1976 Atlanta Falcons season

The 1976 Atlanta Falcons season was the franchise's 11th year in the National Football League (NFL). The season saw the Falcons attempting to improve on their 4–10 record from 1975. However, they were only able to match the record, as they finished the 1976 season at 4–10 and missed the playoffs for the 11th straight season. After a 1–4 start to the season, head coach Marion Campbell was fired by general manager Pat Peppler, who himself would close out the season as the interim head coach and finish the season with a 3–6 record. The Falcons also suffered the ignominy of being the only established NFL team to lose to one of the league's two expansion teams when they lost 30–13 to the Seattle Seahawks on November 7.

For the season, the Falcons converted from gray facemasks to white facemasks.

Offseason

1976 expansion draft

Atlanta Falcons selected during the expansion draft

style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle" | Round	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle" | Overall	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle" | Name	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle" | Position	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle" | Expansion team
0	0	Nick Bebout	Offensive tackle	Seattle Seahawks
0	0	Don Hansen	Linebacker	Seattle Seahawks
0	0	Vince Kendrick	Running back	Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Regular season

Schedule

style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Week	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Date	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Opponent	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Result	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Record	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Venue	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Attendance
1	September 12	Los Angeles Rams	L 14–30	0–1	Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium	53,607
2	September 19	at Detroit Lions	L 10–24	0–2	Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium	50,840
3	September 26	at Chicago Bears	W 10–0	1–2	Soldier Field	41,029
4	October 3	Philadelphia Eagles	L 13–14	1–3	Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium	45,535
5	October 10	at New Orleans Saints	L 0–30	1–4	Louisiana Superdome	51,521
6	October 17	Cleveland Browns	L 17–20	1–5	Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium	33,364
7	October 23	at San Francisco 49ers	L 0–15	1–6	Candlestick Park	50,240
8	October 31	New Orleans Saints	W 23–20	2–6	Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium	34,127
9	November 7	at Seattle Seahawks	L 13–30	2–7	Kingdome	57,985
10	November 14	San Francisco 49ers	W 21–16	3–7	Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium	20,058
11	November 21	Dallas Cowboys	W 17–10	4–7	Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium	54,992
12	November 28	at Houston Oilers	L 14–20	4–8	Astrodome	25,838
13	December 4	at Los Angeles Rams	L 0–59	4–9	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	57,366
14	Template:Dow tooltip	Green Bay Packers	L 20–24	4–10	Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium	23,436
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Season summary

Week 2 at Lions

Week Two: Atlanta Falcons (0–1) at Detroit Lions (0–1)

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
Falcons	0	7	3	0	10
Lions	0	0	0	24	24

at Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium, Pontiac, Michigan

• Date: September 19, 1976
• Game time: 1:00 p.m.
• Game weather: Indoors (dome)
• Game attendance: 50,840
• Box Score

Game information

Second quarter ATL – Bubba Bean 5-yard run (Nick Mike-Mayer kick). Falcons 7–0. Drive: Third quarter ATL – Nick Mike-Mayer 41-yard field goal. Falcons 10–0. Drive: Fourth quarter DET – Greg Landry 5-yard run (Errol Mann kick). Falcons 10–7. Drive: DET – Errol Mann 32-yard field goal. Tie 10–10. Drive: DET – Ed O'Neil 32-yard pass from Joe Reed (Errol Mann kick). Lions 17–10. Drive: DET – James Hunter 39-yard interception return (Errol Mann kick). Lions 24–10. Top passers ATL – Steve Bartkowski – 5/16, 59 yards, 3 INT DET – Joe Reed – 5/11, 78 yards, TD Top rushers ATL – Bubba Bean – 22 rushes, 98 yards, TD DET – Dexter Bussey – 15 rushes, 79 yards Top receivers ATL – Alfred Jenkins – 3 receptions, 47 yards DET – Horace King – 3 receptions, 33 yards

External links

• 1976 Atlanta Falcons at Pro-Football-Reference.com

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