It’s a parade of touchdowns for Jones’ historic homecoming

Aaron Jones, say hello to Hall of Famer Jim Taylor.

Jones rushed for four touchdowns to lead the Green Bay Packers to a 34-24 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. It marked only the sixth time since 1950 that a Packers running back rushed for four touchdowns. Taylor did it three times, Terdell Middleton did it against Seattle in 1978 and Dorsey Levens did it in the finale of 1999 season against Arizona. Taylor and Jones are the only Packers backs to do it on the road.

In the victorious Packers locker room, following a fourth win in five games to start the season, he was awarded the game ball.

.@Showtyme_33 got the game ball after his 4-TD performance vs. the Cowboys 🏈

Take a look inside the locker room in Dallas! #GBvsDAL | #GoPackGo https://t.co/4wjDQv0oHb
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) October 7, 2019

“It’s an honor,” he said. “It’s my first game ball. I tried to give it to the linemen because without them I’m nothing, along with the rest of the blocking unit, but the linemen gave it back to me. They were like, ‘No, you’re home, you’re in Texas. You take this ball.’”

Jones showed the entire skill-set of speed, vision, toughness and awareness.

On the first touchdown, he burst through a hole and stiff-armed Cowboys safety Xavier Woods to the turf at the 6 on his way to an 18-yard touchdown.

On the way to a field goal that extended the lead to 17-0, he broke a tackle that turned a checkdown into a gain of 22.

On the third touchdown, a 5-yarder that made it 24-0, he used his excellent vision and acceleration to bounce a run around left end. On the way into the end zone, the normally quiet and respectful Jones waved good-bye to Cowboys defensive back Byron Jones.

“I was just in the zone,” Aaron Jones said. “I didn’t even realize I did it until I came off the field. Coach was like, ‘You know you just waved bye?’ I was like, ‘No I was just kind of in in the zone.’ No disrespect to him – he’s a great player – I was just in a zone.”

On the first play of the drive that ended with Jones’ fourth touchdown, he caught an errant shotgun snap to quarterback Aaron Rodgers, turning a potential disaster into a gain of 15.

“There were two of those. They weren’t meant to be,” Rodgers said of Jones catching shotgun snaps from backup Lucas Patrick. “Both times, it was when (Patrick) was going left, he was kind of throwing it a little bit right. The first time, I can’t believe he caught it. It was literally outside the frame of my body and he caught it. After that, I said, ‘Hey, just be alert for the snap here. You never know if it’s going to happen again.’ Sure enough, it happened again.”

The touchdown that punctuated that drive came when Jones ran over safety Jeff Heath at the goal line. By our unofficial count, Jones forced 14 missed tackles. Since we began counting missed tackles in 2012, the previous high was Eddie Lacy’s 13 against Minnesota in 2013.

In total, it was another phenomenal homecoming for Jones, an El Paso native whose first career 100-yard rushing game was at Dallas in Week 5 of the 2017 season.

It was Jones’ first four-touchdown game since the final game of his collegiate career, against North Texas. Obviously, the Cowboys are a much better team than the Mean Green. He rushed for 17 touchdowns and scored a total of 20 during his final season with the Miners; he’s got eight in five games this season.

“I’m just back at home. All my family’s up in the stands. I could see my brother right there,” he said of twin Alvin Jones, a former Baltimore Ravens linebacker. “I threw him one of the balls when I scored, so that was pretty cool. My brother and my cousin where right there.”

With 182 yards from scrimmage and the four scores, he easily outdueled Ezekiel Elliott, the NFL’s two-time rushing champion who ran for 62, caught passes for 29 and scored once.

“I like to leave it with no doubt that I feel like I’m the best out there, so I try to leave no doubt in anyone else’s mind,” Jones said.

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