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Falcons Vs. Redskins: Mike Smith wants to limit big plays

Mike Smith spoke to the media on the players' off day and talked about starting games off strong, as well as limiting big plays.

Kevin Liles-US PRESSWIRE - Presswire

The Atlanta Falcons will begin preparation on Wednesday for the Robert Griffin III led Washington Redskins. Atlanta is coming off a thrilling comeback win against division rival Carolina Panthers, but head coach Mike Smith wasn't happy with the way his team started the game.

The Falcons wanted to come out strong early, as most teams do, but before long they were trailing the Panthers. Cam Newton made a lot of big plays before his late-game fumble. The Falcons face RGIII next, and Smith had this to say when asked if he's worried about giving up big plays to Griffin:

"We gave up way too many explosive plays in the ball game yesterday. We only gave up 205 total yards passing, but there were three explosive passes and we had nine explosive runs in the ball game yesterday. Those are the plays we talk about of being 20 yards or more. We've got to try and limit those explosive plays. They're part of the toxic differential when you look at how you play with the offense and defense together. We've got to do a better job and can't give up those explosive plays. They did a nice job creating them. Some of them were short passes, the screen pass comes to mind. We didn't play that as well as we needed to. Then, the first touchdown pass in the redzone we didn't play it as well as we'd like to."

The Falcons and Redskins play on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on FOX.

Photographs by coka_koehler used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.