The first time Terry Robiskie thought he was at a horse track instead of a football field, it was 1987, and Bo Jackson had just rumbled by.
“Them horses pass, and you can hear them gallop,” Robiskie said. “The ground shakes.”
The ground shook in Los Angeles, where Robiskie worked with Jackson for four seasons. He coached 20 more years in the NFL before he felt that stampeding sensation again, courtesy of another son of Alabama. Julio Jones charged into Robiskie’s life in 2011, when the Atlanta Falcons traded up to draft him.
“You watched him, and you kept saying, ‘Wow, look at this, look at that,’ and it was the same with Bo,” said Robiskie, who coaches the Falcons’ receivers. “Julio was like that the day he got here, and he’s the same guy now. You’ve come just to expect something awesome.”
By his standards this season, Jones’ performance Sunday was something of a disappointment, and really, this did not bother him. The Houston Texans, fearful of Jones pillaging their defense as he did to his first three opponents, tried foiling Jones with bracket coverage, by shading a safety toward him. That created gaping holes up front for Devonta Freeman, who darted right through for three touchdowns, and one-on-one opportunities for Leonard Hankerson, who won those matchups all afternoon.
Jones spent most of the second half on the sideline, his services not required after the Falcons scored the game’s first six touchdowns in their 48-21 victory at the Georgia Dome. He settled for four receptions for 38 yards, which slowed his torrid pace — if only by a little.
Through the first four games, Jones, with 38 catches for 478 yards, is on track to break the record for most receptions in a season, set by Marvin Harrison (143) in 2002, and to finish with more receiving yards than anyone but Calvin Johnson, who recorded 1,964 in 2012.
“Yards, touchdowns, it doesn’t matter,” Jones said Sunday. “As long as we win, that’s the main goal.”
The Falcons have won every game this season, dashing to 4-0 under their first-year coach, Dan Quinn. He cultivated a fast-and-physical identity that defined his defenses in Seattle — Atlanta forced four turnovers Sunday and returned two fumbles for touchdowns — and that Jones embodied long before Quinn arrived.
An NFL locker room is populated by men who are among the most physically gifted in the world. Jones still manages to astound his teammates, who wonder how a man who is 6 feet 3 inches tall can run that fast (4.39 seconds in the 40-yard dash), and without losing speed getting in and out of his breaks.
By attacking the ball, Jones spoils defenders’ angles, allowing him to gain loads of yards after the catch. Through the first three weeks, his 170 yards after the catch ranked second in the league to Oakland rookie Amari Cooper, according to game charting by ProFootballFocus.com.
“It doesn’t really make sense,” receiver Nick Williams said of Jones last week at the team’s complex in Flowery Branch, Ga. “He’s a freak physically, but he prepares like a freak.”
Jones said his preparation does not extend to studying film of linebackers, who sometimes cover him when he lines up inside.
“It’s when the defense messes up, for sure,” Jones said.
But when he analyzes defensive backs’ tendencies, divining their strengths and weaknesses, he relays his findings to quarterback Matt Ryan. If Jones does not respect a defender’s catching skills, he will say so.
“So if it looks like I’m covered,” Jones said, “I’m not covered.”
The most notable example came two weeks ago, in the Falcons’ victory against the Giants. After Jones settled into a seam in the Giants’ zone, safety Brandon Meriweather fell into coverage and appeared to obscure Jones’ vision. His right arm extended, Jones reached over Meriwether and hauled in the pass with one hand. While watching the play, the Atlanta offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan said, he wondered why Ryan made that throw.
“And then I’m like, ‘Great job overcoming coaching,’ ” Shanahan said.
For Jones, it is just the opposite, really. Jones established himself as a premier receiver as a rookie, burnishing that reputation every year since, but only now, in Shanahan’s scheme, has he seemed to maximize his ability.
Jones does not have a weaker hand, a weaker route or even a weaker position. That mastery allows Shanahan to move him around the formation, lining him up on the outside on one play, in the slot the next and in a stack after that.
The Falcons’ theory is, if a team wants to double cover Jones, it has to find him first.
“When you got a guy who’s as talented as him who can run the entire route tree,” Shanahan said, “it’s very easy to run him all over because he’s capable of doing it all.”
Jones hails from Foley, Ala., about 30 miles west of Pensacola, Fla., the same as Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler. When a new coaching staff ditched Foley High’s wishbone scheme in Jones’ sophomore year, he moved from running back to receiver.
“He was big, fast, he could run and he could catch,” said Todd Watson, his coach at Foley, with a laugh. “Seemed like a good idea.”
Jones blossomed into a coveted recruit who stayed in state, to play for Alabama, where if he dropped a pass in practice, he would drop to the ground for push-ups — and then run sprints afterward as extra penance. Jones does not do that anymore, but he trains so hard, teammates said, that coaches have to curtail his reps sometimes.
And for that, the Falcons’ practice fields are thankful.
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