FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones wants the offense to throw the ball deep more often and believes defenses have been "tricking" the offense.
Jones likes the game plan for the Jacksonville and is expecting a breakout game for the offense, which was shutout last week and has scored just two touchdowns over the past three games.
Here’s what Jones had to say on Thursday:
Q: How are you all going to get the offense jump-started?
A: (Coach Dan Quinn) DQ has challenged us this week to bring the juice. To get excited. When guys make plays. It was just guys making plays and that was it. There wasn't any excitement and guys weren't excited for you to make those plays. Just getting back to what we used to do and that's bringing the juice.
Q: What are some of the challenges to bringing the juice and getting the offense moving?
A: Everybody has to be accountable on every play. The main thing is that we have to do our job. Going through all of the keys, making sure we are making the right reads, blocking the right person and getting the right route depth. Everything. We need all 11 of us on the same page and doing the same thing. That's when we can have fun.
Q: Ryan Schraeder said yesterday’s practice was the best in weeks. Do you feel that way?
A: It's just bringing the juice. That's what we are going to focus on and having fun doing it. It is our job, but at the same time you have to have fun doing it. That's why I said, bring the juice. At the same time, you need every body doing the right thing on every play.
Q: How do you evaluate Jacksonville’s secondary?
A: They play at lot of three (Cover-Three). It's kind of like our defense. They have a lot of guys who can fly around and make plays. We just have to focus on us right now and that's going out there and sustaining drives and scoring touchdowns.
Q: What does the offense need to do to get the downfield passing game cranked up?
A: When you throw down field, you get that stuff cranked up. We just get what the defense gives us. (Offensive coordinator) Kyle (Shanahan) has been doing a great job for us, especially this week. He's ….everybody is talking and everybody is on the same page. Everybody is comfortable with the game plan. I expect big things out of our offense this week.
Q: Every week we ask you about getting the offense going. Do you have that frustration also?
A: Just because I have to answer the question every week. Nah, but it comes with it. You're going to be successful or you're not going to be successful. You have to handle success and not being successful in the same way. It's going to happen. Unfortunately, we haven't been successful in (making) big plays, scoring touchdowns, etcetera. It's on us to fix those things.
Q: Is this team close to fixing those things?
A: I think we'll have a really good week.
Q: What are you more excited about the game plan this week?
A: Every week he's been good. Don't get me wrong. No, every week he's been good. Just when we get to games, defenses, they are tricking us. They are doing a lot of trickery stuff and they are playing a lot of Cover 2. We get teams that play us a lot of three-high and they play us two-high. It's just game-planning and what not. I'm just excited about this week, just because it's a new beginning. Everybody has that new mentality. Everybody is on that same page moving forward."
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