The Falcons rode Julio Jones until the Eagles figured him out — again

Julio Jones was the Atlanta Falcons’ offense on Thursday night. In the first game of the 2018 NFL season, the three-time All-Pro made up 180 of his team’s 299 total yards — a whopping 60.2 percent. When Matt Ryan, in the midst of a thoroughly rotten game, needed a boost, he found Jones time and time again.

Until Atlanta got near the goal line.

The Falcons’ inability to produce big plays in the red zone meant the pass everyone was talking about after Philadelphia’s 18-12 opening night victory was one of the nine balls Jones couldn’t catch.

With the Eagles clinging to a tenuous six-point lead and the Falcons driving, defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz finally got the message and hounded the 6’3 playmaker with no fewer than two defenders for each of the game’s final six plays. All Ryan and offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian had to do was go 13 yards in 55 seconds to seal an affirming Week 1 win. Instead, the game ended like this:

Everyone knew where the ball was going; the same exact scenario unfolded to cap last year’s NFC Divisional Playoff between the two teams. The German announcers in the clip above called out Jones’ name a millisecond after the ball was snapped. Mohamed Sanu put in work to pick up the spare defender and get Jones a one-on-one opportunity, but even that wasn’t enough. Ronald Darby swept his assignment out of bounds, ending the game.

But while everyone was focusing on Jones, they missed a drag route coming down from the right sideline. Calvin Ridley executed a perfect pick to free up what appears to be Justin Hardy on a drag route across the middle. Hardy broke free at the 2-yard line with room to score if Ryan could have rifled a short pass in there. But Ryan never saw him. He never looked.

There’s no route progression from Ryan; it’s Jones all the way. And, just like last year, it didn’t work.

The play before the aforementioned game-ender was more proof of how lost this offense is when Jones has to fight his way through double- and triple-teams. Facing fourth-and-goal, Ryan’s top option was once again blanketed. With a bullying pass rush closing in, the Atlanta quarterback all but raised a white flag with a low percentage play — a pass to the well-patrolled middle of the field that not even Robert Wadlow could have hauled in inbounds. Only a pre-pass illegal contact call saved the team from a more embarrassing defeat.

And the problem isn’t limited to just Thursday night’s opener:

That’s bad! Really bad! And it gets right to the heart of what’s wrong with this Falcons team. They’re awful in the red zone under Sarkisian. Compressing the field makes it easier to track a defense-stretcher like Jones, and that mitigates the risk in double-teaming him. As the Eagles proved Thursday, putting an extra defender on him fails to significantly shift the balance in a way the Falcons can exploit — not that they won’t try.

Without the threat of turning upfield and torching you for 30+ yards, Jones becomes easier to contain. He was targeted 17 times in he red zone last fall; only one of those passes ended in a touchdown. You’d think that would open things up for the rest of the receiving corps, but only one player on the roster has more than three receiving touchdowns in the club’s last 17 games. Sanu scored five touchdowns in that span, all from within eight yards or fewer.

When this team tries to steer away from the obvious — i.e. winging it at Jones four straight downs — it digs itself into a different hole. Atlanta capped its first drive of the game with a fourth-and-goal situation from the 1 that tried to take the long way into the end zone. A sweep to Devonta Freeman failed, and it was probably because the Eagles had seen Sarkisian overthink his way to a bad fourth-and-goal decision against a defending Super Bowl champion before. Last year, it was a jet sweep to wide receiver Taylor Gabriel against the New England Patriots that earned head coach Dan Quinn’s scorn.

Too often, that leaves the Falcons’ red zone playbook looking like this:

1a. Julio Jones
1b. Jones is covered, so... ???
2. Nonsense.

We saw it repeatedly on Thursday night. Atlanta drove into the red zone five times. The club came away with nine points.

The end result is a losing team that has nothing to show for a defensive effort that allowed a paltry 3.6 yards per play. Atlanta had several opportunities to win its season opener, but mistakes across the board left the team hemorrhaging points. The Falcons have the tools to be a Super Bowl contender once more, but until they can figure out a plan beyond forcing the ball to Jones in the end zone until something sticks, 2018 will be another season of “so close.”