INDIANAPOLIS – Now, after taking care of the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, the Falcons are ready for their showdown with the New Orleans Saints.
With the help of two early touchdowns from rookie wide receiver Julio Jones, the Falcons swatted the hapless and winless Indianapolis Colts like a bothersome insect in a 31-7 rout at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Thanks to Jones, who had touchdown receptions of 50- and 80-yards in his return from a left hamstring injury, the stage is now set for a NFC South showdown for first place when the Saints come to The Georgia Dome at 1 p.m. Sunday.
The Falcons, the defending NFC South champs, improved to 5-3, while the Colts dropped to 0-9. The Saints improved to 6-3 with a 27-16 victory over Tampa Bay on Sunday.
It was only the Falcons second victory ever over the Colts, who now hold a 13-2 advantage.
The Falcons jumped out to a 21-0 lead and never let the Colts up off the turf. Middle linebacker Curtis Lofton forced a fumble on the Colt's second play from scrimmage. Defensive end Ray Edwards recovered the ball at Indianapolis' 26-yard line.
Five players later, running back Michael Turner scored on a 1-yard run.
“I liked the fast start,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said.
For the Falcons, who were coming off a bye week, it was their third consecutive victory. For Jones, whom the Falcons mortgaged part of their future to move up 21 spots to select in the draft, it was his first and second touchdown catches in the NFL. He finished with three catches for 131 yards. It was his third 100-yard receiving game of the season.
Jones, who said he could have played in the last game against Detroit on Oct. 23, had missed the last two games.
His first touchdown grab was a bomb from quarterback Matt Ryan that the referees initially ruled incomplete. The play was challenged and ruled a touchdown.
On his second touchdown, he caught an 8-yard slant and flashed his sub 4.4 speed as he outran several Indianapolis defenders the final 72 yards for the score.
“I don’t amaze myself,” Jones said. “I kind of expect that. I just go out there and try to give 100 percent every time. If the ball is up in the air, I’m going to try and catch it.”
Jones also had two carries for 33 yards rushing on reverses
About the only blemish for the Falcons was a Ryan’s pass intended for Roddy White that was intercepted by Colts cornerback Jerraud Powers and returned for a touchdown, the Colts' only score, to make it 21-7.
The Falcons added a 1-yard touchdown pass to Tony Gonzalez in the third quarter and a 20-yard field goal from Matt Bryant in the fourth quarter.
The challenge for the Falcons was clearly to not play down to the competition.
They only had one penalty – a holding call on left tackle Will Svitek.
The defense was rugged on third down for the second consecutive game. After holding Detroit to 1 of 12 third down conversions, they held the Colts to 4 of 14 (29 percent).
“I really like the way that our defense has played the last four or five weeks,” Smith said. “We’ve had some ups and downs, but the arrow is definitely going up.”
Even the defense was drawing some energy from the play of Jones.
“He gets us juiced up,” safety Thomas DeCoud said. “When a defense sees their offense playing well, that fires us up. It makes us want to go out there and lock up their offense.”
The offense featured a revamped offensive line with Joe Hawley starting at right guard for Garrett Reynolds. The unit amassed 432 total yards of offense.
“We kept our eyes on the prize,” Gonzalez said. “The prize at this point isn’t the Super Bowl. The prize is winning each week. We came in here pretty focused and ready to go.”
The Saints lost to a winless St. Louis team last week. The Falcons wanted to keep their modest streak going and stay on the Saints’ heels.
“We jumped on them early and gave them that ‘here we go again’ mentality,” Gonzalez said. “That’s what you want to do to team like that, get on them early and make them say ‘it’s going to be another tough one for us.’ ’’
It certainly was a tough one for the Peyton Manning-less Colts. But now, the Falcons can focus squarely on the Saints.
“I’ve watched them play already,” Gonzalez said. “It’s one of those things were the fans are going to want to see and we want to play it. We want to see where we stack up. They want to see where they stack up."
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