Ticked off Falcons ready to improve

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. The Atlanta Falcons caught a break on Sunday, as, like them, the other teams in the NFC with which they are competing for a wildcard spot also lost. Nonetheless, the Falcons in a performance that was notable for how uncharacteristic it was in terms of the number of self-inflicted wounds in a 17-10 loss at Houston -- missed an opportunity to improve their seeding and to separate themselves from the pack. The Falcons also did not keep pace in the race for the NFC South title, as they now stand two games behind New Orleans (9-3) with four games to play. Im disappointed, Falcons head coach Mike Smith said. Im mad. Our players are disappointed and theyre mad. Theyre ticked off. Its something we have to address together and get it fixed. Weve had way too many penalties this year. We pride ourselves on being a smart football team. We have not played smart. We have not played consistent. I dont believe we have played as focused as we need to be either. At 7-5, the Falcons are tied with Chicago and Detroit, for the final two wildcard spots, but Atlanta holds the tiebreaker over the Lions while Chicago has the tiebreaker over the Falcons. Next up for the Falcons is a visit to Carolina, then host Jacksonville on a Thursday night before traveling to New Orleans where trying to defend the Saints without two of their three starting cornerbacks, both currently injured, looms as a huge liability before finishing at home against Tampa Bay. As the Falcons attempt to regroup they still have won five out of seven they have to figure out how to stop some of those self-inflicted problems, ones that have been issues all season but rose to a critical mass on Sunday. Two veterans, wide receiver Roddy White and linebacker Mike Peterson, both said that Sundays game probably had the most significant mistakes during Smiths four-year tenure (Peterson arrived in Smiths second season). Probably so, said Peterson, who had an interception he returned for a touchdown negated by a defensive holding call on cornerback Dunta Robinson. You can come up with a thousand excuses, too. I rather not do that. Every years different. You cant say this year were doing this, this year were doing that. Thats natural that every year is different. White agreed about the number of nature of the errors, including drops himself included. Yeah, pretty much, he said. We just cant seem to hit any easy touchdowns. I dont know why. Just keep seeming to kick ourselves in the foot. When Mike Pete got the interception, I was on the sidelines like, Oh, OK, now we finally get a break. And then we dont get a break. Its just sometimes like that. And then the guy (Falcons safety James) Sanders picks up the fumble and runs it all the way back for a touchdown and we got 80 people on the field (which negated the score). So its kind of difficult, you know, when stuff like that happens. You get breaks in a game and then they end up coming back. Its a tough lesson to learn. Just have to continue to fix these mistakes were making out there and continue to get better. Its down the stretch now. Weve got to win football games if we want to make the playoffs. Among the Falcons who had the toughest game, rookie wide receiver Julio Jones ranked near the top of the list. Jones ran the wrong route on one play, leading to a first-quarter interception, didnt know a play in the second half, forcing the team to call timeout, got called for a penalty after stepping out of bounds and catching a ball as the Falcons attempted to tie the game on their final series and then dropped what could have been the tying touchdown on the final play of the game. He also failed to get back to the line of scrimmage in a timely manner after running a deep route on that final drive, forcing the Falcons to clock the ball, wasting a down and valuable time in the process. White was asked if he talked to Jones to try and counsel him. (Jones was not present during the teams open locker room session with the media on Monday.) No, not really, he said. It is what it is. Youre going to have games like that. Hes still a rookie. People gotta understand that. Its still your first year in the league and hes still learning. Thats just how it is. When you bring young guys in and you put them out there, you know, and sometimes they get lost track of things and things like that. And the system we run, it aint easy. A lot of its no-huddle. You got to remember a lot of things. I mean, hes been doing a good job up to this point. You know, sometimes youre going to have those things, especially when you have young guys playing, youre going to have those types of games and you just have to get past them and next week prepare them even better so you dont make those mistakes twice. Smith would specifically address Jones numerous mistakes. We had a number of guys that had mental mistakes yesterday Smith said. I will say this: There were a lot of uncharacteristic things on the offense and defense We talk to all of our guys. When I say all of our guys, all of the things they need to get corrected and we need to get corrected and that was the case again today. At least with the media, Smiths approach is a low-key one. Asked if he would crack the proverbial whip, he declined. The response is no different than any other week, he said. Our guys understand how we do business and how we operate and theres no reason to change in terms of how youre going to prepare. I think its very important that youre steady and youre even-keeled in your approach. Thats the way weve always done it.