Kellen Moore
Q. What are your big-picture takeaways from the first game? (Tim McManus)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I thought resiliency showed up, certainly some production, and plenty of things to clean up. It’s a Week 1 game. Ultimately, you’ve got to find a way to perform well enough to come out with victories. I think those are huge in early games, and I think our guys saw the growth opportunities that we had. They were excited about that as far as where we could take this thing, so it’s a matter of continuing to build throughout the season. Good first step.
Q. How do you address the bad snaps? (Reuben Frank)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I think it’s just an operational thing for all of us to grow through. There are a lot of things that go with that, from the snap to the cadence to the communication. There are a lot of things that go on pre-snap and just tightening that aspect of it up for all of us, how can we clean it up as much as we can. But I feel optimistic moving forward.
Q. What did you review from the two interceptions? (Brooks Kubena)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I think two 3rd-and-longs, from a play calling standpoint — I’m always going to do it from a play calling standpoint — aggressive calls at times, and I think those are opportunities for us to grow from, learn from, one being backed up and one being in the red zone. Obviously critical situations. Fortunately for us, we were able to come out of it and grow from those but also avoid the big-time negatives.
Q. What were the coaching points to QB Jalen Hurts in those moments? They looked like late throws. What did you tell him? (Ed Kracz)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, sometimes with those, we call a particular play that has some opportunity to earn the 1st down. And, at the same time, there are some situations where, hey, any completion is good, and we’ll make the decision as far as 4th down, whether it’s a kicking opportunity or a good-for-it opportunity. Those situations, sometimes those play out differently, so just communicating through how we want to handle those circumstances, whether it be the backed up or the red zone one. I think we all get to grow from our communication, so I think they’re good growth opportunities for us.
Q. All throughout camp, [QB Jalen Hurts] not throwing an interception for almost the entirety of it, and then a few questionable decisions in the game. What do you attribute that to? (Jimmy Kempski)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I think sometimes the first game. And, we had two 3rd-and-extra-long opportunities where you practice some of those during training camp and I think we just — we got a little aggressive, myself play calling, also ultimately just the throw. But not overly concerned. They’re outliers in many cases, I think as we all have seen [QB] Jalen [Hurts] in those circumstances, so we feel optimistic we’ll be just fine moving forward and we’ll be able to adjust.
Q. Did any of the footing issues affect you in-game? Do you have to change at all? (John McMullen)
KELLEN MOORE: From a play-calling standpoint? Not for me standing there. (Laughter).
Q. Yes, from a play call— (John McMullen)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I think there was an awareness of it. I think everyone understood that there was some element of slipping on both sides of it. And so there was a little bit of awareness of it, whether a couple opportunities, hey, can we take advantage of an element of hey, if a guy slips here, we’ve got a potential play here. But obviously, there’s some awareness. I think both sides were playing in the same circumstances. I don’t think it drastically leaned one way or the other.
Q. What stood out against the blitz? (Zach Berman)
KELLEN MOORE: I think our guys did a nice job of just communicating, being on the same page. I thought Jalen did a nice job. He felt comfortable back there with a plan. I thought the big 3rd down was a big play when he threw the ball to [WR] A.J. [Brown] and it was two yards short and understanding, hey, A.J. is going to be able to get us the last two, if not more. Good communication with the protections for all of our guys.
So, I think there were some really good growth opportunities for us to continue to build on there.
Q. This is the first time you’ve seen the G/T Mekhi Becton – C Cam Jurgens partnership in extended game action. What stood out about that pairing? (EJ Smith)
KELLEN MOORE: I thought in general up front, I thought we did an excellent job. We were firm in the pass protection. Run game, there were some really exciting highlights with those guys coming off the ball, getting to the second level, combination blocks, a lot of things to grow from, a lot of optimism with that group. I thought [G/T] Mekhi [Becton] did an excellent job. One element is he’s part of the cadence as well, so he’s having to play guard for the first time. He’s also part of the cadence because he’s really our indicator from the quarterback to the center, so he had heavy responsibility with that. He did an excellent job.
Q. What did you feel was effective about using RB Saquon Barkley in the game plan for the first time? (Brooks Kubena)
KELLEN MOORE: Obviously, I think [RB] Saquon [Barkley] is a premier player. He did an excellent job. His versatility and ability to play in a number of different ways. You saw the pass game come up with two catches, you saw the run game. He thought he was downhill in some of our inside zones. He did an excellent job, and he’s a guy who, once he gets out in space, he can make some really big time plays. So we’re excited. He’s done an excellent job, and we’ll be able to diversify it as we go. Week in and week out, everything — we can adjust the game plans and we’ll play different styles depending on how the opponent wants to play us. He’ll provide us with that opportunity.
Q. What do you attribute the disparity with QB Jalen Hurts with motion versus no motion? (Jeff McLane)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, motion is an aspect that certainly we want to utilize as much as we can. By game plan, it’s going to be different. There are certain schemes that it may give us an advantage. Sometimes it may be more window dressing, and we’ll see how much we emphasize it. But I think, again, we want to try and present the defense and stress their pre-snap communication, whether it be tempo, whether it be cadence, whether it be the motion aspect of it. I think every game plan is going to have a little different flavor, and so I thought he did an excellent job. I think he saw it well. He saw the adjustment the defense was making, and he was able to find a bunch of completions off of it.
