Atlanta Falcons 1986 season
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[edit] 1986 Atlanta Falcons season
The Falcons went in to the 1986 season with little to no expectations. Dan Henning the Atlanta coach was going into his 4th year as the head coach having going 7-9 in 1983 and with terrible 4-12 records in 1984 and 1985. Many saw it as Hennings last chance to save his head coaching job, Atlanta entered the season with no real talent except for a couple of players such as Gerald Riggs, Scott Case, Bill Fralic and Jeff VanNote.
David Archer was the starting quarterback heading into the season. They started with a impressive 4-0 start, however their schedule was rather easy beating their then NFC West rivals the New Orleans Saints 31-10 in the Louisiana Superdome. They opened at home in Atlanta with a 33-13 victory over the then St. Louis Cardinals (Arizona Cardinals now). Then after a thrilling 37-35 win in Dallas they beat the lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-20.
The first loss came to the Philadelphia Eagles whose strong defense coached by Buddy Ryan took care of the Falcons 0-16. Henning wouldn't let the loss affect his team as they beat the playoff bound Los Angeles Rams 26-14 from Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Things seemed to be going great for the team as they were able to tie the powerhouse San Francisco 49ers 10-10. Following the tie to the 49ers the wheels fell off and the Falcons lost all their momentum, their now stellar 5-1-1 record and undefeated 2-0-1 NFC West division record meant nothing as they dropped five straight games, starting with a 7-14 loss to the Los Angeles Rams then a 17-25 loss to the defending AFC East champions and the AFC conference champions.
They returned home to face the 8-1 New York Jets who rolled over everybody they played the Falcons still had a good 5-3-1 record but it didn't matter as New York beat them by two touchdowns 28-14 dropping them to 5-4-1. The next week a 10-13 heartbreaker of a loss to the Chicago Bears knocked them to .500, and 4th in the NFC West. They then ended their five game losing streak with 0-20 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
The now 5-6-1 Falcons handed the Miami only one of their for losses 20-14 in the Orange Bowl. A embarrassing loss to a team in the Indianapolis Colts who started the year 0-13, which was the Colts first win of the year. By that time the fans had become uninterested and the players discouraged with a 6-8-1 record they knew they were out of the playoff picture with Los Angeles and San Francisco already in the Falcons dropped their last home game 9-14 to New Orleans. They concluded their season with a 20-6 victory in the Pontiac Silverdome.
[edit] After the Season
Dan Henning who hadn't impressed the Atlanta Falcons front office with his 22-41-1 record over four years so they fired him. He was replaced by Marion Campbell who lasted only 43 games in Atlanta compiling an awful 11-32 record. No matter what the coaching changes were the Falcons, from 1980-2000 made the playoffs five times in 1980, 1982, 1991, 1995, and 1998
[edit] Rankings for 1986 Season
Atlanta was 6th in scoring defense allowing 280 points, 21st in scoring offense scoring 280 points. Passing; 246 completions of 452 attempts for 3046 yards. David Archer threw for 10 of the teams 14 passing touchdowns, Turk Schonert threw the other four. Archer had nine of the teams 17 interceptions, and Schonert was picked the other eight times. The team rushed for 12 touchdowns nine of which came from Gerald Riggs, one from Schonert, one from William Andrews, one Cliff Austin.
