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The dominance of Julio Jones has been manifested in many ways over the years. He’s arguably the best wide receiver in football, one with great familiarity with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Jones seems to kick it into a whole new gear — except for that little disappearing act in the red-zone — when facing the Philadelphia Eagles. His 45 receptions for 698 yards in five regular-season games and one playoff game is downright offensive.
On Sunday night, he’s promising another show as evidenced by a fresh pair of cleats emblazoned with the logo of the famous Southern chain diner Waffle House. It’s an ode to Jones’ nickname. Why? Because he’s always open.
Julio Jones Coming Off Poor Week 1 Showing
Julio Jones, who recently inked a three-year, $66 million extension, was held to six catches for 31 yards and one touchdown Sunday in the Falcons’ 28-12 loss to the Vikings. It was an unusual display for a receiver with 10, 762 career yards and 52 touchdowns. Jones made it clear that it won’t happen again, specifically not this week against the Eagles.
“I didn’t play really well in the game at all,” Jones said. “I was coming into the game limited but it’s football, things happen. I was ready to go. My wind is there just being out there playing. I’ll be way better this week than I was last week for sure.”
Not Worried About Red-Zone Issues
The one knock on Julio Jones in recent years has been his inability to convert in the red zone. The Falcons receiver watched a throw sail right beyond his grasp in a 2017 divisional round playoff game against the Eagles, then an eerily similar miscue happened in the season opener in 2018. It’s a weird phenomenon for a player who racked up 40 touchdowns in his first six seasons in the NFL — and only 12 since.
“It’s year to year. It just so happened the last whatever, two years or whatever, we played them [the Eagles] and it came down to the red zone,” said Jones. “But it might not be the red zone this game, so it’s not one of those things that I have to close my mind off to everything else that might happen in the game and focus on the red zone if I’m not doing it before the red zone.”
Point is, don’t focus on the red zone.
Eagles Looking to Limit Big Plays
The Eagles and Falcons have met every year since defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz was hired in 2016. Philadelphia has gone 4-0 in those games, including a playoff win in 2017. However, all those contests were played at Lincoln Financial Field. Schwartz knows stopping them in the red zone will be key this time. That, and dealing with a hostile enemy crowd in Atlanta.
“They have been in a hostile environment, now we’re going down to a hostile environment, so we have to carry that over,” Schwartz said. “I think whether it’s stopping the Falcons or any NFL team, try to limit the run game, try to take big plays away, stop drives on third down, win in the red zone. The red zone’s been important to us the last couple years with those guys, just to keep the score down. We’ll have to do a lot better job playing the pass than we did a couple days ago.”
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