“No. 12 isn’t human,” the Falcons were warned at halftime of the NFC Championship game.
Neither is No. 11.
Every playoff game is theatre; a stage for the most brilliant players to seize the main role. For the postseason’s first fortnight, the story was Aaron Rodgers. And one suspects that a decade from now when we look back on the 2017 playoffs, the first thing we’ll remember is the way Rodgers scoffed at convention, physics and the laws of the knowable world with all those absurd off balance frozen ropes.
Somewhere above us, and below Aaron Rodgers, God is still laughing at that pass to Jared Cook.
But Rodgers will have to content himself with the memory of transcendence, instead of its achievement on the final stage.
The man who stole his spotlight is the man who stole everything out of the air on Sunday.
Antonio Brown might be the ‘best’ overall wide receiver in the game, Odell Beckham might be the most ‘explosive’, but Julio Jones is the most ‘impossible’. No human should be able to have his combination of size, strength, speed, leaping ability, intelligence and toughness. But Jones does, and on Sunday, the humans, and even Rodgers, were left in his wake.
‘180 yards and two touchdowns’ somehow underrates Jones’s dominance. What he did to Green Bay was as cruel as it was complete. He suffocated them, and then he went to the shed to get his axe.
If he wasn’t picking up crucial third downs on short slants, he was catching touchdowns on unstoppable out-routes.
You can take your pick of what Jones’ most iconic, pantheon play on the day was. Most will go with that touchdown, where No. 11 fought off a holding defender to create the hint of separation, and then turned that hint into an ocean as he powered down the right sideline 73 yards to the end-zone. Two defenders had a chance to bring him down, but no defender had a chance to bring him down.
Just as impressive, though, was the 23-yard deep middle pass Jones caught on the next drive, rising up and then being undercut at the apex of his leap, but somehow still holding onto the ball as his body tumbled backwards, crushed by defenders who had to settle for being doormats for greatness.
These two plays spoke to the impossibility of Jones – the physicality and blinding, imposing pace of the first, the ascension and composure of the second. More than any other player in the game, maybe in history, Jones is as comfortable dancing in the stars as he is ripping up the turf.
The story heading into the Super Bowl, if only because there’s little that New England can offer in terms of a compelling narrative anymore (Bill Belichick is the greatest coach of all time and Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback – February 5 won’t change either of these things), will be Matt Ryan. He is the likely MVP, the player who has ascended from a respectable nothing to an awe-inspiring everything.
But Julio Jones is the best player on the Falcons, and he’s developing a particularly epic postseason resume. With Sunday’s devastation the sequel to a forgotten masterpiece, Jones’ eerily similar 182-yard two touchdown performance the last time he featured in the Conference Championship, in 2013 against the Niners.
He’ll have a chance to complete the trilogy in a fortnight against football’s greatest villains. The Patriots have earned their favouritism, but no team can feel too confident going up against this offence and this Jones.
The game’s best tactician has two weeks to prepare a plan to stop the unstoppable. If that plan exists in the universe, Belichick will find it, but right now, the universe is in the palm of Jones’s massive hands.
Sole
Guest
I order for the Falcons to win they have to get to Brady or (thereabouts). Hit him, hassle him, fall in front of him, play with his shoe laces it doesn’t matter; just as long as they’re pressuring Brady. It’s no secret that in those two recent losses to the Giants in Superbowl the Giants managed to harass and throw Brady out of his rhythm, no other QB in the league hates it more when you mess with his hair than Brady. Granted the Giants had a stellar D-Line with JPP, Justin Tuck, Chris Canty just to mention a few. Whilst the Falcons don’t boast the headiest D-Line, they do have the NFL’s sack leader in Vic Beasley, whether that’s enough is yet to be seen. If they don’t, then I imagine it’ll be a shootout and “who’ll score the most points” as I don’t see the Pat’s slowing down ATL’s multi-faceted offense either (despite BB doubling/tripling Julio).
no one in particular
Roar Guru
Atlanta might actually try a pass rush, something the Steelers failed to do. The horribly mediocre Pitt coaching staff were showed up again. Don't forget, it took a flea flicker to open up the game, while PIT didn't even want to try a QB sneak from a yard out
andrew
Guest
Atlanta play zone like the Steelers (i believe), so that gives Pats fans something to be positive about given the way Brady carved up that defence and the Pats receivers lead the league in yards after the carry..
andrew
Guest
As Tommy said in his post match press conference, this team keeps finding different ways to win. And they have. They have won ugly, with special teams, with different QB's, two tight ends. no tight ends, big scoring games, low scoring games - they have just found a way to win. Personally i hope they can do it one more time. The Atlanta performance on Sunday makes me nervous, I keep looking for reasons why they may not be as good as they seem. They scored the most points in the NFL - by quite a margin. The next highest point scoring team was the 7-9 Saints. Quality of QB and offence or quality of schedule since their schedules were the same? Don't know, but then the Pats didn't have a particularly hard schedule either..
