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1977 Atlanta Falcons season

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1977 Atlanta Falcons season
OwnerRankin M. Smith Sr.
General managerEddie LeBaron
Head coachLeeman Bennett
Home fieldFulton County Stadium
Results
Record7–7
Division place2nd NFC West
Playoff finishDid not qualify
Pro BowlersCB Rolland Lawrence
DE Claude Humphrey
P John James

The 1977 Atlanta Falcons season was the team's 12th year in the National Football League. The team finished the season .500, and did not qualify for the playoffs.

Although the Falcons' offense struggled, the defense, nicknamed "Grits Blitz", was dominant.[1] The Falcons' 129 points allowed led the league and established an all-time NFL record for fewest points allowed in an NFL season.[2] Atlanta's 3,242 total yards allowed were second-fewest in the league,[3] and the Falcons' 1,384 passing yards allowed was by far the best in the NFL in 1977.[4]

Offseason

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NFL Draft

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Main article: 1977 NFL draft
1977 Atlanta Falcons draft
Round Pick Player Position College Notes
1 6 Warren Bryant  OT Kentucky
1 20 Wilson Faumuina  DT San Jose State from St. Louis
2 36 R. C. Thielemann *  G Arkansas
4 90 Allan Leavitt  K Georgia
5 120 Shelton Diggs  WR USC
6 161 Keith Jenkins  DB Cincinnati from Washington
8 203 Walter Packer  WR Mississippi State
9 230 John Maxwell  OT Boston College
9 242 Robert Speer  DE Arkansas State from Washington
10 257 Billy Ryckman  WR Louisiana Tech
11 287 Dave Farmer  RB USC
      Made roster    *   Made at least one Pro Bowl during career

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Personnel

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Staff

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1977 Atlanta Falcons staff

Front office

Head coaches

Offensive coaches

Defensive coaches




Roster

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1977 Atlanta Falcons roster
Quarterbacks (QB)

Running backs (RB)

Wide receivers (WR)

Tight ends (TE)

Offensive linemen (OL)

Defensive linemen (DL)

Linebackers (LB)

Defensive backs (DB)

Special teams

Reserve

Rookies in italics

Regular season

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Schedule

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Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue Attendance
1 September 18 Los Angeles Rams W 17–6 1–0 Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium 55,956
2 September 25 at Washington Redskins L 6–10 1–1 RFK Stadium 55,031
3 October 2 New York Giants W 17–3 2–1 Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium 46,374
4 October 9 at San Francisco 49ers W 7–0 3–1 Candlestick Park 38,009
5 October 16 at Buffalo Bills L 0–3 3–2 Rich Stadium 27,348
6 October 23 at Chicago Bears W 16–10 4–2 Soldier Field 49,407
7 October 30 Minnesota Vikings L 7–14 4–3 Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium 59,257
8 November 6 San Francisco 49ers L 3–10 4–4 Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium 46,577
9 November 13 Detroit Lions W 17–6 5–4 Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium 47,461
10 November 20 at New Orleans Saints L 20–21 5–5 Louisiana Superdome 43,135
11 November 27 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers W 17–0 6–5 Tampa Stadium 43,592
12 December 4 New England Patriots L 10–16 6–6 Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium 57,911
13 December 11 at Los Angeles Rams L 7–23 6–7 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 52,574
14 December 18 New Orleans Saints W 35–7 7–7 Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium 36,895
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game summaries

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Week 1

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The Falcons pulled a Week 1 surprise at home against the heavily-favored Rams, who opened the season with new quarterback Joe Namath. The Falcons shut down the Rams' vaunted running game, holding them to 59 yards. Namath had an early touchdown pass, but threw for only 141 yards otherwise and was sacked three times. Falcons' opening day starter Scott Hunter played close to the vest, completing 10 of 17 passes and running for a touchdown.

