NFL: 25 Most Disappointing 1 Seeds In NFL Playoff History

25 Most Disappointing 1 Seeds In NFL Playoff History: 14. 2010 Atlanta Falcons

Ah, the Atlanta Falcons. The franchise has had a lot of gut punches over its history. We went over the 1980 team earlier. That was the first really good team after a decade of futility. There was the team that made a surprise run to the Super Bowl in 1998, only to let John Elway ride off into the sunset. And of course, there was the 2017 Super Bowl. We don’t have to say anything else. However, one of the more disappointing teams when it comes to playoff performance was the 2010 team.

The front office got to work in the offseason. They signed cornerback Dunta Robinson early in the process, and they drafted linebacker Sean Weatherspoon in the first round. It looked like it worked on the surface. The Falcons won their first NFC South title in six seasons. They won 13 games and had the NFC’s number-one seed. Things were looking up for a Falcons team that was far too used to falling below expectations.

Unfortunately, they faced a bullet in the 2010-11 Green Bay Packers in the first round. Aaron Rodgers was a man on a mission. It’s unfortunate since this was the year that Matt Ryan started to ascend to another level. However, Rodgers was one of the game’s greats, and he just destroyed the Falcons secondary.

The Packers scored 28 points in the second quarter in the Divisional Round, and that was basically it for the game. On paper, the Packers only had a 14-point lead going into halftime, but it was clear they could not stop this offense. Rodgers led the Packers to 47 points, and the Falcons went into the offseason realizing their 13 wins meant pretty much nothing when they got destroyed that bad in the playoffs.