Julio Jones became the Falcons’ all-time leader in receiving yards in style on Sunday night.
Jones caught a screen pass from Matt Ryan on fourth-and-three, got a pair of good blocks from Jake Matthews and Mohamed Sanu and ran away from an Eagles defense playing without any deep safeties for a 54-yard touchdown with just over two minutes to play.
“When Sanu kicked the guy out, it was pretty much a foot race,” Jones said, via the team’s website. “That was it. It was wide open, they been giving us those zero looks throughout the game and sooner [rather] than later, we made them pay. We made them pay earlier in the game on the one to [Calvin Ridley] and then to myself at the end of the game.”
The score put the Falcons up 24-20 and left Jones with 10,868 career receiving yards. That’s five more yards than Roddy White managed with the Falcons and Ryan called it “special for him to break a record that way in such a critical situation.”
Ryan also said that he looks forward to a lot more special moments now that Jones has signed a long-term extension in Atlanta and getting them would bode well for the Falcons’ playoff hopes this season.