Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones discussed the offense’s woes, his support for offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian and how they plan to get back on track against the New York Jets in an interview Thursday.
Here’s what Jones had to say:
On the offense's woes: "We are definitely trying to get back on track. Just fix things. We are not quite there yet. We have two or three more days of preparation and we'll be there. But right now, we have to go out there and have the best Thursday (practice) that we can possibly have. Yesterday was a great day. We had a lot of energy. Guys were flying around. Making plays and things like that. We have to carry that over to today with the same mindset and mentality. Staying in the moment and just getting better. Making sure that everybody is communicating."
On if the team has to focus better in practice: "Focus and tune in. That's something that you can always work on. Tuning in. Locking in and things like that. But it's just about communicating. Everybody is on the same page. Making sure that we guys are fatigued and they are tired, that we still haven't that same mindset to communicate when we are fatigued. ... Those are things we kind of have to work on."
On the extra red zone and third down periods: "It was good. We were flying around. It was good. Everybody was making plays. Defense gave us great looks. It was (starters) versus (starters), actually. It was a great time out there and we enjoyed it."
On the 13 targets vs. New England: "You know, for me, it's not about the targets for me. The thing is the Patriots gave me the opportunity on plays to be open and (Matt Ryan) got me the ball. It wasn't (anything) that was forced. You know what I'm saying. Like in the previous week, 'Oh, we're going to force him the ball.' You here this or that, but nothing was forced. It was just because I was open. Moving forward, I expect Matt to just continue spreading the ball around."
On offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian: "When things are going bad it's easy to point the finger at this person or that person. It's on all of us to take it upon ourselves to fix it. I feel like Sark has been doing a great job for us calling plays and things like that. We just have to go out there and execute."
On this year being like Kyle Shanahan's first year: "No, I don't even think like that. It's 2017 and we are just trying to make this team the best that we can make it. That's just us gelling. Communicating and just going out here and being able to communicate. ... This is a different football team. Some guys might be tired on a play and they are not communicating it. ... It's small things, but they are huge in the NFL. Small things can get magnified and it could be a big play. Just those little things that we are having mishaps on, we just have to clean up."
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