Julio Jones speaks candidly about Falcons' lack of scoring: 'That's not us'

Oct 04, 2019 at 09:42 AM

Kelsey Conway

AtlantaFalcons.com reporter

When asked where the disconnect is happening for the Falcons' offense considering Atlanta ranks No. 2 in passing yards but No. 26 in points per game, Julio Jones paused in disbelief before answering.

"That's not us," Jones said. "That's not good enough to win football games. We need to at least score 21, 28 points a game and we should be able to do with the guys we have. But like I said, everybody just has to fix themselves first."

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He's right, it's not what we're used to seeing from the Falcons since Jones and Matt Ryan arrived in Atlanta.

Since the Falcons drafted Jones in 2011, Atlanta has had a top-10 scoring unit four times:

2011: No. 10 (25.1 points per game)

2012: No. 7 (26.2 ppg)

2016: No. 1 (33.8 ppg)

2018: No. 10 (25.9 ppg)

Only twice has Jones's team not had a scoring offense that's ranked in the top-15 of the league (2013 and 2017) and one of those seasons (2013), Jones injured his foot early in the season and missed the remainder of the year.

The Falcons have high standards for themselves on offense and the recent 10-point performance against the Titans has Jones, Ryan and offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter searching for answers.

"We are a way better ball club than we presented last Sunday," Jones said. "The way we took the field, the way, the way we executed everything, it wasn't us. We played hard as hell, but just detail-wise, there was always one guy here and there."

The Falcons (1-3) are about to embark on a two-game road swing against the Houston Texans (2-2) and the Arizona Cardinals (0-3-1) and will be looking to get back on track.

In order for the Falcons to do that, Jones said his message to his teammates was simple:

"Everybody have fun but just be on your details," Jones said. "Go out here and cut it lose. We can't get that right until everybody collectively does their job instead of worrying somebody else's job. I have to take care of Julio and everybody just [has] to take care of themselves to go out there and play and be accountable. Once everyone is doing that together, we can go out there and play Falcon football."