Falcons OC Dirk Koetter: ‘We couldn’t get anything going’
The Atlanta Falcons played one of their worst games of the season on Sunday, losing to the New Orleans Saints without starting quarterback Drew Brees. Offensively, the Falcons managed just nine points and struggled to do much of anything against a tough Saints front-seven.
Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter spoke to the media on Monday afternoon to discuss Atlanta’s Week 11 performance, saying he felt the team was too one-dimensional.
The whole second half I felt we were too one-dimensional but once you get behind, its hard and we couldn’t get anything going
Koetter also explained that the eight sacks were not all on the offensive line.
Most people are going to look at it and think it was all on the O-line, it really wasn’t. There were some coverage sacks, in there for sure and we didn’t get anyone open and Matt had nowhere to go. There was a couple of times we did have someone open and Matt couldn’t find them.
Quarterback Matt Ryan had his lowest passer rating since 2013, finishing without a touchdown and two interceptions. Koetter said the passing game failed to get going for a number of reasons.
First time in a long time our pass game couldn’t bail us out. We couldn’t get anything going. The [play action] passes weren’t there, the quick game isn’t working, the keepers, the bootleg game wasn’t working.
D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution then asked specifically what the Falcons did to try and get the offense going.
We’ll we had two screens and we messed them both up. We had two draws for no gain. I guess those didn’t work too well either. We really didn’t have much going our way to be truthful.
Team reporter William McFadden asked about the Raiders’ defensive identity.
They are a zone-orientated four down front team. They started the season giving up a lot of yards rushing, but the last month of the season they are playing much faster on defense.
Koetter noted that the Raiders are improving on defense. He also acknowledged that they nearly swept the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs this past Sunday.
Koetter ended the Monday briefing by acknowledging how hard it is to replace Julio Jones, whose status for Sunday’s game remains up in the air.
