As Julio Jones stood in a nearly empty locker room late Sunday afternoon following the Falcons’ 30-20 loss to the New York Giants, he had no explanations as to why the Falcons decided to shy away from him in the second half.
Jones tied his career-high with 11 catches and compiled 105 yards, but he only had three receptions for 17 yards in the final 24 minutes. With Jones stifled by double teams, the Falcons didn’t have enough other offensive options and blew a 20-10 third-quarter lead, falling to 2-3 on the season.
“Throughout the course of the game I kept getting a safety down to my side, a corner playing outside,” Jones said. “They were just doing that. We just had to pick our spots. They did a great job. Hats off to them.”
Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said the team didn’t intentionally minimize Jones’ role.
“I don’t it was anything by design,” he said. “Obviously Julio’s one of our premier guys. I think we’re going to try to get him the ball every chance that we get one-on-one opportunities. But across the board, we just weren’t able to get into a rhythm.”
Still, the Falcons had a chance to keep the game alive late. After New York kicker Josh Brown’s 50-yard field goal gave the Giants a 27-20 lead, Atlanta regained possession. Facing a fourth and 1 with 4:40 remaining, the Falcons chose not to punt and didn’t run the ball.
As Ryan dropped back to pass in a play intended for receiver Devin Hester, Giants defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins broke through the offensive line and sacked Ryan.
“I thought we had an opportunity to convert,” Ryan said. “We were still in the game at that point. It just didn’t work out. Obviously we didn’t get the job done collectively.”
It was another blown opportunity for the Falcons. They converted only 2 of 15 third-down chances. In the first half, they twice had to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns when they had first and goal.
“Anytime you’re inside the 5, you expect to go in there and punch it in,” Falcons receiver Roddy White said. “We’ve got to give them props because they came out there and stopped us when we had some plays drawn up that we thought were gonna get in there. They stepped up and made plays, too. It’s frustrating when you get that close to the goal line.”
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