress since I've been back. I take a little pride knowing that I wanted to do it. That was part of the plan. I took care of myself during those two weeks that I wasn't here, going out there and conditioning and working out and preparing. Preparing myself for when I got back to hit the ground running, I didn't want to let my teammates down — I didn't want to let myself down."
Offensive tackle Sam Baker on settling for field goals: "That's why we go to practice, and that's why we watch the tape, that's why we come to work every day and that's to correct those things. We're not satisfied with that, we know we can play better than that and we're going to go back to work."
Running back Steven Jackson on how he feels in the offense: "Each and every week I am getting more comfortable with the offense. The way things are happening, the way the offensive line is blocking on certain plays, so more repetition, more time to get together — the better I'll feel."
