2014 Atlanta Falcons season
The 2014 season was the Atlanta Falcons' 49th in the National Football League, and their seventh and final season under head coach Mike Smith. The Falcons were defeated by the [2014 2014 Carolina Panthers season|Carolina Panthers season|Carolina Panthers] in week 17, officially eliminating them from postseason contention for the second straight year. As a result, Smith was fired after his seventh year as head coach, after two straight years with a losing record.
The 2014 Atlanta Falcons were featured on the HBO documentary series Hard Knocks.
2014 draft class
Note: The Falcons traded their sixth- and original seventh- round selections to the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for the Vikings' fifth-round selection.
Schedule
Regular season
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.
Game summaries
In this game, Devin Hester would break Deion Sanders's all-time record for punt/kick returns for touchdowns, with 20. This was the first NFC vs. NFC game to air on CBS since the 1993 NFL season.
Week 8: vs. Detroit Lions
;NFL International Series
Week 13: vs. Arizona Cardinals
This was the Falcons' only win outside the NFC South division.
Week 15: vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
The Falcons were the only NFC South team to lose to all of their AFC North opponents.
With the win, the Falcons swept the Saints for the 1st time since 2005 and eliminated them from postseason contention.
Shortly after the end of the post-season the Falcons were investigated by the League for piping artificial crowd noise during opponent's offensive snaps at home games during the 2013 season and the 2014 season. Team owner Arthur Blank stated that he was "angry and embarrassed" about the allegations, and has allegedly acknowledged the validity of the accusations, stating "I think what we've done in 2013 and 2014 was wrong", and promising to cooperate fully with the investigation. The NFL fined the Falcons $350,000 and took away a fifth round draft pick in the 2016 draft as punishment.