Julio Jones isn’t the best Falcons player ever not yet
That makes that 2011 draft-day deal the best in franchise history. Which is saying a lot, considering which trade it beat out, which player it surpassed and the controversy over that player that will last forever.
No, Julio Jones isn’t the best Falcons player ever not yet, at least. Nor will he reach the levels of fame and infamy, love and hatred, adoration and condemnation, reached by Michael Vick. (One would hope not on the infamy.)
No deal had packed a punch and left an impact the way the Falcons’ acquisition of the first overall pick they used on Vick in 2001. The Jones deal, though, had that potential. That potential was realized Sunday in the Georgia Dome because Jones owned that 44-21 demolition of the Packers, doing everything a team could ever desire from a game-breaking receiver, and more.
Elias Sports Bureau confirmed three precedents from the NFC playoff game: 1) Mason Crosbys 51-yard field goal for the Packers as time expired was the longest game-winning kick in NFL postseason history; 2) For the first time, three field goals from 50 or more yards were made in the last two minutes of the fourth Cheap Giants Jerseys quarter of a playoff game; 3) Crosby was the first to hit two by himself from 50 or more in the last two minutes.
That was Crosby from 56 to put the Packers ahead 31-28 with 1:33 left, then Dan Bailey from 52 to tie it with 35 seconds left, and Crosby again at the gun.
It was like Reggie Millers eight points in the last 18 seconds in the NBA Cheap Girls Softball Jerseys playoffs years ago but if Miller played for both teams.
And it made the heroics by Rodgers and Prescott down the stretch of an instant-classic NFL playoff game count not to mention making their jobs a lot easier. The field gets shorter, the decisions easier and the choices less risky when a team not only trusts its kicker, but trusts him from anywhere on the field.