The Forgotten Defense: The 1977 Falcons May Be the Best of All-Time

May 22, 2010   ·   patrick bohn   ·   Jump to comments

I'll just come right out and say it: The 1977 Atlanta Falcons were the best defense in modern NFL history (Read: The Super Bowl Era).
Before you comment about the 1985 Bears or the 2000 Ravens, I would ask you to simply continue reading.
The job of an NFL defense is to do one simple thing: Prevent a team from scoring. In most cases, doing the first two will contribute to the third. And by these measures, the 1977 Falcons were better than anyone.
They hold the record for fewest points allowed in a 14-game season with 129. Simple.
It's relatively easy to stack them up against the two defenses generally considered to be the greatest of all-time, the aforementioned Ravens and Bears.
 
Points Allowed Per Game
1977 Falcons: 9.2
2000 Ravens: 10.2
1985 Bears: 12.1
See? Pretty simple.
But of course, people will say there are other components to a great defense. Like not allowing the other team to gain yards. Field position is importan...

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