Week 4

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The Atlanta Falcons, with the NFL's leading defensive unit, have now allowed just 19 points in four games while climbing to the top of the NFC West with a 3-1 record. A 39-yard touchdown pass from Scott Hunter to Alfred Jenkins was the only score in the game and was set up when Edgar Fields blocked a punt by San Francisco's Tom Wittum. The Falcons' Rolland Lawrence had both an interception return touchdown and fumble return touchdown called back by offsides penalties.

Week 11

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The Falcons had possession of the ball nine times inside Tampa Bay 40, four times as a result of turnovers. Four times they marched to the Tampa Bay 20, scoring on three possessions. Two one-yard scoring plunges by Haskel Stanback and a 26-Yard field goal by Fred Stemfort and the Falcons ran out the clock at the Tampa Bay 19 to preserve their 6th win of '77. "I was pleased with the way we controlled the ball and the clock", said coach Leeman Bennett, "Our defense we're outstanding. They went in for three plays and we're out again quite a few times".

Week 14

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The Falcons had their most productive offensive game of the season as the Falcons scored 35 points their most in a game since they scored that many in week 10 of 1975 against the Denver Broncos. Haskel Stanback ran for 129 yards and 2 touchdowns from 2 and 7 yards while Steve Bartkowski passed for 2 touchdowns one from 27 yards to Secdrick Mclntyre and the other from 5 yards to Billy Ryckman. But the story was that the Falcons allowed the Saints to only 7 points to 129, a new NFL record for fewest points allowed by a team breaking the Minnesota Vikings' 1969's 133 points allowed. After the game the Saints fired Hank Stram as head coach.

Standings

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NFC West
W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK
Los Angeles Rams(2) 10 4 0 .714 4–2 8–4 302 146 L1
Atlanta Falcons 7 7 0 .500 3–3 7–5 179 129 W1
San Francisco 49ers 5 9 0 .357 3–3 5–7 220 260 L3
New Orleans Saints 3 11 0 .214 2–4 3–9 232 336 L4

Defensive legacy

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Arguably the most famous personality on the 1977 Falcons was defensive assistant Jerry Glanville, who installed in a swarming style of play in Atlanta remembered as the "Grits Blitz" defense. Football analytics site Cold Hard Football Facts calls the 1977 Falcons "the stingiest defense of the Super Bowl Era" and "the stingiest defense since World War II."[6] Atlanta surrendered just 9.2 points-per-game, or a total of 129 points in the 14-game season (both all-time records). Against the Falcons, teams scored 7 or fewer points in half (7) of the games, and scored more than 16 points only twice. Atlanta's defense intercepted 26 passes, allowed just nine touchdown passes, and recovered 22 fumbles.[7]

Despite its status as the stingiest defense since the 1944 New York Giants, the Falcons sent only two defenders to the Pro Bowl in 1977: cornerback Rolland Lawrence and defensive end Claude Humphrey. The 1976 Falcons possessed one of the worst defenses in the league (22.3 PPG) and largely fell apart in 1978 (18.1 PPG), therefore making the 1977 defense a "one-hit wonder".

Awards and records

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Milestones

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  • Jerry Glanville's "Grits Blitz" defense set the NFL record for fewest points allowed per game since the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger (129 points on a 14-game schedule, an average of 9.2 per game).

References

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  1. ^ Pro-Football-Reference.com: 1977 Atlanta Falcons
  2. ^ Pro-Football-Reference.com: In a single season, from 1960 to 1977, in the regular season, sorted by ascending Points Allowed.
  3. ^ behind Dallas's 3,213: Pro-Football-Reference.com: 1977 NFL Opposition & Defensive Statistics
  4. ^ Dallas's 1,562 passing yards allowed was second-best
  5. ^ "1977 Atlanta Falcons draftees". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  6. ^ Cold Hard Football Facts, The 100 Stingiest Defenses In Football History Archived 2015-11-14 at the Wayback Machine April 01, 2013
  7. ^ Which NFL teams have allowed the fewest points in the 16-game era?
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