No practice required: Julio Jones dominates Packers in Falcons' rout

ATLANTA – If this is Julio Jones on a bad wheel, imagine what he can do with two weeks to let that troublesome toe heal before Super Bowl LI.

The Atlanta Falcons’ all-pro receiver blew the roof off the Georgia Dome with his hold-breaking, tackle-busting, 73-yard touchdown explosion in the third quarter of a 44-21 rout of the Green Bay Packers in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game.

And that was just one of the highlights of a dominant performance by Jones, who finished with nine catches for 180 yards and two TDs, eight days after aggravating the sprained toe on his left foot that kept him out of two games last month.

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Jones, 27, missed two practices last week but insisted he’d be ready to go against the Packers. Was he ever.

He had a toe-tapping 5-yard touchdown catch on a back-shoulder throw from Matt Ryan just before halftime that the score 24-0. After a Packers three-and-out to start the second half, Jones beat cornerback LaDarius Gunter (who was flagged for holding) on an in-breaking route, then stiff-armed Damarious Randall as he raced up the sideline for the long TD that extended Atlanta’s lead to 31 and really broke things open.

Later in the third quarter, Jones held onto a 23-yard catch deep over the middle despite getting flipped over by Gunter and Packers linebacker Jake Ryan, drawing chants of “Julio! Julio!” from a crowd that only seemed to get more raucous as the Falcons’ lead grew. A 13-yard catch by Jones on third-and-6 set up another Atlanta TD early in the fourth quarter.

The Falcons led the NFL this season in scoring with Ryan spreading the football around in Kyle Shanahan’s offense, utilizing the team’s speed all over the field to exploit mismatches. But as Ryan said after last week’s win over the Seattle Seahawks, Jones is a good matchup every week.

He had six catches for 67 yards and a touchdown against Seattle, which used star cornerback Richard Sherman on him extensively. Gunter got the primary assignment Sunday and didn’t have any more success.

Now Jones can use the extra week to rest before heading to Houston for the Feb. 5 title tilt. If he even needs it.

Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero.

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