FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Roddy White said the Atlanta Falcons were thrown off balance by the Cleveland Browns’ blitzing defense and made a mistake in not pushing the tempo late in the Falcons’ 26-24 loss Sunday.

“They kind of had us confused at times,” the wide receiver said of the Browns. “They did a good job on defense today. You have to give them their props for going out there and being consistent and holding us when they needed to.”

The Falcons never were able to get into much of a rhythm and the Browns did a good job of shutting down the Falcons’ rushing attack.

With the running game shut down (63 yards on 27 carries), the Browns were able to mount a pass rush against Matt Ryan. He was sacked three times and hit six times.

White said the confusion stemmed from the offense not being able to pick up Cleveland’s tendencies because of the vast array of blitzes.

“They just throw so much at you as far as coverages,” said White, who had nine catches for 96 yards. “It’s not any particular look that they give you. You go over the blitz tape on Wednesday and they give you 30 to 40 blitzes — different ones from every game. So there are no tendencies that you say, ‘This is going to be this or that.’ They don’t give you that and they change it up.”

White also wished the Falcons would have attacked the Browns from the no-huddle after cornerback Desmond Trufant came up with a spectacular interception in the end zone with 4:51 left and Atlanta trailing 23-21.

“I felt like when we got the first one, when Trufant picked it off, I thought the game was over,” White said. “I thought we’d just go out there and kind of push the tempo. I felt like we didn’t do that. We just kind of sat back and looked at the clock and said, ‘Hey, let’s try to play this out.’ I don’t think that’s what we should have (done).

“We should have kind of attacked those guys because we had them on their heels every time we went up tempo. But we kind of slowed everything down and they responded on defense. They did a good job.”

The Falcons picked up a first down before stalling at their 37. After they punted, rookie Dezmen Southward came up with another interception for the offense, but the Falcons ended up settling for a 53-yard field goal.

Cleveland got the ball back with 44 seconds left and moved 61 yards in seven plays, kicking a 37-yard field goal on the final play.

“We managed to only gain (20) yards,” White said. “In times like that, when you’re up and you’ve got the ball at the (45), we have to get three or four first downs, run out the clock and kick the field goal. That’s on us.”

–Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones, who missed two practices last week because of a cold, caught his first touchdown pass since Sep. 18 against Tampa Bay.

He was targeted on 13 passes but caught just five for 68 yards while mainly going against Cleveland cornerback Joe Haden.

Jones wouldn’t use his illness as an excuse.

“I’ve been here four years,” Jones said. “That’s on us. We have to hit those plays. We have to make it work.”

He didn’t feel that Haden slowed him down.

“I played (Haden) in college and … nobody here feels like one guy should be able to stop me man-to-man out there,” Jones said. “We just have to keep working and make those plays.”