Transcripts of conference calls by Atlanta's Matt Ryan and Mike Smith with Jets reporters on Thursday afternoon:
FALCONS QB MATT RYAN
On what he has seen on film from the Jets defense…
They're very good. Their front seven is extremely physical. Their three interior guys in their 3-4 scheme, big, strong, stout against the run, but also very good against the pass. They're very multiple in their looks, give you a lot of different things to prepare for. I think they've been playing very aggressively. On the back end, they have some guys who can make plays. [Antonio] Cromartie is extremely talented, very long, very good when he's in press coverage, can get his hands on you. So I've been very impressed with their defense.
On the challenges of a team giving multiple fronts…
Identifying where certain guys are lined up is certainly one of the challenges. I think that we have to be on top of that, understanding which guys are big guys, trying to identify which guys are going to rush. It creates unique challenges and that's certainly something we're going to work really hard on tonight.
On the hits that knocked Titans QB Jake Locker out of the game with the Jets last week…
I didn't think they were cheap shots. I thought it was just a bang-bang play and those were hard hits, but it's the unfortunate part of the game. You don't like to see anybody go down, and certainly I wish the best for Jake going forward and hope he has a speedy recovery. But I don't think they were at all dirty.
On the sense of urgency following Atlanta's slow start…
I think there's certainly a sense of urgency. We haven't started the way we wanted, but we understand it's a long season and there's still a lot in front of us. I think if you change your focus at all past this game and try and see how things are going to shake out beyond this week, you're wasting your time. I think guys have really bought into taking it one week at a time. We haven't gotten the results we've wanted, but we trust in that process and I think with the maturity of our football team and having the veterans that we have around helps with that. So I think there's definitely a sense of urgency, but we're certainly going to take it one week at a time.
On Geno Smith…
I haven't seen them play a ton. I obviously watched the game last week. We played the Patriots, so I was studying the film of their defense and watched him play. I think he's a talented guy. He made some really good throws in that game. Obviously, we've all gone through the ups and downs of your rookie season. There's nothing like experience. He'll keep learning, he'll keep getting better. I think he's going to be a really good player, and he's certainly got a lot of talent. He can make every throw you need to make.
On the health of Roddy White…
I can't comment on how he's feeling. I know he's been out there week in and week out for us and he's been getting better as the year goes on. But you'd have to ask him.
On having a player the caliber of Tony Gonzalez…
It's huge. It's always huge for us, first and foremost when you add a great player to your team, it makes you better. But beyond that, his personality in the locker room, his leadership, for young guys to see what it takes to be one of the best, I think that's huge for us. He had an unbelievable game for us last week. [He] seems to be getting better the longer he plays. He's been great to have as a teammate for the last five years.
On Jets DE Muhammad Wilkerson…
I think his blend of size and speed, he's extremely powerful, big guy, but he's quick and he's nimble. That said, there's added difficulty when you're going against a guy like him. And he's gotten off to a great start, he really has. He's had a great first four games and certainly jumps off the tape when you watch him.
FALCONS HEAD COACH MIKE SMITH
On Matt Ryan…
Well, Matt first has a very good skillset and secondly he has a great work ethic and I think those are the things everyone sees. They see he's a very talent player but they also realize he's one of the hardest working guys on our team, if not the hardest working guy. And when you have that type of makeup, it makes you into arguably the leader of our football team.
On what Jets head coach Rex Ryan has done to disguise his defensive looks…
They're playing very well on defense through the first quarter of the season. They're second in the league in defense. Rex does a great job of game-planning and puts a lot of window dressing out there that makes it harder on your offense and on your quarterback to determine what he's doing presnap. So a lot of the decisions he has to make are postsnap and those postsnap decisions are usually a second and a half or two seconds when you're talking about the passing game. I think he's doing a very good job. He has a great front seven with a lot of guys that can be game changers.
On if the Jets defense not coming up with takeaways is an accurate gage of how good they are…
I think turnovers come in bunches usually. I think that they're doing a very good job against the run, they're making it very difficult for people to run on them, and they have a cover corner that can match up and take away your No. 1 receiver if they so choose to play him that way and at times they do that with Antonio Cromartie. It's a very physical group, as I mentioned, especially the front seven. They have four former No. 1 drafts picks there in the front seven and all of those guys are playing like number one draft picks.
On what he tells his team after starting out 1-3...
First and foremost is there is a lot of season left. The second thing is that you basically have to approach this one day at a time. We're not going to get to 3-3 in one week. As I told them, we have to just chip away every day, not worry about next Sunday. We have to worry about today, which is a Wednesday practice for us, even though it's occurring on a Thursday.
We have a resilient group of guys that have had a lot of success over the last five years and we have, in my mind, a great group of mentors throughout the team. It's going to take that one-day-at-a-time attitude for us to chip away at what we need to get done. We all know what we're capable of doing, we just haven't gotten the outcomes we've wanted in these first four games, haven't made the plays when they've been presented to us.
On Geno Smith…
Geno has been very impressive in terms of his ability to make all the throws. He has a very strong arm that can cause issues for defenses and he's also a guy that can create with his feet. So we have to prepare to make sure we can corral him when he decides that he's going to take off and run. I know that he'd prefer to be considered a pure pocket passer, but he does have very good athleticism, and you can see he can make all the throws. I imagine that now you're a quarter of the way through the season, he's seen about every coverage you're going to see in an entire season. He looks like he's improving each and every week.
