Game Quotes: Panthers at Falcons

HEAD COACH RON RIVERA On level of concern at this point: “Well, I just know this much. We have been in this situation before and four games do not make a season, again we are going to take time to digest this and then get ready for Tampa Bay after we get this out of our system.” On biggest reason for loss: “Missed opportunities more than anything else, we had some opportunities to get off the field on third down, and we didn’t do that. We had some missed opportunities on offense and we have to give them credit, they played hard and did some good things.” On how hard as a defensive coach to see WR Julio Jones success: “It’s hard. We tried to cover him. Give credit to them they did some good things.” On injury to CB James Bradberry: “It was a toe injury. He came back in the fourth quarter to see if he could go and couldn’t. He got the injury early in the first quarter.” On what improvements are needed on defensive line: “We would put a little more pressure on the quarterback moving on, especially during third and long and second and long, those are plays we are going to have to look at. We would put more pressure and put him in a position to not succeed.” On confidence of QB Derek Anderson if you have to use him going into Tampa: “He did some pretty good things with the exception of the one he thought he was throwing away. He made some good decisions, some really good reads. He handled himself well under the circumstances and got us down there in a position to score. Again, can’t make mistakes, we made some mistakes and they capitalized on them.” On play of offensive line not having LT Michael Oher: “I don’t think it affected the offensive line at all. I thought the offensive line did a good job. We have some plays we are going to have to get cleaned up, but we will watch the tape. We went in at halftime only down by seven and feeling pretty good about the game, unfortunately, we didn’t get the stop we needed coming out.” On his message to the team: “We have been in this position before. We are 1-3, we have been here before. We have to understand we have to find it in our character to head in the right direction. We have the experience and we will have to work through it and go forward.” On TE Greg Olsen not being involved until late in the game: “You go back to what we did we had missed opportunities and you create those opportunities early on. They did some things defensively and again I’ll have to watch the tape to see specifics. When you get in the situations we were in late in the third – fourth quarter I thought we spread it around nicely, they changed their tactics obviously because they were protecting the lead and what we were able to capitalize on we did and made some things happen. Again when we needed to, unfortunately, we didn’t make the plays.” On what prompted the concussion protocol for QB Cam Newton: “All I know is they came and told me they took him back and I didn’t ask any questions because I didn’t want to answer these questions. I’m just trying to avoid that whole situation and answering any questions.” On level of concern about QB Cam Newton: “I’m not going to answer the question until I go in and talk to the people conducting the protocol. “ On any signs of complacency on defense: “No. We just have to do better. WR Julio Jones is an explosive player. He was targeted the first four plays and he made the plays. You have to give them credit.” On whether he was impressed it was still a one-possession game at the end: “Yes, I am. We gave ourselves every opportunity and just didn’t get it done. I have to find a way to make sure we do going forward.” On biggest red flag at this time: “Not making plays, offensively, defensively, special teams whatever it may be. We have to get better. We have to watch the tape to see where we can fix things.”QB DEREK ANDERSON On entering the game on short notice: “Obviously it’s not an ideal situation; we were starting to gain some tread a little bit, I'm proud of the way guys kept fighting. We got a first and goal then all of a sudden we were on the 20. So to hang in there and keep playing for each other shows what kind of guys we got in here. We did too much to get to that point, and obviously, a pick six to lose is frustrating because we did a lot to get back in it and I didn’t give us a chance to win.” On whether he’s prepared to start against Tampa next week if necessary: “Business as usual for me every week, my preparation will be the same. Just stay the course, if it happens it happens, I’m not the one who decides that. Just come in and work and we’ll see what happens. On whether he saw the hit Cam Newton took and if it could have been avoided: “I think we all saw it (the hit), maybe he could have avoided it but I don’t think he saw the guy, so that’s neither here nor there.” On what happened on the game-clinching pick six: “They played Cover 2 and I saw Greg going into the flat, I started to throw it and tried to pull it back. I tried to just hold onto it, settle in and unfortunately I made a non-confident throw that floated over his head and unfortunately the guy was sitting right there.” On why the offense struggled and what he said to then when he entered the game: “Well their defense has improved obviously from last year; they’re doing some good things. We just didn’t really find a good rhythm in the first half. The defense got us a touchdown but other than that we didn’t move the ball very effectively. We were starting to gain some tread, we’ve got to be better at all three phases.” On if he spoke to Cam after the big hit: “I did not. I just started getting warmed up and I didn’t see him until we came in here.” On Coach Rivera’s message to the players afterward: “Just to stick together and that we’ve got a bunch of great dudes in this locker room, last season didn’t happen by accident. It's an unfortunate circumstance being 1-3 but there’s nothing we can do. We have 12 games left to come in every single week and figure it out.”TE GREG OLSEN On starting the season 1-3: “Obviously there is a lot of concern. Through three quarters today that was probably the worst collective game that we have played since a lot of us have been here. Being down 24 (points) and we only had 10 (points) and they had 34 (points) that was bad. But again, not that it gives you any solace but there is no give up in this team. We fought back and cut it to one score twice and obviously we saw what happened after both of those times. We put ourselves in position to have a chance. It’s hard at this level to come back from such a deficit against a team like that at their place. We were fighting a lot of uphill battles there all day.” DE CHARLES JOHNSON * On not being able to get to Matt Ryan:* “We just have to keep working. We need to correct some stuff and get more pressure. We’ll take ownership to that. We’re just going to have to correct it.” On what they did differently in second half:“Just pick up the intensity. When you’re down like that you have to pick up the intensity, so that’s what we did.” On the carryover into next week: “We have to take it one game at a time. We’re in a position right now where we have to take it game by game. Not looking towards the future about what could happen; we just have to get ready and practice right; going through this week preparing to win, and that’s what we are going to do.” LB LUKE KUECHLY On Julio Jones’ performance: “He’s a good player, and we have to know where he is and find him each play and point him out. We have to make sure we know what routes he likes and what he likes to do. On the message from Ron Rivera: “Stay positive. We’ve been in this situation before so we just have to get things rolling in the right direction.” On whether he has concerns for Cam Newton after he suffered a concussion: “It’s unfortunate. I don’t know what the severity of it is, but if you know Cam like how I know Cam, he’s going to come back with resilience and an attitude. He’s a winner, and that’s what we love about him. He’s a fighter; I don’t know exactly what the situation is with that but what I know about Cam is he is one of the toughest guys I know, and he’s going to get back out there as soon as he can.”