Have you heard the Good News? | The History of the Atlanta Falcons, Part 2

Few remember this, but the Atlanta Falcons of the late 1970s and early 1980s were good. As in, “greatest defense in NFL history” good. They were thinking Super Bowl, and you couldn’t blame them, either. Grab your miniature pretzels and lemon drink. We’re about to know God personally.

This is part two of a seven-part series.
Written and hosted by Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein
Directed by Jon Bois
Produced by Alex Rubenstein
Rights specialist Lindley Sico
Secret Base executive producer Will Buikema
Secret Base managing editor Ryan Nanni

Corrections:

9:00 – Two other teams should be highlighted in green as playoff teams: PHI and HOU.
12:05 – The title of this chart should read “Adjusted net yards” and not “Average net yards.”

[agent]

I’m sorry, did you just describe Jesus Christ as ‘undrafted out of Nazereth’?

I love this channel

[chancemccoy]

“Although he went undrafted out of Nazareth” has me fucking crying

[williamlietz]

"Although he went undrafted out of Nazareth, Jesus Christ has been credited with many Super Bowl victories" is a sentence I never thought was audible. But here we are.

[ladsworld]

A football team allowing comparable amounts of points as a baseball team on the same field in the same year is the exact kind of ridiculous stats I watch Dorktown for.

[Prederick]

"Although he went undrafted out of Nazareth..."

I swear to God, Jon will have one line in each video that is just perfection.

[oceanflan_]

absolutely loving how that sax theme just keeps kicking in whenever the saints come up, it’s such a great touch

[brittlebrit]

First summoning salt and now the Bois, what a wonderful day to have eyes!

[davidwilliams]

Everyone: “Defense wins championships.”
Jon Bois: “The best defense in the last 50 years by points allowed went 7-7.”

[OfficialJaguarGator]

I think no better game exemplifies how bad the 77 Falcons defense had it than their 3-0 loss to the Buffalo Bills. The defense played lights out, and yet, still lost to a Buffalo team that had dropped 14 straight games. And that's because the Falcons offense did the following:

- Went 9-for-20 through the air
- Averaged just 2.9 yards per carry
- Had starting quarterback Scott Hunter finish with a passer rating of 12.9
- Went for it on 4th and 1 with three minutes left and didn't get it because nobody could pick up their blocking assignment

The Gritz Blitz deserved so much better

[harrisonlee]

"He was now both general manager and head coach"

I just felt a thousand Houston Texans fan scream.

[averageman]

“They named him Peachtree Bart, named after the street he was seen partying.”
Anyone in Atlanta: Do you know how little that narrows it down!?

[cassandranugent]

I went from never having heard of Steve Bartkowski to believing he should be a Hall of Famer in 45 minutes.

[datsko]

"Although he went undrafted out of Nazareth, Jesus Christ has been credited as the driving force behind many Super Bowl victories."
😂 Never change, Jon

[EvaIowaCubsFan]

That tease for Deion Sanders was amazing.

Hell this whole video was amazing. I can't wait for the next part!

[brickwallblitz]

NFL: “Kurt Warner was maybe the greatest undrafted player in NFL history.”

Jon Bois: “Actually that was Jesus out of Nazareth.”

[chuckpoore]

As a Falcons fan who started watching them in 1973 when my Dad had season tickets, this series has so far been wonderful and nostalgic, as well as sad at times, thinking what could have been. I just wanted to add a few notes of things I didn't see mentioned. This is not a criticism, I know if you included every tidbit, it would be 4 hours long! But I do think when discussing the 1980 season, while Bart's rocket arm was the biggest part, I'm surprised you did not mention the ground team of William Andrews and Lynn Cain. Andrews especially, was a beast. Before his career-ending injury, he simply could not be brought down. I remember in particular the Redskins game where he dragged four tacklers about 15 yards before they could get him down. It was said that trying to tackle him was like tackling a bowling ball, all you got was helmet, knees and elbows. He did not have blazing speed, but if he got into the open with a head of steam, he was almost unstoppable. There were a lot of tough yards on the ground that set Bart up for his bombing attacks. I remember how many times Andrews would get them a tough first down at mid field, and you just KNEW the next play was a bomb to Jenkins or Francis. When he was healthy and had protection (he was no scrambler) he was basically Dan Marino before Marino. Nobody could throw it farther with greater accuracy than him.
Also, regarding the 1978 last second tip-ball play at NO, one thing you didn't mention, was that during the game everyone assumed it was a Hail Mary, and what happened was a fluke. But after the game, Bartkowski claimed it was a designed play called Big-Ben that they actually practiced, and they used it more than once. Nowadays, that's pretty standard, a tip-drill play is in every teams playbook. But this may be the first instance of it being a planned play, rather than just a desperation fluke.
Lastly, regarding the 1977 defense, and the drop-off in 1978, while Coryell's "figuring it out" may have played a role, I would add something else, more fundamental. The defensive rule changes. Prior to 1978, defenders could hit and maul receivers almost with impunity. This was what made the Falcons' corners so effective in 1977, Rolland Lawrence was a very physical player. This is why they could risk the all-out blitzes, because the receivers rarely got into the open. However, once the rules changed and you had to keep hands-off the receivers most the time, Lawrence simply did not have the speed to stay with the receivers. He was a physical tormentor, not a speedster. So once freed by the rules changes, the receivers ran all over the Falcons secondary, and scored big when they blitzed. However, even into 1980 they still blitzed A LOT. They got burned a lot, but they also got a lot of sacks and knocked out a lot of QBs (like Staubach in 1978, who was never the same after that game.) And you still could not run against them. Very few RBs ever got near 100 yards against them. They were also very opportunistic and picked off a lot of interceptions. So I think it's unfair to say that they became bad in 1978, they just became a different kind of threat than in 1977.
Again, not criticizing, I know you can't cover EVERYTHING! Really enjoying this.

[NateMcCoy]

Never in my life, even as a student at a Christian college, did I ever think I would hear “Jesus Christ may have went undrafted out of Nazareth” this series and this channel are awesome

[sr.silverado]

jesus christ is canonically in the secret base cinematic universe

[NotForLongNFL]

That introduction they gave to Deion at the end was masterful

[capt.jaylenbrown]

I had to pause for a solid 10 minutes to laugh after that jesus christ bit.