Atlanta Falcons rookie pass-rusher Vic Beasley acknowledged he made a foolish mistake in Sunday's 10-7 win against Tennessee by talking trash near the Titans' sideline rather than exiting the field after a late fourth-quarter, third-down stop, leading to a penalty.

The Falcons were whistled for 12 men on the field as Beasley was late jogging to the sideline. He tackled Titans running back Dexter McCluster after a 7-yard reception on third-and-16. Then Beasley proceeded to have an exchange with Titans players near their sideline, which led to him being delayed. The penalty gave the Titans a shorter fourth-down opportunity, although they failed to convert.

"I wasn't supposed to be over there, but they were just trash talking, man," Beasley said. "There had been trash talk the whole game, so I just kept going. I hurt the team, though. ... I can't let that get into my head and I've got to move on to the next play."

Falcons coach Dan Quinn, who could be seen on film emphatically waving for all his players to get off the field following the third-down stop, made his thoughts about Beasley's blunder pretty clear. Had the Titans converted the shorter fourth-and-4 and sustained the drive with under four minutes to play, the final outcome might have been different.

"The first thing that we talked about, and we talked about for our whole team, was let's make sure in all the situations, let's make sure we know how to finish, and that's doing right longer," Quinn said. "And that was a time he lost his poise. The play is all the way over on the other side. Knowing the situation, that's a third-down play. That's a big stop. You've got to bust it to get off the field.

"It was a learning one. And fortunately, we came back and had a stop or else it would have been a real hard one for us in terms of the mistake. But, yeah, as we're going through it, it was one that he will absolutely learn from. And I would be hard-pressed to think that would happen again."