Q. You talked about the fumbles generally, but the second one by the goal line, what happened on that one specifically? (Tim McManus)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, just an element of slipping there. I think, missed opportunity. Obviously, we would have loved — I think all of our guys were a little bit bummed with that opportunity to take that touchdown to kind of solidify the thing. It didn’t happen for us, ultimately. Credit Saquon being aware there because really his responsibility — he’s ready to push and he had the awareness to quickly protect the ball there and he made a critical recovery there.
Not overly concerned based on the circumstances of that game. I think we’ve still got some great opportunities with the QB sneak element and keeping that a part of that package as we go.
Q. How unusual is it to have a rookie late-round pick like WR Johnny Wilson who’s so developed in the blocking game? (Reuben Frank)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, [WR] Johnny [Wilson] did an awesome job, fired up. There’s a bunch of highlight blocks in there. He took advantage of his 10 or so snaps. He’s got a role for us. Obviously, it’ll evolve as we go week in and week out from a run game perspective. In the pass game, he’ll come alive as we go, and we’re really excited about him.
Q. WR DeVonta Smith played more in the slot than he typically has here in the past. We kind of thought that might happen based on what we saw in the summer. What are the traits that you identified that he has that you wanted to put him inside there? (Jimmy Kempski)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I think he just does an excellent job. He’s got great spatial awareness, great feel for the game. I think when you play inside as a receiver, there’s a lot more variables. There’s a nickel on top of you, but there’s a safety, there’s backers. You’ve got to have the awareness to kind of see — have great spatial awareness to recognize all those aspects and see how those moving pieces change the picture for you. So I think he did an excellent job finding space in the zone a couple times. He had the critical 4th-and- 3, big time play where he saw one defender outside of him and one defender inside of him, he tight turned it, hooked it up, Jalen saw him. Those are big time plays. Those aren’t easy to see that spatially in that quick instance. He’ll continue to play outside in different roles and different situations, and we’ll move those guys around. A.J. will be in there some. That’s the beauty of what we have at the receiver group is those guys can play all over the field.
Q. [Regarding bringing WR Jahan Dotson into the offense] (Bo Wulf)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I think he did an excellent job hopping in there based off the tight circumstance in which he got here. He did a really good job. I thought he had a great understanding of what was being asked of him and the offense. He was able to play out there in some of the no-huddle situations, which isn’t easy when you come in. We’re really excited about him. We’ll keep building it.
Q. Now that everyone has seen your offense and how you use RB Saquon Barkley and other guys, how important is it to diversify different parts of the game plan as you guys go forward? (Martin Frank)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, just one week, so there will be certain trends and tells associated with one week of the game. We obviously know that. The fun aspect of this thing is every week is kind of its own season. There’s a different game plan associated with it. Hopefully, it looks different, and it can buck some of the trends that happened the week before and also create some new opportunities for some other guys. So that’ll be the exciting part.
Q. In the summer, you talked about creating tendencies to break them in big moments. When you actually break those tendencies, is it all data-driven or is it all just based on feel? (Dave Zangaro)
KELLEN MOORE: No, there’s a huge data aspect of this thing, just understanding who you are. We study the film aspect of it, but there’s a numbers aspect of it, as well, because play callers are going to call things based on the numbers. Those are usually high indicators that you’ve got to trust the numbers in some circumstances, so we’ve got to be aware of those numbers.
If you’re really good at something, there are going to be tendencies that happen, so you’ve just got to have awareness of it and understand that at some point you’re going to have to make adjustments according to that.
Q. What was your view on the ‘tush push’ when you were on the other side, and are there things you would like to introduce there that maybe we haven’t seen yet? (Bob Brookover)
KELLEN MOORE: Obviously, it’s an excellent play. It’s a very important play for us, and we’ll continue to utilize it. It’s certainly a part of this thing. The circumstances on Friday had some unique aspects to it, just with the footing and whatnot, but it’ll still be a part of our deal.
Obviously, we know there are other plays associated with that, but it’s a premier play, and we feel really comfortable with it.
Q. The Falcons made some late summer additions, Falcons OLB Matthew Judon, Falcons S Justin Simmons, Falcons DL Grady Jarrett is back. What are some challenges that the defense of the Falcons presents? (Ed Kracz)
KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, watching them on film, I think they do a really excellent job. The front, getting him, putting him on the edge, a premier player. And then to have two safeties of that caliber, just great feel for the game, great understanding, and they can tie everything together. I think it’s a veteran group, a really experienced group. They did a nice job of containing Pittsburgh in some ways on Sunday. So it’ll be a challenge.
Early in the season, Jimmy Lake being their defensive coordinator, it’ll look different than their Week 1. Just like we’ll make our adjustments. Especially early on in the season, the first few games of the year, you’re going to see a lot of unscouted looks, you’re going to see a lot of things you haven’t seen on film. You’ve got to be prepared to handle that and trust your rules and trust your training that you’ve invested all off-season on.