The Falcoholic
The Falcons renew a matchup which has been very sparse throughout their history against the Buffalo Bills who, because they play in a separate conference, have not played many football games against the birds over the past few decades.
These teams have met just 13 times, with the first coming in 1973, and the Falcons owning a slight 7-6 lead. A Falcons/Bills game is a rare occurrence, happening every four to five years on average.
Buffalo won the first two meetings, both in the ‘70s, before Atlanta went undefeated with a 3-0 record head-to-head in the ‘80s. This theme continued with the Bills going undefeated in the ‘90s (two wins) and the Falcons winning all three games in the ‘00s.
It’s somewhat crazy that the first ever decade where these teams managed to actually split this matchup was in the 2010s, with an overtime win for the Birds in Canada in 2013 and an upset Buffalo win in 2017. The latter match was the first of back to back triumphs for the team from Western New York.
The Bills team Atlanta met in 2021 was different from the loser franchise who could never make the playoffs they had encountered in the previous two decades. This team had a legitimate franchise quarterback in Josh Allen, and with him they had built a powerhouse that went 13-3 the previous season and which was in the process of winning their second of five consecutive division titles, as of this writing.
Atlanta was 7-8 and had a light hearbeat in the playoff race in Arthur Smith’s first season as head coach. In the cold Western New York December conditions, they even took a 2-0 lead via a safety before Allen went to work, capping off his first two possessions with rushing touchdowns.
The Falcons managed to fight back with the secondary leading the way behind two late second quarter interceptions — one from Duron Harmon and one from A.J. Terrell — both of which were converted into points to see the visitors take a 15-14 lead into the half.
Allen opened the third quarter with a third pick in as many drives, this one snagged by Foyesade Oluokun, but the Falcons’ offense seemed to shut down.
With nothing going right, Atlanta had its best chance to cut the lead to one possession via a fourth quarter drive which seemed to end with a Matt Ryan rushing touchdown, but a controversial call from the referee declaring that Ryan gave himself up before crossing the plain overturned the touchdown, and that combined with a weak taunting penalty during the celebration took it from score to 3rd and 16. Two plays later Atlanta turned it over on downs and never saw the ball again.
