Falcons 101: Falcons-Chiefs series history

The Atlanta Falcons and Kansas City Chiefs have only played eight games in the two teams’ history and the Chiefs have won over half of those games. The series dates all the way back to 1972 (23 years before I was born) and the two teams have only played four times after the year 2000. This short series features a lot of blowouts and some poor performances from both teams.

Team records

An eight game series is pretty short but it has been pretty close to even between the two teams, however, that doesn’t really mean that much when the Falcons have only won three games of the eight. Atlanta sits at 3-5 against the Chiefs in their history and the first victory came in 2000, the fifth game in the series.

The good news is, though, that the Chiefs started 4-0 and have since gone 1-3 as the Falcons have taken more control of the series recently. Kansas City is 2-2 against the Falcons in Atlanta and 3-1 at home, so Atlanta looks to give KC its third loss in Atlanta

Biggest win, biggest loss

We said before that this series featured a lot of blowouts and that was not an exaggeration: of the eight games, only one has been decided by single digits and four have been decided by less than 20. That said, Atlanta’s biggest win came on September 21, 2008 when they beat the Chiefs 38-14 in Atlanta

Four years prior, the Chiefs destroyed the Falcons by 46 points on Oct. 24 in Kansas City, 56-10. That game was the last win the Chiefs had in the series, as the Falcons have won two straight.

Matt Ryan changes things

Since Matt Ryan arrived in Atlanta, he has only played the Chiefs twice, once in Kansas City and once in Atlanta, and he has won both of those games with a great completion percentage (71.4 percent) and has thrown zero interceptions with four touchdowns. Matt Ryan also has one (!!) rushing touchdown against the Chiefs in those two games.

Atlanta won both of those games by a combined score of 78-38.

Series quick-hitters

• According to the Chiefs team website, Andy Reid is 8-3 in his career against Atlanta.
• Dan Quinn is coaching his first game against the Chiefs as a head coach.
• Alex Smith is 0-2 against the Falcons with a 54 percent completion rate and five interceptions to one touchdown.

The Falcons and Chiefs play this Sunday at 1 p.m. in Atlanta. Catch the game on FOX or on the radio at 92.9 The Game.

All stats and data are from pro-football-reference.com unless otherwise stated.