On February 3, 1977 the Atlanta Falcons announced the
hiring of Leeman Bennett to be the team’s head coach. Bennett was given a
five-year contract by GM Eddie LeBaron, the ex-NFL quarterback-turned-lawyer
who was himself a recent hire. Bennett was hired after Dallas assistant coach
Dan Reeves turned down the job.
The 38-year-old Bennett (he turned 39 prior to the start
of the ’77 season) had not previously been a head coach and most recently was wide
receivers coach with the Rams. He had previously been an assistant with the
Lions and Cardinals, and before that was a college assistant at Pittsburgh,
Cincinnati, and Navy. The native of Paducah, Kentucky had played quarterback and
defensive back in college at Kentucky.
“I’ve seen poor programs and strong programs and I’ve
learned the difference,” Bennett said at his press conference. “I’m convinced I
know what it takes to get a good program going.”
Since entering the NFL in 1966, the Falcons had finished
with winning records in just two of eleven seasons. In 1976, they ended up at
4-10 with Head Coach Marion Campbell falling by the wayside five weeks into the
campaign and then-GM Pat Peppler, who had last been a head football coach at
the high school level in the 1940s, finishing out the year. While the Falcons upset
the Cowboys along the way, they also were thrashed by the expansion Seahawks
and were shut out three times, with the Rams annihilating them by a score of
59-0.
To be sure, promising second-year QB Steve Bartkowski had
gone down with a knee injury five weeks into the season and it was the likes of
Kim McQuilken and Scott Hunter directing the offense the rest of the way.
Bartkowski was still not around at the start of the 1977 season and, when he
finally returned, he struggled. Just as in ’76, the offense was a problem area
for the Falcons, but the story was not all bad. RB Haskel Stanback had a good
year, rushing for 873 yards and catching 30 passes for 261 more. TE Jim
Mitchell was a fine player, despite an off-year in ’77, while wide receivers
Alfred Jenkins and Wallace Francis were capable. The line was young, but anchored
by solid center Jeff Van Note.
As much as the offense was a problematic work in
progress, the attacking “Grits Blitz” defense was brilliant, setting a league
record by giving up just 129 points over the course of 14 games. DE Claude
Humphrey led a pass rush that recorded a team-record 42 sacks. The linebacker
corps was a good one, with MLB Ralph Ortega flanked by Greg Brezina and Fulton
Kuykendall (aka “Captain Crazy”), and the backfield had a star in CB Rolland
Lawrence, who accounted for seven of the team’s 26 interceptions (also a club
record at the time).
The final tally was 7-7, which reflected favorably on
Bennett and LeBaron and boded well for the team’s future. In 1978, Atlanta took
another step upward.
The trajectory didn’t appear to be moving that way when
the team lost three consecutive games after beating Houston in the
season-opening contest. The Falcons were 2-4 before posting five straight wins
and seven in their last ten contests – some of which were in dramatic fashion –
to finish second in the NFC West and thus qualifying as a Wild Card team in the
playoffs.
Bartkowski (pictured above), who lost his starting job to backup June
Jones for the first three games, finally broke out and had a good season.
Wallace Francis caught 45 passes for 695 yards and, when Alfred Jenkins was
lost for the year in the first week, WR Billy Ryckman stepped in and had 45
catches for 679 yards. The third wide receiver, rookie Alfred Jackson, brought
needed speed and averaged 20.2 yards on his 26 receptions and Jim Mitchell
bounced back with 32 catches and displayed his usual skill at blocking. Haskel
Stanback had a lesser year running the ball and HB Bubba Bean led the club with
707 yards on the ground.
The defensive line lost Claude Humphrey, who quit the
club four games into the season (he was traded to the Eagles afterward), and he
proved hard to replace. But Greg Brezina provided leadership as well as good
play at linebacker along with Fulton Kuykendall. Rolland Lawrence and CB Rick
Byas performed ably and rookie safeties Frank Reed and Tom Pridemore were
valuable additions.
Perhaps the most inspiring addition of all was placekicker
Tim Mazzetti, a bartender in Philadelphia when the season began who had failed
to catch on with other teams, but who was picked up by the Falcons six weeks
into the schedule and not only provided an inspiring story but came through
with 13 field goals in 16 attempts, some of which were crucial in winning close
games.
Hosting their first-ever postseason game, the Falcons
characteristically came from behind in the fourth quarter to edge the Eagles by
a score of 14-13 and then fought hard against the powerful Dallas Cowboys in
the Divisional round before succumbing 27-20. Overall, the season was
considered a success and the combination of LeBaron and Bennett received
praise.
