The Falcons move back into NFC play in Week 6 and this time it’s a matchup against another team from the North against whom they’ve had a pretty even history. In 30 games even, the Bears have a slender 16-14 all-time lead.
The Falcons of the 1970s were a pretty bad team, securing their first-ever playoff appearance in 1978 and losing many games to many different teams. The Bears of the ’70s, however, were one team the Birds routinely found success against, going 5-2 in that period (one of those losses ironically in that ‘78 season which was Atlanta’s most successful of the decade) which, combined with back to back wins at the end of the ‘60s and another back to back in the first matchups of the ’80s, asserted what can be considered a decade and a half of dominance.
That was promptly put to bed when the seemingly unbeatable 1985 Bears, led by the great coach Mike Ditka (who left a major hole in the sport of football with his passing last week), absolutely kicked Atlanta’s butt 36-0. That started a run of five consecutive Bears wins and eight wins in nine tries overall until a rookie Matt Ryan executed his Rookie of the Year moment with a game-winning drive to forge an improbable comeback in 2008.
Chicago is currently on a run of four wins in the last six matchups which started in the 2010s.
When these teams met last
The Falcons and Bears were fading from postseason contention quickly, with Atlanta still having somewhat of a chance at 7-8 but really needing to win their last couple of games along with getting major help when they met the Bears at solider field on New Years Eve in 2023.
We did not know it yet but probably could have guessed that this would be Arthur Smith’s penultimate game as head coach of the Falcons as he was really coaching for his job down the stretch. As such, things did not look too good for him when the Bears jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead in the freezing temperatures of Soldier Field.
The Falcons had a meager 180 passing yards in this one and 75 of them came on a Tyler Allgeier screen pass he took to the house to limit the bleeding, but Justin Fields and the Bears offense just overwhelmed Atlanta’s overmatched defense.
The Bears put up 37 points on the afternoon while Taylor Heinicke’s last pass of the day went for an interception before Desmond Ridder entered in relief in the middle of the blowout, before his own last pass of the day also went for an interception. Smith was fired one week later.