Dan Quinn not concerned with Leodis McKelvin's 'front-runner' label for Falcons

Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn dismissed Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Leodis McKelvin's description of the Falcons as a "front-runner" on Monday.

"We are for damn sure not going to allow anyone else to determine our team identity," Quinn told reporters. "We've got a tough outfit. We know what we stand for as a club, and we'll leave it at that."

After the Eagles'24-15 victoryover the Falcons at Lincoln Financial Field, McKelvin said Philadelphia's defense saw a weakness to exploit against Atlanta, which boasted the NFL's top offense.

"I was telling the defense, this is the type of team, they are a front-runner. They are a front-running team," McKelvin said. "If you go out there and make some stops, they eventually are going to be dying down."

Falcons free safety Ricardo Allen echoed Quinn's thoughts that the Falcons don't dwell on opinions outside their building in comments to ESPN's Vaughn McClure.

"Everybody's got their opinion, man. There's always going to be someone who comes out and says something to try and challenge another team,'' Allen told ESPN. "We don't worry about people on the outside. We don't worry about nobody else. We just worry about ourselves. We worry about who we are as a team because we know who we are. And we know when we're playing really good ball, we're one of the best around.

"We stay in our locker room. We don't worry about when anybody else talks about us. We don't even bring that stuff up. I didn't even hear about [McKelvin's comments], so I don't even really care about that stuff. You can talk all you want to. Have fun with that. I ain't with the talking. I play ball. I just want to play ball, man."

The NFC South-leading Falcons (6-4) have a bye this week.