EDITOR'S NOTE: Wide receiver Jacoby Jones is providing a weekly diary entry for HoustonTexans.com to provide fans insight into his thoughts during his rookie season in the NFL.
As most people probably know by now, I found out I had a separated shoulder after the Colts game. It happened when their punter, Hunter Smith, tackled me at the end of my return in the third quarter. So I won't be playing this weekend, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was at first and I shouldn't be out much longer.
After the injury happened, our doctors were trying to get me to go to the locker room, but I didn't want to go. I was disgusted. I didn't want to leave the sideline. I was like, man – I was trying to tell myself I'd be alright, just needed to walk it off. But it wasn't going to happen.
Even though I got injured, I wouldn't change the way I play. You can't be scared, not at all. You've got to go 110 miles per hour no matter what. Even when I heal and go back, I'm still going back to the way I was playing, and that's fast.
On the play, the thing that was tricky is I didn't want to cut back on him. I cut back on the punter last time at Carolina, and they caught me. But I don't think it was a mistake what I did this time. I think that I probably should have pressed at him a little more, but I took the right angle. He's just a great athlete. Everybody is in the NFL. He can run.
I kind of knew him from before because he worked out at St. Vincent's Sports Performance, which is where I worked out for the combine. A lot of the Colts worked out there, got treatment and stuff, and he was there and I met him and we kind of conversated and talked.
On the bright side, I'm not really in pain right now. My shoulder's alright. When it first happened, it wasn't really pain either, but I could tell something was wrong because when you move your shoulder like that it just shouldn't sound like that.
I talked to my mom after the game. At first, she was a nervous wreck, but once she found out it wasn't that bad, she was alright.
This week is different, though, not being out there. I never missed any time at Lane – not one game, not one practice. So it's different. It's not really more frustrating because I was starting with Andre Johnson out, it's just that I don't want to be hurt. It's not a good feeling being hurt and your opportunities limited and knowing you can't help your teammates out on the field. But now I'm going to just sit and watch film, which is all I can do. It helps, though. You can learn a lot about the game by watching film.
That was my first real loss in the NFL. All you can do is work to get better and come back to the drawing board. And it was good to see how we played even with all the injuries. A lot of guys stepped up. André Davis stepped up and Sam Gado came in and played well, so we were pretty good. This week, the whole team's going to step up. We've got to rally together to play ball no matter what, and that's what we're going to do against Atlanta.
Jacoby Jones diary archive:Entry 5 - 9/19
Entry 4 - 9/12
Entry 3 - 9/5
Entry 2 - 8/28
Entry 1 - 8/22
Got a question for Jacoby? Post a comment, or send an e-mail to editor Nick Scurfield at **nscurfield@houstontexans.com*.*
