With Kurt Coleman nursing a sore ankle in the Panthers season finale against Atlanta, the team again turned to Colin Jones, who has moved from his role as ‘special teams ace’ to true Swiss Army knife, being a superstar substitute this season at linebacker, safety and nickel cornerback; while the Panthers lost 22-10 to the Falcons, they’re still heading for a third matchup with the New Orleans Saints this Sunday in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. We had a chance to talk to Jones in the locker room after the game and he gave us his thoughts on New Orleans, Matt Ryan and how the team can play better moving forward.
Disappointing loss today, but how do you move forward knowing that after this loss, you now turn immediately to start preparing for a playoff game?
Well, it’s extremely tough when if we had gotten it done today, we would have been NFC South champs, so it makes it all the more difficult.
Seemed like Matt Ryan played well today, can you tell us what you were seeing from him back at safety?
They were pretty balanced all day running the ball and throwing the ball, so we tried to limit them and hold them to field goals, but at the end of the day, they kept stacking up some points and we needed to hold them to less.
On that incompletion to Julio [Jones], it looked like it went through his hands and you had a shot at an interception, did it feel as close as it looked from the press box?
Yeah, it was pretty close.
That was what happened early in the season with the turnovers seeming to be right there, but not falling your way…
Yeah, we’ll stay after it and they’ll come. We’ve been really getting the ball in December and we’ll get back on track next week in New Orleans.
So New Orleans for the third time. Is it easier playing a team that you’re more familiar with?
Yes. But I think they would say the same thing. I think it’s important to look where they hurt us the first couple of times we played them, correct some of those mistakes and be fundamentally sound. That’s really important, and to play really fast. But we’ll be ready for them.
