Falcons play-calling leads to big questions about Kirk Cousins' health

There are a few things that stand out about those splits.

The first is that it probably did not take the Steelers coaching staff and players very long to pick up on those trends. The ineffectiveness of the Falcons offense in the second half is a pretty good indicator of what Pittsburgh might have discussed at halftime. If the other team knows what you are doing and when you are doing it, that is a huge advantage in their favor.

The second is that Cousins has never been particularly effective when running out of the pistol formation in his career. The fact the Falcons went with that formation so often — and ran almost exclusively out of it — is where the concern with Cousins' health comes in.

Going almost exclusively out of the shotgun and having that sort of play-calling split could be a sign that Cousins is struggling to move and is not fully comfortable dropping back. That is not something that is likely to change anytime soon. 

With Cousins one of the league's oldest starting quarterbacks (36), all of this should be a pretty big concern for the Falcons and their fans this season. The organization gave him a massive contract in free agency, including more than $100 million in guarantees, in the hopes he could solve their quarterback situation. 

They then followed that up a month and a half later by using their first-round pick on Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. Did they know something about Cousins' health after signing him that scared them into taking another quarterback?
Being willing to use a premium pick on a quarterback so soon after signing Cousins to that contract should have been the first indication of some concern on Cousins' long-term outlook. The play-calling on Sunday only adds to that.