There were plenty of stars on the Falcons offense during Sunday’s 30-28 comeback win over the Panthers.
Matt Ryan threw for 369 yards, Michael Turner had 171 total yards and Roddy White had 169 yards and two touchdowns. Conspicuously absent from that list is Julio Jones, who finished the day with just one catch for 30 yards. Jones had eight targets over the course of the afternoon, so it wasn’t a lack of opportunity to make more plays that kept him from joining the rest of the offensive parade.
According to Falcons offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, it wasn’t the Panthers defense either. Koetter said that a lacerated right hand suffered in Week Three against the Chargers had a lot to do with Jones’ quiet day.
“He still had eight targets. That’s a fair number; it just didn’t work out. Eight targets and one catch is not a good percentage,” Koetter said, via Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal-Constituiton. “Julio’s hand is not 100 percent. Credit him for playing and running his routes hard. But there’s no doubt, [as] we’ve seen him in some earlier games this year, when he’s 100 percent he will be even more effective.”
The Falcons return to practice on Wednesday and we’ll see whether or not Jones pops up on the practice report. If he does, the good news for the Falcons is that they seem to be able to handle things on days when Jones is at his best.