CB Asante Samuel
On today being a good day for the Eagles secondary: "It was a good, aggressive day for us. We worked hard in practice this week. We just concentrated on driving on the ball and playing good Eagle football."
On whether he was challenged as much today as he has been all season: "They did challenge me a lot more than you guys actually saw. There were a couple of plays that they tried to do some double moves on me and some quick passes that the quarterback pulled down from. It was a good challenge for me today."
On whether he expected the challenge: "I expect that every game. I don't go into a game thinking that a team is not going to throw on me. I just go out there and try to play good, fundamental football."
On what he saw from Falcons QB Matt Ryan that the defense was able to take advantage of: "He's a young quarterback and he's got a lot to learn, but he's a very good, young quarterback. It's just playing ball. We did a good job of studying film on him this week. We kind of knew what they were going to do, so it worked out well."
On head coach Andy Reid saying that he studies a lot of film: "I put my share in. I might not look at it like others look at it, but I look at film the way I know how to make myself make plays. I do my share."
On the play of CB Lito Sheppard: "It was awesome. I am so happy for him. It was a heck of a play. He actually did the same thing at practice. A fade was thrown on him to (WR) Hank Baskett. Lito turned around the same exact way and picked it. I told him that I was glad I came out on that, because I would not have made that play."
On the 3 starting cornerbacks: "All 3 of us are playmakers. 2 of us have been to the Pro Bowl. We are all playmakers. We just go out there and play good ball."
On the play of Brian Westbrook: "That guy is incredible. I just love to watch him play, the way he makes people miss and shake them. I am happy he's on my team. I am happy I don't have to tackle him."
CB Lito Sheppard
On how gratifying it was to get an interception after being called for pass interference: "It was big Asante went down and as soon as I got out there I figured they would take a shot. I thought it was incidental contact in the first place but they gave it to me. I was glad they gave me a chance to make up right back. I was hoping they did."
On whether he expected the Falcons to throw the fade route: "Well I was in good leverage and I got a good jam on him. When I got the jam on him I took a peek at the quarterback. He kind of lobbed it up there so it gave me enough time to turn around and react to it."
On what it takes to be successful against the fade route: "It's your line of scrimmage jam. If you can get in good position in the beginning and see the ball thrown that makes it a lot easier to play those fade routes."
On limiting RB Michael Turner and putting the game in the hands of the secondary: "We knew they had a potent offense. In order for us to have a chance we knew we had to take one of their dimensions away. We'd rather take the running game away and play to our strengths. We were able to come up with a lot of plays in the secondary today to come up with a victory."
On the success of the Eagles following the bye week: "It gives us a lot of time to get healthy and get our minds back together and come out with intensity. The first part of the season hasn't been going like we planned it, so this is basically another opportunity to start all over again and look at it as a new season."
On Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan: "He's going to be a good quarterback. I mean he throws the ball up there to a lot of places where only his receivers can make plays. As long as he keeps doing that and they keep making plays for him he can be something special. I take my hat off to him. Even though we were after him the whole game he still made some good throws and they made some plays down the field too."
DE Trent Cole
On today's win: "We knew we wanted to go out here and get it done. We knew we could play to the best of our ability and we went out there and got it done today."
On what is necessary to keep going: "We've got to get back to practice and have some good practices and come out next week with a bang."
On the effort to contain Falcons RB Michael Turner: "I think the guys played well today keeping gap control and keeping him contained and keeping him from getting loose. He might have broken a couple but not real far down field so I think we did a good job of containing him."
On the tackles stopping plays in the middle: "They did a great job of getting up in there and closing the gaps. The guy wanted to come outside and I'm on the edge, my thought is keeping contain too. He wanted to take it to the edge and I just did the job I was supposed to do."
On why the Eagles' are so successful after bye week: "Just rest, mentally, physically, just rest. I felt great coming into this week. The bye week is the best. You feel like you're just starting the season out, like you're just coming into mini-camp. You get fresh legs like summer camp. It's great to be back seeing everybody. Coming into this week we knew we had to have a good week and get our minds back into football mode and that's what we did."
On the coming weeks game: "We're just going to keep on a roll and keep pushing forward. We're all use to coming off a bye week and playing another game. You know we beat up our bodies and we'll take these two days off here and come back Wednesday and get on top of our game."
Defensive Coordinator Jim Johnson
On the performance of the defense: "I think we did a pretty good job. I think outside of the one pass where he scrambled and the guy broke a couple of tackles, I think we did a pretty good job."
On controlling the Falcons running game: "I said it before it was tackling and making sure we were in good gap control. We were most of the game. We had one bad play against us and we tackled well. We had a lot of people running to the football and we tackled well."
On whether he was relieved after the muff call against the Falcons: "I anticipated that would go the other way and we were going to have to stop them. I don't even think about that. I never think about that. I say "Hey, wait we've got to go out and stop them. I don't want to be scared. "
On containing the Falcons' offense: "It's kind of a combination. We blitzed a little bit, but we went back. It depends, its game management, how many time outs they have left, you don't want to give up a big play if they do blitz. It's just time management; make them work the whole length of the field. That's part of it."
On Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan: "I think he's a good quarterback. I think he's got a lot of poise. I know he threw a couple of interceptions, we got a couple of sacks but he's a good quarterback. He'll get better. He sees things pretty good he's got a nice arm."
On trying to get pressure on Matt Ryan: "Well, we tried. He gets rid of the ball fast. He gets rid of the ball pretty fast. Especially in the first half he did a good job of getting rid of the ball."
LB Omar Gaither
On the performance of the defense: "I think in the third quarter we did a good job and that was key for us. I think that certainly contributed to our win."
On the Eagles defensive plan: "Well, anytime you have a rookie quarterback you want to throw as much at him as you can. We wanted to get after him. I was just talking to (DE) Trent Cole and he was saying 'Oh my God it feels so good to come off a bye. You feel fresh. Did you feel that? Did you have a little more spring in your step?' Certainly. I think we come out every week with energy but obviously the bye week you get a chance to go home and rest and kind of get away from things for a while. It was good for us and we got a win so it worked out great."
On what he learned about the team over the bye week: "I learned that we're still focused and we still have a long way to go. We're trying to take advantage of where we are right now. Everybody saw what happened over the bye week with the other teams and we want to take advantage. We have a great opportunity and like I said we want to take advantage."
On if he had seen the cover of GameDay magazine: "The cover of Game Day Magazine? You mean this? Yeah I saw. They had the three LB's on there. I kind of liked that. I think it's the first time since I've been here they had the linebackers on there. That's pretty special."
LB Chris Gocong
On coming off the bye week: "We were rested and we really knew how we were going to play coming into this game. We executed."
On the performance of Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan: "Yeah, yeah he's a good player. Except for a few sacks he made, he made some amazing plays. I think he's going to be a great quarterback going on."
