The 1973 Houston Oilers season was their fourth season in the National Football League and their 14th in competition overall. The team matched their previous season output of 1–13,1973 Houston Oilers and they missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season. Their eighteen consecutive losses after winning the third game in 1972 was an NFL record beaten only by the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976 and 1977, the Detroit Lions from the last game of 2007 until the third game of 2009, and the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2020 to 2021.
Coach Bill Peterson left the team after a 0–5 start and was replaced by coaching veteran Sid Gillman, who went 1–8 to finish the season. Peterson finished his NFL coaching career with a 1–18 record. The one win is the fewest for any head coach in NFL history. The Oilers’ offense struggled in 1973, ranking last in rushing yards (1388), second worst in yards per play (3.9), and third worst in both total yards (3307) and first downs (tied at 193).Pro-Football-Reference.com: 1973 NFL season
The 1973 Oilers had one of the worst defenses of all time, statistically; they gave up 447 points during the season, the most ever for a 14-game season in the merger era (1970–1977).Pro-Football-Reference.com: In a single season, from 1970 to 1977, in the regular season, sorted by descending Points Allowed Only three teams gave up more points in a 14-game season: the 1966 Giants, the 1963 Broncos, and the 1961 Raiders.Pro-Football-Reference.com: In a single season, from 1960 to 1977, in the regular season, sorted by descending Points Allowed Their point-differential of −248 points was the worst in the league that year, and remains one of the ten worst in NFL history.Pro-Football-Reference.com: In a single season, from 1940 to 2011, in the regular season, sorted by ascending Points Differential (The second-worst team, the Philadelphia Eagles, gave up 393 points, or 3.8 fewer points per game.) Houston also gave up a league-high 26 touchdown passes in 1973.
They are also the most recent franchise in the NFL to have back-to-back one-win seasons; in fact since 1974 not a single NFL franchise again suffered multiple one- or no-win seasons in a non-strike season, until the Cleveland Browns did so in 2016 and 2017.100 Worst NFL Teams Since the NFL developed a uniform schedule in 1936, the only other time a franchise has had back-to-back one-win seasons has been the 1949 and 1950 Baltimore Colts.
Offseason NFL draft
Roster
Schedule Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue Attendance 1 September 16 at New York Giants L 14–34 0–1 Yankee Stadium 57,979 2 September 23 at Cincinnati Bengals L 10–24 0–2 Riverfront Stadium 51,823 3 September 30 Pittsburgh Steelers L 7–36 0–3 Astrodome 39,331 4 October 7 Los Angeles Rams L 26–31 0–4 Astrodome 34,875 5 October 14 Denver Broncos L 20–48 0–5 Astrodome 32,801 6 October 21 at Cleveland Browns L 13–42 0–6 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 61,146 7 October 28 at Chicago Bears L 14–35 0–7 Soldier Field 43,755 8 November 4 at Baltimore Colts W 31–27 1–7 Memorial Stadium 52,707 9 November 11 Cleveland Browns L 13–23 1–8 Astrodome 37,230 10 November 18 at Kansas City Chiefs L 14–38 1–9 Arrowhead Stadium 68,444 11 November 25 New England Patriots L 0–32 1–10 Astrodome 27,344 12 December 2 Oakland Raiders L 6–17 1–11 Astrodome 25,801 13 December 9 at Pittsburgh Steelers L 7–33 1–12 Three Rivers Stadium 38,004 14 December 16 Cincinnati Bengals L 24–27 1–13 Astrodome 21,955 Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.
Game summaries
Week 3
Standings
References
External links 1973 Houston Oilers at Pro-Football-Reference.com