CHARLOTTE – Julio Jones wasn’t about to get down on himself after a bad week.
Neither were the Falcons.
The rookie wide receiver rebounded from last week’s poor performance with a two-touchdown, 104-yard game in Sunday’s 31-23 victory over the Panthers. Both touchdowns came in the fourth-quarter of the come-from-behind win.
For Jones, it was his fourth 100-yard receiving game of the season despite missing three games with hamstring injuries. The resiliency of the young receiver was not a surprise to his Falcons teammates.
“When you look at the day and the two weeks he’s had, he’s made some huge plays for us and he’s made some plays where I’m sure he would have liked to have done better,” said quarterback Matt Ryan. “That’s him maturing and him understanding what the NFL is all about. There are going to be times when you don’t make the plays that you want to make. And it’s all about how you respond to those types of situations.”
Jones caught a 17-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to give the Falcons the lead for good at 24-23. He added the icing to the Falcons’ cake with a 75-yard touchdown catch late in the game.
“You make plays like that and you become more confident in what you are doing,” coach Mike Smith said. “I think Julio showed today the skill set that we all envisioned. He’s had a very good season for us. He’s going to be scrutinized but it was a great bounce-back game for us and Julio individually.”
Jones dropped what could have been a game-tying catch on the final play last week. He also made several mental mistakes. On Sunday, Jones proved more the player the Falcons gave up five draft picks to select sixth overall.
“There were some balls I could catch [in last week’s loss to the Texans]. You put any player in that situation they feel like they should make that play," Jones said. "I just went back out there and tried to help my teammates. I’m here for my teammates."
On the long score, Jones ran a post route, got inside of Panthers’ cornerback Darius Butler for the catch, and raced by safety Sherrod Martin and down the center of the field.
“The 75-yard touchdown was an excellent call by Matt," Smith said. "[Jones] ran the route and got inside leverage on the defender and the ball was delivered and there aren’t many guys that are going to catch Julio Jones.”
The Falcons thought they had a matchup advantage on Butler. On their first drive of the second half, they tried twice to throw to Jones in the end zone with Butler in coverage. Both balls hit Jones in the hands but Butler was able to break up the plays at the last second. The Falcons settled for a field goal to start their comeback.
It wouldn’t be the last time the Falcons went after Butler.
“Matt makes the decisions,” Jones said. “He felt like I was better than Butler so he kept attacking him. He kept putting it up there and let me make a play.”
Jones has 37 catches for 670 yards this season. Those numbers, in just 10 games, surpass each of the first two seasons of Roddy White, the All-Pro wideout. White had 29 catches for 446 yards as a rookie and 30 catches for 506 yards in his second season.
