The Atlanta Falcons aren’t getting an overwhelming amount of respect despite being the only unbeaten team remaining in the NFL. They dominated the Philadelphia Eagles in Philly off their bye week and now can spoil another NFC East team’s dreams with a matchup against the Dallas Cowboys back in Atlanta.
Sean Weatherspoon joined Archer and Bell on 790 The Zone in Atlanta to discuss the injury he suffered Sunday, the Cowboys (whom the Falcons face this week), Jason Witten, and how thrilled he is with new defensive coordinator Mike Nolan.
On how he’s feeling after suffering an ankle injury against the Eagles:
“I’m feeling better than I was after the game. I guess that’s a positive right now. If you think positive, everything will be positive. So that’s where I’m at right now.”
On watching next week’s opponent, Dallas, as it took on the Giants, from the flight home from Philadelphia Sunday:
“We had a chance to scout them out a little bit. That’s pretty much as much as I’ve seen so far, except for other games that they’ve played on national TV this year. But I’ll get ready to go in there [Wednesday] and get that work in and get the game plan and see what’s going on this week.”
On Jason Witten posting a tight end record with 18 catches against the Giants:
“We were on the plane watching the game, and obviously we were watching that game, and he kept making big plays down the stretch. He made a ton of catches. … Me and Nick were looking at each other because we know we have our hands full. He’s a great player that causes a challenge. I’m sure Mike Nolan will have something good for him to put us in good situations where we can be successful against him. But ultimately it’s all about going out there and matching his physicality.”
On new defensive coordinator Mike Nolan:
“I think bringing Mike here was a Christmas present as well. Mike, he came in and what he did — he didn’t impose anything on us. He came in and he assessed what we had on defense and what he wanted to do was put us in a situation where we could be most comfortable and make the most plays. He could have came in and switched it all to a 3-4. He could have did that, but I guess he saw something else in us. He believes in us. Since he’s been here, like I said in the beginning, if there’s something that we don’t feel comfortable doing, we can just go to him and be like, ‘Mike, we really don’t feel comfortable doing that.’ He’ll be like, ‘OK, the hell with that. We’ll do something else.’ That’s one thing that’s cool about him. He’s a players’ coach and all our guys love playing for him. We just look forward to doing bigger and better things. We think we’ve done some pretty good things, but we want to become a top-five defense, so we want to work hard each and every week in order to get there. And I think Mike is the right guy to lead us there.”