Birds Squawk: What The Falcons Are Saying Post-Seahawks

Clabo wanted to point out few things after the game and wasn't sure if the criticism of the unit was well-placed.

"It’s just important to us," Clabo said. "I’m going to let you in on a little secret, football is hard. The strain that it takes, the time that it takes and just . . . if you don’t win, it’s not worth it.

With apologies to Clabo, I don't like this at all, aside from the very true point that they hung on and outlasted the Seahawks. The media narrative on the unit has been harsh because it's deserved. I can understand wanting critics to note that the line improved against the Seahawks, and it did. But Ryan was still running all day long and Michael Turner went absolutely nowhere for most of the game. Some of that is out of the line's hands, and a lot of it isn't.

Then again, he did acknowledge previous performances in a conversation with Daniel Cox. Maybe it was the questions he was being asked in those disparate interviews?

• Roddy White beats himself up. The owner of several drops in the first four games of the season, Roddy's feeling some remorse, according to DOL.
  
  "As long as I’m out there, I expect to play at a high level," White said. "Hurt or not hurt, it really doesn’t matter. I just have to go out there and help my team win. I just have to get better."
  
  Reading the tea leaves, it's pretty easy to divine that Roddy's not playing at 100%. I appreciate that he's not going to make excuses for his drops, some of which have been costly. It has to be terrifying for opposing defenses that a less than 100% Roddy White is doing as well as he has, though, drops aside.
• Matt Ryan was happy with the offensive line. He tells Daniel Cox that the line did a nice job of handling the environment, as did the rest of the offense. Always propping his guys up, that Matt Ryan.
• Mike Smith loved the first half, hated the second. Smith was pretty blunt in a Q & A with DOL:
  
  
  "Up front, we have got to get pressure on the quarterback. We have to have tighter coverage. We cannot have missed assignments, where there is a receiver wide open on a third down and eight."
  
  The tighter coverage piece is what interests me, because it would seem that the Falcons play off opposing receivers by design. If the Falcons have to have tighter coverage, it might pay to make some adjustments in the scheming and see how the secondary holds up playing it that way.