Do the Falcons have a Pistol problem?

Zac Robinson has given Atlanta an offensive identity. But does it make any sense?

For the first time this season, the Falcons’ offense put together a complete offensive performance. Pop the bottles!

For four quarters, things clicked. Bijan Robinson looked like the best player in football. Michael Penix diced up a hapless Commanders defense, even with continued problems on the right side of Atlanta’s line. The Falcons finished with a 52% success rate for the game and a 69% success rate on 29 passing downs, making it the most efficient performance of Penix’s career.

Some of it was situational and opponent-specific. The Commanders have serious challenges in coverage this year. When they line up in man-coverage, they have two sink holes: Bobby Wagner and Marshon Lattimore. Wagner is an all-timer — and he still has value attacking the line of scrimmage. But he is covered in rust. When he’s asked to move and play in space, he gets cooked. When your man-to-man looks leave you with Lattimore on Drake London and Wagner on Kyle Pitts or Bijan Freaking Robinson, you may as well quick-sim to next week.

When Joe Whitt has toggled to zone this year, his unit has been stronger. The Commanders entered week four seventh in the league in EPA/play in zone coverage. But they’ve been undone by persistent communication breakdowns, coughing up cheap explosive plays. After the Falcons game, they now rank 29th in explosive pass play rate conceded, ahead of only the Jets and Lions. Against the Falcons, the majority of those pops came in man-coverage… but only after they’d gifted away downfield shots in zone coverage.

It’s a puzzle Whitt will have to continue to piece together. Against the Falcons, he was left chasing his tail. Washington had no answers for Robinson flexing to receiver or Drake London moving to the slot.

(Sidebar: London is the prototypical power-slot receiver. After breaking through in that role last season, the Falcons moved him back to the perimeter to open this season. In the opening three weeks, he had only four catches for 30 yards out of the slot on five targets. But Drakey was back in week four, grabbing five receptions for 81 yards and a touchdown out of the slot, and compromising the entire structural integrity of Washington’s defense. Good job, Atlanta.)

The upshot: an offensive explosion for the Falcons.

Fresh off putting up a nothing burger against the Panthers, it was a much-needed performance and result. But it will do little to dampen the questions about Atlanta’s general offensive operation. Wide receiver’s coach Ike Hilliard has already been fired; offensive coordinator Zac Robinson was ordered to move from the booth to the field on game days. Both decisions helped highlight the fact that something about the Falcons’ offense just feels off — and it has done for two seasons.

One culprit that has been latched upon: the Pistol. Not the formation and set-up itself, but how Robinson has integrated it into his partnership with Penix, and the tells Robinson has offered opponents through the alignment of his backfield.