Keagan Ryan
Roar Guru
History says defenses win Super Bowls, so the Patriots should be feeling reasonably good going into this one. That said, if Atlanta win they'll be in the conversation as one of the best offensive teams of all time. BTW Jay, keep pumping out the Atlanta stories please... in the last two weeks you've pumped up Seattle and Pitt, both went on to lose ;)
joe
Guest
I did go large on New England moneyline -140 at Cantor Gaming as soon as the line was released Sunday night at about 6pm
joe
Guest
The referee sets the tone for his crew,in this case its Carl Cheffers.He may not be the one who physically throws a flag but its his crew.Start looking at referee stats & trends before you start mouthing off about singling out a referee. They all have tendencies & biases whether its NFL,MLB or NBA.The refs are the most important person on the field or court.
Mushi
Guest
Also you've singled out the referee, who is highly unlikely to be throwing flags on pass interference in any game given he's behind the offense
Mushi
Guest
So the team that is dead last in defensive penalties will get a lift out of fewer penalties being called?
Mushi
Guest
Newton actually performed well above average when accounting for the pressure allowed by his line.
Mushi
Guest
Anytime you can bet on a trend based on 5 data points you should go large! What's the record of the #2 offensive team? Because that's the pats Also the pats defence is barely above average on DVOA.
Mushi
Guest
But if the falcon's can't force Brady to throw the ball away it won't matter.
joe
Guest
The most important person on the field will be Carl Cheffers.How he officiates the game will go a long way in determining the winner.As with a lot of sports the ref or umpire has more impact on a game than any player could ever have. If Cheffers and his crew decide to "let them play" it is a decided advantage to New England IMO.
Chop
Roar Guru
Yeah Andrew....No sorry I can't find any sympathy for Cowboys fans. ;-)
AGO74
Guest
That's a good point that you make in the last paragraph. Refs can be flag happy at times. However what this article seems to forget is that whilst Juliio Jones was outstanding yesterday - so too was Matt Ryan. Cam Newton was mvp last year but he was inexperienced in big games. Ryan I think has learned from his mistakes earlier in his career and Falcons have a HC who has been there before when he was DC of the Seahawks. I'm all in on the Falcons. I think they are a very well rounded team on offence and improving each week on defence.
Mushi
Guest
Sparing a thought for cowboys fans is like crying for the emperor at the end of return of the jedi
Mushi
Guest
Not sure that's a great strategy given the Falcon's strength on the line and the quality of their backs.
andrew
Guest
I thought the same thing on the commentary. it happened twice with the DB (Rowe) who isn't that great - may be good some day, but not now. Annnoys me when they celebrate wildly when they were actually beaten. While i agree they will have to match Jones up with man -on + safety coverage the way they locked down Brown, my concern there is Jones is a tall 6'3 with great vertical leap. The Pats secondary appear to be all under 6ft - like Antonio Brown. They are going to struggle to defend jump balls and fade routes in the end zone and anywhere else for that matter.
andrew
Guest
Spare a thought for Cowboys fans who after watching Crosby nail two (effectively 3) x 50+ yard field goals last week, when he shanked a 40 yard field goal in the first quarter ...
joe
Guest
The #1 offensive team for the season who has gone onto the SuperBowl hasn't done well historically.In this century there are 5 teams who fit that bill.Four of them lost.Only the Saints won it all the season they were the #1 offense in NFL.And they weren't facing a top level defense in the Colts that game.The other 4 teams who were #1 offenses (Rams 01,Pats 07,Broncos 2013,Panthers 2015) all struggled in the SuperBowl.They scored 17,14,8 & 10 pts respectively which was FAR below the gaudy numbers they put up prior to the SuperBowl. As i mentioned earlier refs are more likely to not throw holding or pass interference flags in the SuperBowl which favors the defenses.