Falcons 101: An Atlanta - Denver Broncos series history

The Atlanta Falcons and Denver Broncos are set to play the 15th game in their series, which stretches all the way back to 1970. While the two teams have not played very often, the series has featured a couple of very big games, including Atlanta’s Super Bowl loss following the 1998 season. Atlanta has not had much success in this series, and any success that occurs for the Falcons doesn’t last very long. Unfortunately.

Overall series record

Over the course of the 14-game series the Broncos have built a 9-5 lead that features a six-game winning streak from September 22, 1985 to September 10, 2000. The biggest loss for the Falcons was not numerical, but rather due to the magnitude of the game: a 34-19 loss in Super Bowl XXXIII.

The Falcons have not performed well in Denver, as they own a 2-4 record in the six games played in the Mile-High City. The results don’t get much better in Atlanta, where the record sits at 4-3 in favor of the Broncos.

Atlanta’s biggest victory/loss

While the series is pretty lopsided in terms of wins and losses, the games themselves have actually been pretty close: the average margin of victory is 10.7 points, which isn’t outlandish for a 13 game series. Despite the close average, a couple of games have pushed that number up a little bit.

There are very few blowouts in this short series but the biggest one to date came against the Falcons, unfortunately. Atlanta’s largest loss came in Denver on September 10, 2000 where they lost by 28 points, 42-14.

The biggest victory for Atlanta came in the third game of the series on November 23, 1975 when the Falcons beat the Broncos 35-21 in Atlanta.

No sustained success for Atlanta

As previously mentioned, the Broncos won six-straight games from 1985 to 2000 and won a Super Bowl during that streak. Atlanta’s longest win-streak throughout the series has only been two games and that was very early in the series.

In the last three meetings, the Broncos have won two games that were separated by the big victory against Peyton Manning and the Broncos on Monday Night Football in 2012. The Falcons picked off Manning three times on the way to a 27-21 victory, which was a very fun game to watch.

Series quick-hitters

• Dan Quinn has not coached a game against the Broncos as a head coach, but he was 2-0 against Denver as a defensive coordinator in Seattle, including the blowout victory in the Super Bowl in 2014.
• Matt Ryan is 1-1 against the Broncos in his NFL career with a 63.7% completion rate and two touchdowns to one interception.
• The Falcons are still uncertain as to who will play quarterback for the Broncos, but no matter who plays, this will be their first game against Atlanta.

Despite a poor record against Denver, the Falcons are a very different team than they have been during most of the series, but that does not make this game any less challenging.

Do you think the Falcons can reverse their poor luck against the Broncos this Sunday?

All stats and data come from pro-football-reference.com