{"id":34536,"date":"2017-01-10T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T17:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/quinn-downplays-personal-stake-in-falcons-seahawks-divisional-playoff-matchup\/"},"modified":"2017-01-10T09:00:24","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T17:00:24","slug":"quinn-downplays-personal-stake-in-falcons-seahawks-divisional-playoff-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/quinn-downplays-personal-stake-in-falcons-seahawks-divisional-playoff-matchup\/","title":{"rendered":"Quinn downplays personal stake in Falcons-Seahawks divisional playoff matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. <\/strong>\u2014 Falcons coach Dan Quinn is determined to make sure he\u2019s not the story in Saturday\u2019s NFC divisional-round playoff game against Seattle, his former team.<\/p>\n

Quinn spoke briefly on Monday about his personal connection to Seattle and then offered a polite request.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully for everyone listening that will be the last question we hear about it this week,\u201d Quinn said.<\/p>\n

Quinn, the Seahawks\u2019 former defensive coordinator, took Atlanta to the NFC South title and a wild-card round bye in his second season as coach.<\/p>\n

He made his first return to Seattle on Oct. 16, when the Seahawks rallied for a 26-24 win. A trip to the NFC championship game will be on the line Saturday, and Quinn said that overshadows any personal motivations in the rematch against Seattle and his former boss, Pete Carroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cI so never wanted the spotlight to be about me,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cI want it to be about our team and the way they compete and the toughness they have.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that he\u2019s glad he already has his first game against his former team out of the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you go through something for the first time, I am glad that game got out of the way,\u201d Quinn said. \u201c… Let\u2019s hope through the years we battle a bunch of times against them. I sense that will be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seattle beat Detroit 26-6 in the wild-card round on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The Seahawks allowed the fewest points in the league and won the Super Bowl in 2013, Quinn\u2019s first season as defensive coordinator. That success helped make him an attractive candidate when the Falcons were looking for a coach after the 2014 season.<\/p>\n

The Falcons missed the playoffs at 8-8 in Quinn\u2019s first season before earning the NFC\u2019s No. 2 seed at 11-5 this season.<\/p>\n

Quinn said his familiarity with the Seahawks is a only a minor part of the behind-the-scenes strategy and gamesmanship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that you know that I know \u2014 there\u2019s definitely some of that,\u201d he said. \u201c… The fun part about it is come kickoff time the guys between the white lines are the ones playing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veteran offensive guard Chris Chester said Quinn \u201cdoesn\u2019t get too caught up\u201d in personal incentives.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe there\u2019s something there, but I know that what we\u2019re going for is more important than any extra emotional motivation,\u201d Chester said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to accomplish is bigger than going against an old team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quinn\u2019s postseason success is important for an Atlanta team that hasn\u2019t had a playoff win since beating the Seahawks in the divisional round in 2012. The Falcons are 1-4 in the playoffs with Matt Ryan at quarterback , including a loss to the 49ers in the 2012 NFC championship game.<\/p>\n

Quinn said the remake of the team\u2019s culture is complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a team identity, having a real clear vision of how you want to play, you\u2019d like for that to happen overnight,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it takes time to build that. Our team is very tight, very connected. … We have a real good understanding of who we are and how we want to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOTES: Quinn expects all players, including WR Taylor Gabriel (foot), TE Austin Hooper (knee) and CB Robert Alford (knee) to practice on Tuesday. Alford was limited in some speed work on Monday but Quinn said Alford\u2019s movement was encouraging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. \u2014 Falcons coach Dan Quinn is determined to make sure he\u2019s not the story in Saturday\u2019s NFC divisional-round playoff game against Seattle, his former team. Quinn spoke briefly on Monday about his personal connection to Seattle and then offered a polite request. \u201cHopefully for everyone listening that will be the last question […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":34537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-34536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34536"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=34536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}