Watching the great opening day game with the Chiefs going into the empty Astrodome to play this Oilers team and what an interesting watch. Its wild how many empty seats there were for an opening day game against one of the best teams in the NFL from the previous season(that many were predicting to be Super Bowl team in 96, including Sports Illustrated). Also what flew under the radar was how good and young this Oilers team was. They finished 8-8(against a pretty tough schedule, including X2 against defending AFC Champion Steelers, both Jags/Panthers teams that made it to conference finals that season, and solid San Fran team), lost all 5 of their last 5 home games playing to 15,000-20,000 fans which meant the Astrodome was 2/3rds empty. The team was dead to Houston after the move was made official(the plan was for them to keep playing in Houston in 1997 but due to the low attendance they had to leave a year earlier than they wanted to). Due to low attendance that year none of this team's games came on TV where I live and I missed this entire year.
This is a team/season that is worthy of a documentary like what the 95 Browns got(the Timeline series that NFL Network prematurely killed off would have been a great way to take a closer look at teams like this). Since that will never happen I feel like a thread about them on this forum would be good enough. What was the ceiling for this team had they not had to deal with all the drama over the move lingering over their head and full sold out Astrodome cheering them on?
1996 Houston Oilers
-
ShinobiMusashi
- Posts: 209
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2025 3:13 pm
Re: 1996 Houston Oilers
It's looking like most of this team's games are on Youtube for the season. I think this will be my deep dive for this Summer going back and getting into the 96 Oilers season(last year I watched through the 98 NFL season, great time). It's amazing what is all on youtube now.
After a 20-19 loss to a really good Chiefs team this Oilers team looked really good in their next 2 games. They go into Jacksonville and beat the Jaguars 34-27, at one point they are leading 31-13 before Jaguars score some points to make the game appear much closer than it actually was. Chris Chandler looks like he was a solid QB to start this season, 3 Td's and 226 yards in this game. Eddie George ran all over Jacksonville defense 143 yards on 17 carries had some big runs and broke a lot of tackles. This was a fun watch. Thinking about the Titans 3 wins over this Jaguars team in 99 I wonder if Fischer just had Coughlin's number as a coach?
Only 20,000 fans for the return to the Astrodome against the Ravens in week 3. I read in one of the books I have about the Oilers move that they blamed this small crowd on the fact that nobody knew who the Ravens were, saying that if they were still the Browns this would have drawn more fans. Again this was a game where the Oilers looked really good, this was over early in the 4th with Houston having a 29-7 lead with Chandler sitting on the lead and Mcnair getting some action. Oilers win it 29-13 to move to 2-1 going into a bye week in week 4.
I read that the plan was for the Oilers to remain in Houston in 97 and move to Tennessee in 98, but due to the total lack of support from Houston(who was now fully aware that the team was leaving) they had to rush the move to one year earlier where they played the temporary season in Memphis(to no support from that city either since it was well known they were only there temporarily until they went to Nashville in 98). I wonder at what point during this season was the decision made that they had to go a year earlier than they wanted to and what effect all of that had on this team's morale on the field/in the locker room. They started this season thinking they had 2 more years in the Astrodome, and at some point during this season things changed and it suddenly became the last year there. That had to have an effect on the players who lived in the city of Houston and had to start planning their lives around that move.
After a 20-19 loss to a really good Chiefs team this Oilers team looked really good in their next 2 games. They go into Jacksonville and beat the Jaguars 34-27, at one point they are leading 31-13 before Jaguars score some points to make the game appear much closer than it actually was. Chris Chandler looks like he was a solid QB to start this season, 3 Td's and 226 yards in this game. Eddie George ran all over Jacksonville defense 143 yards on 17 carries had some big runs and broke a lot of tackles. This was a fun watch. Thinking about the Titans 3 wins over this Jaguars team in 99 I wonder if Fischer just had Coughlin's number as a coach?
Only 20,000 fans for the return to the Astrodome against the Ravens in week 3. I read in one of the books I have about the Oilers move that they blamed this small crowd on the fact that nobody knew who the Ravens were, saying that if they were still the Browns this would have drawn more fans. Again this was a game where the Oilers looked really good, this was over early in the 4th with Houston having a 29-7 lead with Chandler sitting on the lead and Mcnair getting some action. Oilers win it 29-13 to move to 2-1 going into a bye week in week 4.
I read that the plan was for the Oilers to remain in Houston in 97 and move to Tennessee in 98, but due to the total lack of support from Houston(who was now fully aware that the team was leaving) they had to rush the move to one year earlier where they played the temporary season in Memphis(to no support from that city either since it was well known they were only there temporarily until they went to Nashville in 98). I wonder at what point during this season was the decision made that they had to go a year earlier than they wanted to and what effect all of that had on this team's morale on the field/in the locker room. They started this season thinking they had 2 more years in the Astrodome, and at some point during this season things changed and it suddenly became the last year there. That had to have an effect on the players who lived in the city of Houston and had to start planning their lives around that move.
-
ShinobiMusashi
- Posts: 209
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2025 3:13 pm
Re: 1996 Houston Oilers
It is crazy how quiet the Astrodome was when the Raven's had the ball in that game. I do think this team should have beat Jaguars and Bengals in those late season home games, both games played to empty stadium. That would have put Houston at 10-6, and that would have given them the AFC Central I believe since Pittsburgh also finished 10-6, split the series with Houston, and did not do so well against AFC Central opponents that season. So that would have moved Houston to 3rd seed and knocked Jaguars out of the playoffs in 96, Colts at Houston and Bills at Steelers for the Wild Card. I don't think Houston makes it past New England in this hypothetical, the big what if is how far does the 96 Bills go without the Jaguars upset at Rich Stadium? Do they do a little better in the 96 playoffs as the road team underdogs or do we still get Patriots at Broncos AFCCG?