How much concern should there be over the Falcons’ Week 1 approach with Kirk Cousins?

Usually, it’s not good to freak out about anything one game into the NFL season. Especially with many teams not playing starters in the preseason.

But the Atlanta Falcons’ had a really weird Week 1.

The Falcons ran an offense nobody expected and they didn’t run in the preseason, lining up almost exclusively in pistol or shotgun formation. They say it has nothing to do with the health of their 36-year-old quarterback coming off a torn Achilles, though that’s hard to believe.

Plenty of offenses struggled last week, but in the Falcons’ 18-10 loss the one thing that was clearly obvious was that Kirk Cousins wasn’t moving at all and the Falcons were making sure he didn’t have to.

“I feel like Kirk is healthy,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said on Monday. “He’s been healthy since he’s been here, since he’s been back.”

Perhaps that was the plan for Week 1. Maybe the Falcons will get back to running what would seem to be their normal offense in Week 2, or perhaps that the pistol/shotgun is what they want to use and it’ll just look better in Week 2. It’s just hard to believe Cousins’ health had nothing to do with their approach. And if that’s the case it seems unlikely to change in a week, or a month.

Falcons had a predictable offense

The Falcons’ offensive struggles were different than other teams’ struggles, because the offensive game plan was so unexpected.

The Falcons lined up in either pistol or shotgun in 48 of 50 plays according to ESPN Stats and Info. In the pistol, the quarterback lines up about 4 yards behind the center with the running back behind him. That means the quarterback doesn’t line up under center and doesn’t have to drop back or move to a spot to hand the ball off. And the Falcons were stunningly predictable. The Falcons had no designed runs in 22 shotgun snaps and ran it on 81% of their plays out of pistol. Any NFL team can figure out that pattern.

This was also troubling: The Falcons didn’t run a play-action play. They’re the only NFL team that didn’t, via…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-09-11 14:18:38

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