–Julio Jones continues to put his name in the record book among the game’s greatest receivers.
Last week Jones reached the 10,000-yard milestone for receiving yards. He required only 104 games to get there, which shaved 10 games off the existing mark held by Calvin Johnson.
“He is amazing. He really is,” Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan said. “He is a unique and special player. He is as talented as probably any player that has ever played.”
Jones was targeted 11 times against the Browns and caught seven passes for 107 yards and one touchdown. He now has touchdown passes in each of his last two games after being held scoreless for the first seven games.
“I was out there trying to get the win today,” Jones said. “I’ve been playing OK, but that’s not anything that’s in my head right now. We’ve got to find a way to win ball games.”
Part of the problem against the Browns was a seemingly lethargic approach to the game. But that cannot be said of Jones, who is one of the most fiercely competitive players on the roster.
“He works extremely hard and has been awesome to be around for his entire career,” Ryan said. “I admire the way that he prepares and gets himself ready to play year-in and year-out, week-in and week-out. It is fun to have been a small part of what he has done.”
Through nine games, Jones has 67 receptions for 1,040 yards, a 15.5-yard average. For his career he has 652 receptions for 10,004 yards and 45 touchdowns.
–After stuffing the run for the first two weeks, the Atlanta defense played “ole” against the Browns last Sunday. The Falcons allowed a season-high 211 yards rushing, a fact that will be addressed before Sunday’s game against the Cowboys.
“We have to be more disciplined up front,” defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. “Giving up 200 is not something we are proud of. We have to be better, there’s no way around it.”
The challenge this week is Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott, who has rushed for 831 yards and four touchdowns.
Cleveland’s running game was able to pick up big chunks of yards on first down. That left the Browns with short-yardage situations on second and third down and gave the Falcons fewer opportunities to get after the quarterback.
“We didn’t play the run quite as well as we’d like,” head coach Dan Quinn said. “There weren’t longer third downs that force a team into throwing in those scenarios.”
Quinn noted a couple of short-yardage situations on third down and pointed out that the Browns only faced eight third downs in the game.
“To not play as well on first and second down, I think that caused … you’d like to have a negative play that goes to second-and-10 or 12 and we have some pass-rushing opportunities. I thought that was probably the fewest pass rushing ops that maybe our nickel team would normally have.”
The Falcons did not have a sack all day. That’s not what was expected, especially after signing pass rusher Bruce Irwin earlier in the week. Irvin had two tackles in his Atlanta debut.
BY THE NUMBERS: 6 — Number of 300-yard games posted by QB Matt Ryan this season, the second most in a single-season in franchise history.
–51.3 — Percentage of third-down conversions for the Falcons, the second-best in the NFL. (The Colts lead with 52.4 percent). Atlanta currently has the highest rate of third-down conversions in franchise history.
