A look at Julio Jones' Best NFL Games
Julio Jones has produced one mesmerizing player biography.
Soon, the Tennessee Titans public relations staff will be in charge of uploading it to the team’s official website. In a trade late Sunday morning, the Titans acquired Jones, one of the NFL’s best wide receivers, from the Atlanta Falcons.
Over the course of his 10 seasons with the Falcons, Jones set a sizable list of franchise records and reached dozens of milestones.
For his career, the two-time All-Pro is third among active players in receptions (848), second in yards (12,896) and 11th in touchdowns (60). He leads all wide receivers (current and former) in yards-per-game with 95.5. He’s led the league in that category three times. He has 58 career 100-yard games, including a handful of 200-yard efforts and one 300-yard performance, which isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. He’s led the league in yards twice and receptions once.
But in between all of those milestones, what were his best games? All Titans rounded up five of the seven-time Pro Bowler’s most resounding performances.
• 2016 Week 4 vs. Carolina Panthers: Jones became the fourth player in the Super Bowl era to record a 300-yard receiving game. He caught 12 passes on 15 targets for 300 yards, the sixth-highest single-game total in league history and a franchise record. He also scored a touchdown in the 48-33 victory. Jones averaged an eye-popping 25 yards per catch and had three of the four biggest gains (75, 53 and 43 yards) in this contest. Overall, Jones is one of six players in league history with a 300-yard receiving game.
• 2017 Week 12 vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Jones hauled in 12 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-20 win over Tampa Bay, making him the first player to record three games of 250 yards or more. He averaged more than 21 yards per reception in that contest and caught more than 80 percent of passes thrown his way. He scored both touchdowns in a span of 5:10 in the second quarter. Only five other Falcons caught passes that day for a combined 115 yards.
• 2016 NFC Championship game vs. Green Bay Packers: The Falcons reached the Super Bowl and famously blew a 28-3 second-half lead against the New England Patriots. To get there, though, Jones played more than a big part. He caught 19 passes for 334 yards and three touchdowns in the three playoff games. In the NFC Championship, he scorched the Packers to the tune of nine catches for 180 yards and two scores. He’s the only player in NFL history to have two postseason performances with at least 180 yards and two touchdowns. His first such effort was in 2012 when had 182 yards and two touchdowns against the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game.
• 2014 Week 14 vs. Green Bay Packers: This at one point was the best game of his career. Late in his third NFL season, Jones caught 11 passes for 259 yards and a touchdown in a Monday Night Football contest. Atlanta trailed by 24 at halftime, at which point Jones already had 100 receiving yards on five catches. His 79-yard reception on the first snap of the second half was the longest gain of the contest and set up a touchdown four plays later.
• 2015 Week 3 vs. Dallas Cowboys: Jones put up video-game-like numbers in this season when he tied for the league lead with 136 receptions and led all players with 1,871 yards, the second-highest single-season total in league history. In the Week 3 victory over the Cowboys, Jones caught 12 passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns. His 45-yard score midway through the third quarter got the Falcons within three (28-25) and his 2-yard touchdown catch with 3:04 to play clinched the victory. With that performance, he became the first player in league history to have at least 135 receiving yards in each of a team's first three games in a season (he had 141 in Week 1 and 135 in Week 2).
