In a conference call this morning, defensive coordinator Dean Pees touched on everything from the pass coverage against the Jets to Gary Guyton's performance to his respect for Falcons running back Michael Turner. Here are a few of his comments.

PASS RUSH
"We can always improve in the rush, but also some of it designed by gameplan to play some coverage and some of it was designed to put some pressure on them. We didn't always get there like wanted to, but really we've just got to improve in both the coverage part of it and the rush."

TWO KILLERS
"It doesn't matter whether it's the Jets or whatever, you can't let somebody run the ball. We started out pretty well there and then we got into a couple different things where they hurt us in the run. I think we got those settled down a little bit, and then the other thing is you've always got to take away big plays.

"I look back on the year, and I bring it up every year to the defense, the two things that always hurt you in drives are penalties and big plays. Usually if you can avoid those things and take those two things away ... Now we didn't get penalized any on defense Sunday but we gave up a big play, which was a direct correlation to leading to their one touchdown.

"When we look back at the season this year, we gave up three touchdowns and basically in all three of them there was either a penalty or a big play."

THE FALCONS
"That's really a good offensive football team. We've always had a ton of respect for Turner, but with Norwood, there's another guy that can run the ball. Before they always had a good running attack the way it was -- a good offensive line, Jenkins and White as the receivers -- but the thing that they've added now is Tony Gonzalez, probably one of the best tight ends to ever play. You add him to that offense along with the year that Ryan had last year -- and it looks like he's taking off right where he left off. So this is a very, very potent offense and we've got our hands full."

ADALIUS THOMAS
"We're looking for everybody to step up, and everybody to be accountable, and everybody to play hard ... That includes Adalius. That includes everybody. Sometimes we're going to be putting him in positions where, yeah, he needs to make the play. Then other times it might be a type of defense where no, he's not going to have as many opportunities as somebody else has."

GUYTON'S GRADE
I thought Gary did a good job being in there for the first time, playing inside. It's a little bit new but at the same time, we've practiced there and he played there some in the preseason. Overall I thought he did OK. There are certainly some things he can improve on too to get better. But overall he got the calls in, and ran the defense and I thought he did OK.