The Atlanta Falcons lost a game a whole lot of folks felt they should have won on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday Night Football against a backup quarterback with a fourth quarter lead.

Coming out of this one, the narrative is of course going to be the late injury to Michael Penix Jr. which forced Tua Tagovailoa into the game who eventually threw the game-losing interception. With Penix's injury to his ribs not being considered serious, he has been on the receiving end of some criticism over the course of the last few days with some arguing he should have stayed in the game.

680 The Fan host Chris Dimino did not quite go that far or question his toughness or anything like that, however he did raise a very real concern about durability that Atlanta has to be thinking about in the year ahead.

"Take away his knees, this guy had two shoulder injuries that took him out of seasons and we keep talking about his knees," Dimino said. "This guy gets hit, he gets hurt. So the insanity of asking whether this guy can survive playing in the NFL is insanity...you're asking a guy who can't stay on the field healthy to play quarterback in the NFL."

Dimino went on to say Penix could very well improve his play as well as show better durability in the future, but it is undeniably concerning the fact that he continues to get hurt week after week and year after year.

Penix has shown some promise but also some red flags, and with the best ability being of course availability, and he is simply not available enough right now as a franchise quarterback. By all accounts, this latest injury is not a serious one and he could be back on the field as soon as this week, but the starting quarterback missing crunch time in a close game is simply not the way to win games.

Penix has proven to without a doubt be the best quarterback on this team, but he has not proven to be someone yet that Atlanta should invest serious resources into and make a long-term commitment as a franchise quarterback.

The Falcons are going to have to make some very difficult decisions over the course of the next year, and what to do with Penix may be at the very top of the list. Right now, Penix has given Atlanta another reason to doubt whether or not he is the guy to bring this franchise back to relevance.

Time will tell how this plays out, but this latest injury is absolutely another piece of evidence for those who are concerned about the long-term viability of Penix.