Over the bye week, Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones had time to reflect on his key dropped pass against Detroit with the game on the line.
“For me, personally, it’s just me focusing on catching the ball and looking the ball in,” Jones said on Thursday. “Just going out there and being the best teammate that I can possibly be.”
On third down-and-10 with the Falcons clinging to a 21-19, Jones peeked up away from the catchable pass and lost track of it. The Lions would get the ball back and drive down for the winning field goal.
“It’s part of the game,” Jones said.
But you could tell that the drop was still disturbing for Jones.
“The player that I am, if I drop a ball, keep throwing it to me,” Jones said. “I promise that I’m going to make more plays than I drop or make mistakes.”
He’s trying to move on and put the drop in the past.
“That’s the first half of the season,” Jones said. “This is the second half. I’ve got to focus on what I can do in this game. That’s in the past and gone.”
While playing on a bad ankle and coming back from a major foot surgery, Jones’ six drops over the first eight games are tied for the fifth- most in the league along with a group of four other players. Only Cincinnati’s Mohammed Sanu (nine), New England’s Julian Edelman (seven), San Francisco’s Michael Crabtree (seven) and Tennessee’s Justin Hunter (seven) have more drops.
He pronounced himself fit for the rest of the season.
“It took a little time to heal up,” Jones said. “I had an ankle… I’m 100 percent now.”
Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter said it never crossed his mind that Jones would drop a screen pass.
He views those plays as extended handoffs and part of the running game. To make matters worse, Koetter had called the same play a few snaps earlier and figured he could gash the Lions again as they presented the same defense.
Jones’ drop was symbolic of what has plagued the offense over the first half of the season as the wide receiver group has dropped 20 passes, which is tied for the second-highest total in the league. Kansas City, Baltimore and Detroit receivers have also dropped 20 passes. The Indianapolis Colts lead the league with 25 dropped passes.
“The first thing is that our group is a confident group,” wide receiver Harry Douglas said. “You never want to drop balls period. But we have so much confidence in one another and as individuals to where if we do drop one, we have a feeling that we are going to come back and make a play on the next play.”
They have been supporting each other through these tough times.
“It’s all about confidence,” Douglas said. “You can’t drop a ball and be thinking about it the next play or the next series because that’s going to lead to more drops.”
They’ve check in on Jones to makes sure he’s not letting that play stick in his mind.
“He’s good,” Douglas said. “That’s one thing I can say about our group. I speak about our group because we have such exceptional confidence in one another and that we’re going to make a play. I don’t second guess anybody in this group.”
Jones has 53 catches, which ranks 8th in the league. He’s amassed 734 yards receiving which is ninth in the league.
Jones is the 21th rated receiver in the league, according to Pro Football Focus. He’s played 480 snaps and been targeted on 81 pass plays. He’s caught 65.4 percent of his targets, which ranks 47th in the league for receivers who’ve played at least 25 percent of their teams’ snaps.
Jones 261 yards after the catch ranks 10th in the league. His 4.9 yards after the catch average ranks 42nd in the league.
“I feel like that guys have been dinged up and not practicing as much,” wide receiver Roddy White said. “It’s different when you get in the game and the game-speed is a whole lot different. You can say that’s some of the blame for (the drops), but we just got to hold onto the ball.”
