Source:NFL Films– who are the Falcons playing in this game?

Source:The Daily Press

“1966 Atlanta Falcons First Campaign”

From NFL Films

“1967 Atlanta Falcons”

Source:NFL Films– Name this Falcon?

From NFL Films

The 1966 Atlanta Falcons I guess could go down as one of the worst NFL expansion teams of all-time. Especially if you consider that they gave up over thirty-one points a game in the mid-1960s NFL where the rules still benefited the defenses. So take that up to the 1980s and we are definitely talking about one of the worst defenses of all-time.

The Falcons offense wasn’t much help either only scoring 204 in fourteen games. The great defenses are going have a hard time being successful when their offense is only giving them less than fifteen points a game to work with.

But a franchise’s expansion year isn’t really about having a good season. What you do with that season is use it almost as an extended preseason and look at a lot of players unless you find some very good ones early on and just go with. But generally you use that year to see where are strong early on and where you need to improve going forward. On a positive note: the Falcons did win 3-5 games in 1966 to finish at 3-11.