Xavier Rhodes gearing up for his toughest matchup of the season

After a rough game in Week 12, the Minnesota Vikings corner will have to regroup as he will be tasked with shutting down Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones next Sunday.

Leading up to his team’s Thanksgiving Day game with the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings corner Xavier Rhodes had pretty much shut down every receiver he had faced in 2017. Through 11 weeks, Rhodes had not given up more than 40 yards in a single game this season.

However, the Minnesota corner had himself what one would call “an off-day” against Lions receiver Marvin Jones last Thursday. Covered by Rhodes for the majority of the matchup, Jones finished his day with 109 yards and two touchdowns on six catches.

The performance by the Lions receiver on Thanksgiving is the first time Minnesota has allowed an opposing pass-catcher to gain 100 or more receiving yards in a single game all season long.

Hopefully for the Vikings, Rhodes’ bad day against Detroit is not a sign of things to come because if he thought covering Marvin Jones was a tough assignment, trying to shut down Atlanta Falcons superstar receiver Julio Jones in Week 13 is going to be 20 times harder.

Especially since Jones is coming off a game in which he caught 12 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns during the Falcons Week 12 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Minnesota Vikings

These two have faced off against each other in the past and Rhodes has been able to prevent the Atlanta receiver from making any sort of real impact on the outcome of each game. In their most recent matchup back in 2015, Jones was held to just 56 yards on five catches while being shadowed by Rhodes for the majority of the time.

Not to discredit the day had by the Falcons receiver against the Buccaneers on Sunday, but when Minnesota faced Tampa Bay in Week 3, their top two pass-catchers in Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs tallied up a total of 271 receiving yards and two touchdowns themselves. It’s a little easier to have a good outing these days when going against the Buccaneers’ 32nd ranked pass defense (also known as last).

Rhodes has already proven plenty of times during the recent past that he is fully capable of shutting down some of the best receivers in the NFL. Everyone from Antonio Brown, to Mike Evans (not according to him though), to DeAndre Hopkins, to Odell Beckham, and Davante Adams, the Vikings corner has prevented them all from making any big, impactful plays out on the field.

Next: What does the Vikings playoff situation currently look like?

Will Jones become the latest to learn that the “Rhodes” are closed in 2017?