Steven Jackson left Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Rams early with an injury, but not before he made a big impact on the outcome of the contest.

On the first drive of Sunday’s 31-24 Atlanta Falcons win over his former team, Steven opened the scoring when he caught a swing pass from quarterback Matt Ryan and took it eight yards across the goal line for a touchdown to put Atlanta on the board just over six minutes in.

Steven looks down the goal line to see that he has scored the game's first touchdown in a 31-24 Falcons win (Getty Images).

On the designed screen, S-Jax left his position in the backfield, leaving the defense at an advantage in pursuing the quarterback. The Rams defense took the bait and rushed Ryan, who lofted a pass toward Steven as the pocket collapsed. No. 39 caught the pass at the 12 and made his move up field toward the end zone.

Though he was tracked down near the five by Rams linebacker Alec Ogletree, SJ made another move toward the pylon and carried Ogletree with him as he stretched the ball across the goal line for the touchdown, his first of the season.

The score was the first of three unanswered touchdowns for the Falcons to push out to a 21-0 lead to start the game. They went into halftime leading 24-3 and managed to hold off a late rally by the Rams to win 31-24.

Unfortunately, the opening series was the only one of the game for Steven, who headed to the locker room after it with a thigh injury and did not return to action. In addition to his touchdown catch, SJ had three carries on the opening drive as Atlanta went 80 yards in 11 plays while soaking up six and a half minutes of the first quarter.

NEXT UP

After evening their record on Sunday, the Falcons (1-1) will be back on the road next week in Miami to take on the undefeated Dolphins (2-0). Kickoff is slated for 4:05 p.m. ET and the game can be seen on FOX.

Steven’s status for that game will be updated during the week.

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