Atlanta Falcons’ Julio Jones not worried about ankle injury

ATLANTA (TNS) — Atlanta Falcons All-Pro wide receiver Julio Jones left the game in the midst of the rally with an ankle injury, but he returned.

Jones, who caught four passes for 66 yards and scored on a 25-yard catch-and-run, originally suffered the left ankle injury against Miami on Aug. 25. He didn’t practice for nearly two weeks, but he insisted that the ankle was fine after the 31-24 loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday.

“I’m good,” Jones said. “I went back out there.”

Jones said he was not worrying about the injury lingering on into the season.

“It’s good,” Jones said. “I’m good to go. There’s nothing to worry about.”

The Falcons didn’t use Jones in the red zone, but he contended that the offense doesn’t have any red zone problem after scoring just one touchdown on four trips inside of Tampa Bay’s 20-yard line.

“We just shot ourselves in the foot,” Jones said. “A few penalties here and there. We just have to clean up those little things. But we definitely can score in the red zone. That’s no problem.”

The Falcons struggled in the red zone last season. They were ranked 18th in the league, while scoring on 54.7 percent of their red-zone possessions.

“We are not going to let old stuff creep back in, like we can’t score in the red zone,” Jones said. “This and that. It’s happening again. It was just penalties today that kind of moved us out of position and away from the plays we wanted to call down there in the red zone.”

Jones was held in check for first half of the game with one catch for 14 yards. Former Falcons head coach Mike Smith made his debut as Tampa Bay’s defensive coordinator and Jones was his number target to take away from the Falcons.

“He kept a safety over the top on me,” Jones said. “Then every now and then he played a trap with the corner jumping inside of me. They would play a two-man and then outside with the quarters. They just kept trying to mix it up. At all times, they had two guys on me for most of the game.”

With the Falcons trying to rally from a 31-13 deficit, Jones broke loose for touchdown.

“They were in zone,” Jones said. “I thought it was man, but they just left me by myself. When I turned it up I had to turn on the jets. It was on then.”