Jones brothers both top 100 yards in NFL openers

RENTON — Julius Jones gets paid to keep his feet moving, but he's stumbled over a question that's got him stalling for time.

How many stoplights are in his hometown?

"Oooh," he says, "let me see."

He counts one, two, three and then submits his final answer.

"Possibly four," he says.

There's actually eight, each one of them assigned a number in Big Stone Gap, Va., a name that's an oxymoron the town is so downright small. There are fewer than 6,000 residents, and just more than 500 kids attended Jones' area high school. Yet the little town in Virginia's coal country produced two of the five men who rushed for 100 yards in Week 1 of the NFL season: Julius and his older brother, Thomas, who plays for the New York Jets.

Thomas led the way Sunday, gaining 107 yards at Houston in a game that ended just about the time Seattle was kicking off to St. Louis. But Thomas has always been the first one through. It was true in high school when he once ran for more than 400 yards in a game. He was a senior when Julius was a freshman, and big brother was in the backfield when Julius got his first varsity snap late that season. The result was a touchdown.

"He was there blocking," said Julius, 28. "He was taking care of me."

Big brother has always been a bit of a trailblazer. When Thomas went from Powell Valley High School to the University of Virginia, he opened a door and then Julius kicked it off the hinges, earning a scholarship to Notre Dame.

"He was an East of the Mississippi recruit," Phil Robbins said of Thomas. "And Julius became a national recruit."

Robbins coached both brothers in high school, and one memory of Julius is burned into Robbins' hard drive, the moment that epitomized the way he played. It was the state final, and the opposing team had a 6-foot-2 athletic safety. He came barreling toward Julius in the backfield.

"He came downhill real quick," Robbins said.

Too quick, it turned out. The safety had to make a U-turn because Julius was already by him.

"He had never seen anybody with the kind of speed that Julius had," Robbins said. "I can still see Julius when he put his foot in the ground and it was like he mashed that accelerator to the floor."

The Rams can offer an amen to that. On Jones' third carry of the second half, he followed fullback Justin Griffith, planted his foot and cut upfield. He wasn't touched until he was tackled into the end zone for a 62-yard touchdown run.

It was Seattle's longest run since 2005 when Shaun Alexander ran 88 yards for a touchdown in Arizona. That run accounted for more than half of Jones' total of 117 yards rushing.

"The fact he was able to pop that one there sort of validated some of the things that we've been saying to him," coach Jim Mora said. "Just stick with it, believe it, and eventually you will break that run."

The Jones family has never had a problem with perseverance. Thomas was chosen No. 7 overall in the 2000 draft, and he bought his parents a house and swimming pool. Once Julius reached the league in 2004 there wasn't much left to do for the family.

"Everything had already been done," Julius said, laughing. "I bought 'em dinner."

Thomas, 31, was five seasons and three teams into his NFL career before he surpassed 1,000 yards rushing with the Bears in 2005. The next season, Julius ran for more than 1,000 yards in his third season as a Cowboy. It was the first time two brothers gained more than 1,000 yards in the same NFL season, and it's a plateau Julius is striving to get back to.

He averaged 4.4 yards per carry for Seattle last season, best in Seattle's backfield, but fell out of the running-back rotation the final month of the season after a pair of fumbles in Dallas on Thanksgiving.

On Sunday, he got a running start to his season as Seattle's undisputed starter, and like he has for so much of his life, he followed his brother's footsteps to finish with 100 yards rushing.

"We've both come a long way," Jones said. "We both have worked so hard to try and get respect in this league. For us to get 100 yards on the same day is big for us, to us as a family."

Notes

• WR Deion Branch and LT Walter Jones each practiced Thursday, though they were limited. NFL teams announce the status of injured players on Friday for the upcoming game. CB Travis Fisher also practiced in a limited role, his first workout since injuring a hamstring in an exhibition game.

• DT Brandon Mebane did not practice Thursday because of a calf injury suffered in Wednesday's practice. WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh (back spasms) and LB Lofa Tatupu (hamstring) missed practice for the second consecutive day.

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com