Atlanta Falcons OC Zac Robinson Defends Pistol Offense, Play Calling

The Atlanta Falcons have invested heavily in their offense over the course of the last half-decade. Four top-10 picks on offensive skill players to join an offensive line with three first-round picks, and then adding a $100 million quarterback.

For all that investment, the Falcons find themselves sitting 31st in scoring after three games

Offensive coordinator Zac Robinson has found himself under fire from all sides in the local and national media, with the focus on his preferred pistol formation and statistically predictable play calling.

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Facing the media of the first time since Sunday's 30-0 debacle in Charlotte, Robinson took ownership of the offense's failures, while simultaneously defending its principles.

"Last week you guys didn't bring it up and we ran for 218 yards, but I know it's a convenient narrative each week," Robinson said when asked about the pistol formation. "Obviously, our run game has so many different snap points and things that we activate with some of our tight ends, some of our receivers, that it does give us a ton of versatility. It was incredibly successful for us last year.

"When we played Washington last year, we were heavy pistol and our efficiency running out of the pistol, one of our analytics guys just told me it was like over 85% or something. So I know it's a convenient, easy narrative to go that route because of what just happened last week.

"But again, we go off of what defenses think and played against our defense all throughout training camp. Defensive coordinators that I talked to in the offseason tell us how difficult that is to defend just in terms of the versatility that there is out of it.

"So we'll always go off of what the defense thinks as opposed to, no offense, anything out there.”

There's nothing inherently wrong with the pistol formation, but the Falcons are running the ball 70% of the time when lined up that way, and they're passing the ball 93% of the time when lined up in shotgun.

Tipping you plays based on the formation to NFL defenses is a bad way to go about business.

"We don't feel that way," Robinson responded when asked about the predictability of his offense. "I feel like sometimes when you have these types of games as coaches, you say, ‘Ok, do we need to pull back? How can we pull back to simplify and maybe we're trying to do much from a schematic standpoint.’ That's always what we're looking inward as coaches is like, ‘OK, maybe we put too much on the plate, maybe we're trying to scheme too much and we need to simplify it.’

"So, I would actually kind of counter that to say in these moments, you typically try to get simpler where we possibly could have been trying to over scheme at times. But yeah, don't see any of that, don't see that from our opponent. They're playing everything true.

"Again, the execution will handle a lot of those things, and again, that starts with me. We’ve got to be able to have the right clarity so that we can execute on Sunday and so those things don't happen.”

The Falcons clearly use analytics when making decisions as an organization. It doesn't take a PHD in statistics to figure out 93% of the time and 70% of the time. Whether Robinson feels his play calling has been predictable or not is irrelevant.

It has been.

The good news for Robinson and the Falcons is that it's an easy fix. Chart your plays and avoid trends. I guarantee the defense is doing it against the offense.

The Atlanta Falcons have weapons all over the field, and a better run/pass balance based on formation will go a long way to improving the offense.