Matt Ryan on Getting Ready for the Saints
On how he’s feeling:
“I feel good. I’m feeling a little bit better every day. That’s what you do
when you have something like this, you just try and focus on daily improvement
and try to get back to yourself as fast as possible. I’m feeling pretty good.”
On
today’s practice:
“It was pretty productive for me, and I think productive for us on a Wednesday.
I felt good with the work we got in today. We’ve just got to focus on trying to
continue to improve throughout the week.”
On
what it was like for him to be out:
“It’s obviously not fun when you’re not able to go, but I’ve been fortunate,
and I’ve been lucky throughout my career to be able to be durable and stay on
the field and I work hard at that. Sometimes you can’t go. That’s part of this
business. You just have to deal with it and focus on whatever the challenge is
that you’re going through at that point of just working on trying to get
better. That’s more of where my mind goes in those types of situations.”
On
Matt Schaub:
“We knew he was going to do a great job for us. He’s been a great player in
this league. When his number has been called, he’s always prepared. Nobody is a
better pro than he is. He shows up day in and day out, works extremely hard,
knows the offense inside and out, knows where to go with the football and he’s
a great player. You know, we’re all obviously happy for him. It’s tough, those
guys, it’s a tough role to play. He does it really, really well and played
really well for us.”
On getting the run game going
against New Orleans:
“It’s definitely a challenge. They’re solid. They’re playing good team defense
across the board. They’ve been doing a great job with that all year,
specifically against the run as you mentioned, they’ve been stout. It’s going
to be a challenge for us. What we’ve got to focus on is taking care of our
business and being the type of football team that we can be. We have not been
that in the first half of the season. It’s a good opportunity for us to come
out and hopefully play a little bit better brand of football.”
On
whether or not he’s preparing like he will start this Sunday:
“That’s the way I approach it every week, even the week against Seattle. You
have to have the mindset you’re going to play and you’re ready to go.”
On
his approach to the second half of the season:
“You know, it’s trying to win one football game. That’s my approach. This week
is trying to stay present in what we’re doing right now, trying to make sure
that we put in a good week’s worth of work and win this one football game.
Trying to knock those wins out one in a row as we go. My focus isn’t really any
further than just the opponent that we have this week.”
On
helping the team fix the lack of focus
“I think, like in all things, you have to practice it – for us that is in
meetings and on the practice field in walkthroughs. You have to practice being
focused and locked in. That is my message over and over. It’s a daily thing and
when you do it over and over it becomes a habit. When you have good habits you
produce good things. To me, it has to become habitual for us and we have to do
a great job of focusing and getting locked in day in and day out.”
On
the rivalry with the Saints:
“We have played them in all types of situations in my career. Both teams have
been rolling some years and getting ready for the playoffs and some years we
have been up and they have been down, while some we have been down and they
have been up. It’s one of those games that you can throw that [team record]
out. It always comes down to be a close, tough, football game when you go
against these guys. You know that they are going to compete for four quarters –
there is no question about that. They are tough and resilient. We have to play
our style of football and make sure that we come out on the right side of it.”
On
his good health throughout his career:
“I feel like for one, it comes down to putting the time in. It takes time to
take care of your body and all of the things that you need to do to be able to
play week in and week out. That is something from when the season ends all the
way into the offseason and into the regular season – it’s a full-time
commitment. I also think you have got to be lucky too. You have to avoid the
random things that happen in this game and I have been fortunate to avoid some
of those things – it just happened a couple of weeks ago that I wasn’t able to
do.”
On
the bye week coming at the right time:
“For me, for sure. It was an extra opportunity for me to get some more time to
recover and to rest which is always a good thing.”
On the impact of a potential win in New Orleans:
“We have got to find a way to get it done. We can’t worry about how the season
is going to end or what we are going to do in the seven games behind this one.
We have to just focus on taking care of this business. I always think we need a
win. Especially when you go against a good football team on the road and in a
tough environment – that always creates momentum for your team.”