However, Bennett himself suggested that the good luck in
close games could not be expected to last, and that there was still building to
be done. Such became apparent when the Falcons slipped to 6-10 in 1979.
Steve Bartkowski suffered from inconsistency and, while
his overall numbers improved, he also tossed 20 interceptions. Tim Mazzetti
attempted 25 field goals and was successful on only 13. More significantly, the
defense that had performed so ably in 1977 and ’78 dropped to 25th
overall in the NFL and gave up 388 points as opposing teams became more adept
at coping with the blitzing scheme and began to burn the Falcons through the
air.
There was good news, too, as Alfred Jenkins returned from
his injury and performed well (50 catches, 858 yards, 17.2 avg.) and Wallace
Francis had another big year (74 catches, 1013 yards, 13 TDs). Rookie FB
William Andrews proved to be an outstanding all-purpose talent, rushing for
1023 yards and catching 39 passes out of the backfield for 309 more.
After overachieving in 1978 and underachieving in ’79,
the stage was set for an outstanding year in 1980. The Falcons won the NFC West
with a 12-4 record that reflected tremendous improvement on both sides of the
ball.
Bartkowski was consistent and outstanding in a year that
saw him pass for 3544 yards and lead the league with 31 TD passes. Jenkins and
Francis were again productive and were joined by rookie TE Junior Miller, who
contributed 46 catches for 584 yards and nine touchdowns. William Andrews
proved that his rookie performance was not a fluke as he gained 1308 rushing
yards and 456 more yards on 51 pass receptions. HB Lynn Cain added 914 yards on
the ground. Bartkowski, Jenkins, Miller, and Andrews were all selected to the
Pro Bowl.
On defense, an influx of key rookies and second-year
players made a significant difference in overall performance. Two of the newcomers,
linebackers Al Richardson and Buddy Curry, received Rookie of the Year honors
and second-year OLB Joel Williams (pictured at right), an unheralded player picked up on waivers in
’79, accounted for 16 sacks (unofficially) while blitzing from the outside. It
was a young unit, with four rookies starting by the end of the season, but the
newcomers proved valuable.
In the postseason, the Falcons faced Dallas in the
Divisional round and suffered a heartbreaking defeat when the Cowboys came from
behind in the fourth quarter.
The expectation for 1981 was that that Falcons would be
contenders once again. The offense responded by putting up 426 points, second
most in the NFL, and Bartkowski, Andrews, Jenkins, and Miller all returned to
the Pro Bowl while Francis and Cain continued to be key contributors. The line was
outstanding. However, the defense
regressed. Joel Williams was lost for a significant portion of the year with a
knee injury, and that had an effect on the pass rush, which recorded 29 sacks
in comparison to 46 in 1980. NT Don Smith played well on the line, and Tom
Pridemore returned his 7 interceptions for a total of 221 yards, but overall the
Falcons gave up more passing yards than any other NFL team.
After winning their first three games, the Falcons lost
their next three and remained inconsistent for the rest of the way. They
finished with a disappointing record of 7-9, with many of the losses coming in
close games – they lost seven contests by a total of 19 points.
LeBaron and Bennett looked to fine-tune, rather than
overhaul, the team for 1982. In a strike-interrupted season that limited the
schedule to nine games, Atlanta got off to a 5-2 start before collapsing in the
last two contests and finishing at 5-4. The defeats were bad ones, 38-7 to the
Packers and 35-6 at the hands of the Saints. They still qualified for the
revised playoff format, but lost to Minnesota in the first round in a game that
was not as close as the 30-24 score would suggest (none of the points were
produced by the offense).
The result was Bennett’s dismissal after six years. The
low-key coach lacked charisma, but was knowledgeable and organized, and brought
the Falcons to a new level of success. Ultimately, however, he paid for the
team’s inconsistency and unevenness of that success. His overall record was
46-41 in the regular season and 1-3 in the playoffs. After two years out of
football, he was hired by the Buccaneers to be head coach in 1985, but had far
less success than in Atlanta and lasted just two years.
The Falcons hired Dan Henning to replace Bennett with the
hope of moving up to the next level, but he failed to post a winning record in
four seasons. In fact, Atlanta would not finish above .500 again until 1991,
when the Falcons also next reached the playoffs. In retrospect, Bennett’s
accomplishments, however checkered, came to look all the more impressive.
